Producing a DVD for playback in Italy...fairly soon

I'm under a little time crunch here...I shot a wedding last weekend and the plan was for me to edit it before the bride and groom left to visit her parents in Italy. I basically have a little less than a week to get this done.

I haven't been too educated on doing DVDs for foreign countries because, well, this is my first time.

Questions: Does my HDV 1080i/60 project need to be converted to PAL first? If so, how? Second, do I need to do anything different in DVDSP with the region codes?


Thanks!
Casey

>Does my HDV 1080i/60 project need to be converted to PAL first?

Nope. Don't bother, you'll get more of a quality hit converting, and close to all PAL players can handle NTSC.

>Second, do I need to do anything different in DVDSP with the region codes?

Make it all regions. Not really a point for you to restrict to a certain region code, is there?



www.strypesinpost.com

So if I make a DVD the same way I always do, I should be fine, right?

Thanks!
Casey

Just to be devil's advocate, I think you'd want to consider having a PAL DVD stand by, or a QuickTime movie. You'd get a thunderously pissed off pair of clients if they flew all the way to Italy and their parents' dog-eared old DVD player didn't play NTSC. Unlikely scenario, maybe, but given the personal nature of this project, it seems to me it would be appreciated for you to take that extra step.

Do the NTSC DVD, prep an online-friendly version (in case they need to see it online because of whatever technical snafu), then if you have time, I'd recommend prepping a PAL DVD.


www.derekmok.com

I just found out that the bride was planning on bringing her laptop with, just in case, so there already is a backup plan.

What are the steps in making a PAL DVD, since I've never done one before.

Thanks!
Casey

Export a SCQT movie, encode to Uncompressed 10 bit PAL in Compressor.

[www.lafcpug.org].

Then, encode to Mpeg2 in Compressor (I don't think you can do this whole thing straight to Mpeg2, but don't take my word for this).

And set up a PAL project in DVDSP, and you're ready to go.

I won't say a PAL disc is necessary, as I think I have Code 3 movies in NTSC (and i definitely watch a lot of Code 1 NTSC discs). But it's a foreign country, and as D mentions, and you may meet an Italian grandmother with a first generation DVD player tucked somewhere in the attic and decided to use that to play the DVD for the wedding.



www.strypesinpost.com

So i had a similar situation once, deadline family going to Italy, etc. I took my SCQT and dropped it into a iDVD after i set the format to PAL and opened a new project. Worked like a charm, no extra work, and quality was totally good enough for the end viewer. It's not broadcast quality but hey, it got the job done...