Downconverting HD to SD in Compressor

Hey Guys.
Thanks for any advice up front.

I am making a SD DVD from both HDV (ProRes Timeline) and SD clips (Uncompressed-8-bit,
DVCPRO-50 and DV NTSC). I've learned on this forum that it is almost always better to
downconvert the the HD then to Upconvert the SD, and to also stay away from DV NTSC
CODEC if possible. However the tests I've run look pretty bad. I've been using Compressor
to covert the SCQT of the HD footage to Uncompressed 8-bit.

Should I be using another method? Is ProRes an option
for SD? Maybe set the Frame Controls differently?

Thanks again for any insight.

FCS 2.0
MAC PRO 2x 3.0
6GB RAM

Make sure you've got the resizing control set to the better or the best option (I forget the wording on the pop-up menu, but there are three, and the default isn't great). Uncompressed is a better choice if you're working with SD material and you have the disk space, but ProRes is also acceptable in almost all instances. You won't see the difference.

Thanks Jeff I'll give that a go. I'm guessing that since I am only re-sizing
I should not mess with the other frame controls like "de-interlace"
& "rate-conversion"?

Thanks again

If you want the best quality, don't use a SCQT, export directly from the FCP timeline through Compressor to your SD master. And use ProRes works beautifully in SD, just make sure you use ProRes HQ.

Some people don't like this method as it locks up your FCP while exporting but for true quality, this is the only way to go. When you export from FCP through Compressor, it goes to the source media and ignores any renders. This way the color correction you did, the titles you made, the compositing, etc is not limited to your sequence codec or frame size.

Here's my suggestion for you, setting wise. Export from FCP to Compressor, take a SD preset that matches what you want your master to be, i.e. DV Anamorphic 24p, etc and simple switch the codec from DV to ProRes HQ. Then go in and turn on frame controls, no need to tweak, just turn it. Then put audio as pass through since why re-compress you're audio if you don't have to?

It's really important to do the resizing step separately from your encoding step, to web or DVD. Low-bit rate codecs like MPEG-2 and H.264 have enough trouble getting rid of information while still looking good, when you through re-sizing in there as well? It all goes to hell with aliasing and pixelation. Plus, once you get your SD master, you can use your cluster to crunch that down to MPEG-2 in no time...