DVD studio Settings 16:9, 4:3 and quality.

Hey everyone, I'm trying to get my FCP HDV sequence onto a dvd with the best possible settings. As of yet mediocre quality is all I've achieved. In converting in compressor I've used the best quality settings and increased bit rate to 6 with 7.5 max. In DVD studio I've also increased bit rate to the same level but with a max of 7. Footage still looks kind of pixelated despite these settings.

Also, what really has be befuddled are all the different 4:3 and 16:9 choices in DVD studio. It seems when I set encoding to 16:9 my footage is stretched, even though it is 16:9 footage, and I view it on a 16:9 TV. So I need to use 4:3 settings in both encoding and track settings...pretty confusing. Does anyone know the settings to use for the best possible quality???? Although 4:3 seems to work best, often the menus are outside of the viewable boundaries on a widescreen tv. Even though all of my text is within the tightest broadcast safe zones, depending on the TV/DVD player text is outside of the screen. 3 different DVD players yielded 3 different results, the only one that was successful in showing all of the broadcast safe zone (just barely) was a portable dvd player. Any comments/suggestions greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
-Al

> Also, what really has be befuddled are all the different 4:3 and 16:9 choices in DVD studio

16:9 assets should be encoded as 16:9 letterbox. It will be flagged as anamorphic and the DVD player will letterbox it on output to a 4:3 TV (this depends on the player, but there is also a 16:9 option on most 4:3 tvs). On 16:9 TVs, it will be played full frame as 16:9.

> It seems when I set encoding to 16:9 my footage is stretched, even though it is 16:9 footage,
>and I view it on a 16:9 TV.

Is the HDV footage exported as 16:9 FHA or 4:3 Letterboxed? 16:9 FHA is native to HDV and HD formats. It should appear squeezed if your export is wrong.

>Although 4:3 seems to work best, often the menus are outside of the viewable boundaries on a
>widescreen tv.

This is strange. A letterboxed 4:3 will also be pillarboxed on a 16:9 TV, causing the frame to be padded with a thick black border on all sides. How did you import the assets into DVDSP. Can you get screen shots from DVDSP?



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Thanks for the reply Gerard, I convert my native hdv quicktime clip using compressor and DVD best quality settings...16x9, it's not stretched looking. My tracks are set to 16x9 but encoding to 4:3. With encoding set to 16:9 I get a really stretched image on my 16x9 Tv's. I imported the assets into DVD SP using the 'import assets' and imported the files from my designated Mpeg folder.

-Alex

> My tracks are set to 16x9 but encoding to 4:3.

I don't really get you. Mpeg2 assets are not encoded in DVDSP. They are only muxed into DVD assets. A VOB wrapper is placed over the .m2v file, and the DVD file structure is created. DVDSP can encode a mov file, but you can tell easily by the increase in encoding/muxing time.

To double check, when you play that DVD in the DVD player in your mac, you should be seeing a 16:9 frame, without letterbox.



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The Track display setting is set to 16x9, and encoding is set to 4:3. Size wise, it displays the same way a standard feature movie is displayed, but not all the picture is there within the display (it is all there in simulator), also the quality is mediocre at best.

-Alex

P.S I've heard of guys recommending PC software for DVD production. Some even say its worth it to buy a PC just for the DVD producing capabilities...what do you think?

Yeah you should be encoding 16:9, authoring with items set to 16:9 LB and so on. On TVs remember you have to set the DVD Player Settings to match your TV Settings! As in nothing to do with DVDSP.

When viewing in Apple DVD Player press Apple+1. That is the actual size, how does it look now? If you play fullscreen on a hi-res display its like scaling a web graphic far larger than it should be after its been compressed down. It wont look great...

When viewing the actual size is it 16:9? if not then you've got part of your workflow mixed up from what you've explained here, by the sounds of it anyway.

Windows - Depends what they recommended. If you have the budget for Scenarist and Cinema Craft Encoder SP2 or better as well as the Spec knowledge then I'd say yes it is worth considering, possibly! but if not then DVDSP is a nice app for sure.

Thanks for the reply Jake, ya its 16x9, but the broadcast safe zone is not in frame on two dvd players, and more so on one than another, I've messed around with the DVD player settings on both to no avail.

>the broadcast safe zone is not in frame on two dvd players

This is an old one. Are you viewing it on a mac or a computer application or a TV? On a computers, you generally can see the full frame. If you're viewing it on an analog TV, it's likely going to crop all the way just before the action safe zones, some will even crop close to text safe. And this is why text and action safe was invented- to tell the production and post team where to place images and text before it gets cropped off.

Now, one more thing about NTSC frame sizes. If your acquisition/mastering codec is NOT DV, you're supposed to crop a total of 6 lines off the top and bottom (usually it would be 2 or 4 off the top). This is to account for the smaller frame size on DVDs (720x480) vs SD frame sizes (720x486) to prevent pixels from becoming slightly stretched.



www.strypesinpost.com

if the footage is 16/9 and the tl is 16/9. then you export using compressor and a 16/9 preset then the mv2 file will be 16/9.

in dvdsp if you just set it to 16/9 then your dvd is burned as 16/9.

you have created a 16/9 dvd for sure.

now how individual dvd players and tvs are set is not something you can control unless you own it.

you are using the same dvd players for your test. go to best buy or over a friends house an test it on ten others. then you will see what you have.

by the way if you have one that has shown other 16/9 just fine multiple times without a settings change just make that you standard if its less than 2 year old.

i have 1 really trusty dvd player that i purchased bout 14 months ago. i watched like 25 16/9 movies on it. It showed perfectly. so i left it set the way i purchased and i use it to judge my dvds. so if its good there then i have seen that it works every where.

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"