Proper Export Format For Unique Situation?

[nyycavo24]

Quick question on an issue I've been having with export format out of FCE4.

The specifics on what I am doing:

1) A project containing a combination of different footage types, originally from old VHS tapes, converted to DVD's and ultimately ripped into FCE. The entire video is in 16:9.

2) Lot's of titles, special effects, and layers in this project...most from LiveType.

3) Will be exporting to iDVD and burning onto a normal DVD.

4) Is most likely to be displayed on large HD TV's.

Obviously the quality won't be great...I understand this, but what are the best options for exporting?

As I understand it, regular DVD's can't display HD export formats anyway, but would it still make sense to export in an HD format? Or is there something else I should be using?

I'm at the end of a VERY long 2 year project so I want to make sure I cover all my bases....there are a TON of export options!

Thanks.

 

[CaptainChunk]

Quick question on an issue I've been having with export format out of FCE4.

The specifics on what I am doing:

1) A project containing a combination of different footage types, originally from old VHS tapes, converted to DVD's and ultimately ripped into FCE. The entire video is in 16:9.

2) Lot's of titles, special effects, and layers in this project...most from LiveType.

3) Will be exporting to iDVD and burning onto a normal DVD.

4) Is most likely to be displayed on large HD TV's.

Obviously the quality won't be great...I understand this, but what are the best options for exporting?

As I understand it, regular DVD's can't display HD export formats anyway, but would it still make sense to export in an HD format? Or is there something else I should be using?

I'm at the end of a VERY long 2 year project so I want to make sure I cover all my bases....there are a TON of export options!

Thanks.

Your situation isn't as unique as you might think.

First of all, what codec are using in your sequence? If it's something like DV NTSC 16:9, there would be zero benefit to exporting in HD resolution. In fact, knowing that a lot of your footage originated on VHS, it would look even worse upscaling to HD because you're just adding unnecessary pixels.

You should use the same codec as the sequence for your QT export and bring that file into iDVD.

 

[nyycavo24]

Your situation isn't as unique as you might think.

First of all, what codec are using in your sequence? If it's something like DV NTSC 16:9, there would be zero benefit to exporting in HD resolution. In fact, knowing that a lot of your footage originated on VHS, it would look even worse upscaling to HD because you're just adding unnecessary pixels.

You should use the same codec as the sequence for your QT export and bring that file into iDVD.

Thanks for the reply Captain.

Here is basically what I've done...the video itself is NOT in 16:9, its in 4:3...but in order to avoid the pillar-boxing on the sides, I've created the sequence in 16:9, and put graphics on the side where the pillar boxing would be (similar to what ESPNHD or CNNHD does when they aren't showing HD content).

Obviously because of all the conversions (VHS-DVD-Hard Drive) The quality has suffered slightly...but the video was 10 years old to begin with so I wasn't expecting much. 99% of the video is in DV format within the sequence.

The last thing that is playing into my decision is the fact that because of the size of the video, there will probably be some compression once its exported to iDVD. I'll probably use Dual Layer discs, but is there are particular export format that is best-suited for this?

Thanks again!

 

[nyycavo24]

Here is basically what I've done...the video itself is NOT in 16:9, its in 4:3...but in order to avoid the pillar-boxing on the sides, I've created the sequence in 16:9, and put graphics on the side where the pillar boxing would be (similar to what ESPNHD or CNNHD does when they aren't showing HD content).

Obviously because of all the conversions (VHS-DVD-Hard Drive) The quality has suffered slightly...but the video was 10 years old to begin with so I wasn't expecting much. 99% of the video is in DV format within the sequence.

The last thing that is playing into my decision is the fact that because of the size of the video, there will probably be some compression once its exported to iDVD. I'll probably use Dual Layer discs, but is there are particular export format that is best-suited for this?

Thanks again!

 

[CaptainChunk]

Export the completed sequence as DV NTSC 16:9. This will consume 13GB/hr, but it would be the best file type for importing into iDVD. Make sure the iDVD project is set to 16:9 Widescreen and you should be be golden. iDVD will handle the compression to MPEG-2/stereo AC-3.

 

[nyycavo24]

Export the completed sequence as DV NTSC 16:9. This will consume 13GB/hr, but it would be the best file type for importing into iDVD. Make sure the iDVD project is set to 16:9 Widescreen and you should be be golden. iDVD will handle the compression to MPEG-2/stereo AC-3.

Great...thanks for the info!

Those DV files are huge, but if you're telling me they are going to compress better and result in better quality than the H264 I've tried exporting the movie into using Quicktime Conversion out of FCE....then Im all for it.

 

[CaptainChunk]

Yes, I would avoid encoding to H.264 before sending to iDVD because H.264 is intended as a final delivery codec and is not good to use as an intermediate. The reason for this is that you're essentially putting the video through two generations of compression (once from the DV timeline to H.264 and second from the resulting H.264 to MPEG-2) versus just one (DV to MPEG-2) prior to writing the DVD.

You WILL get better results outputting to NTSC DV 16:9 and dropping that into iDVD. Trust me.

Good luck with everything!