BEST DVD settings from HDV project

[DIGITALPOST]

Has anyone found the best solution for this?
With edited HDV on the Timeline, I first rendered and replaced so I would'nt have any graphic size issues. The I change the project settings from HDV to DV 16x9 then procoder express from TL < from single full rendered clip.
I just leave pce at default settings.... Any good suggestions for this?
Is the default < i think biterate is 9100 > the best?
I tried a pce to DVD direct from the HDV project and got wierd size < squashed > DVD with reversed fields.
Thanks

[FragileFilms]

the default bit rate of 9100 actually exceeds the DVD specification. Set top DVD players are not spec'd to play bit rates higher than 8000 so i would def lower your bit rate unless you are only playing back on a PC.

I would also reccomend using variable bit rate instead of constant bit rate. I usually use max rate of 7800 with min/standard rate of 6500 for timelines under an hour. I find having a lower min bit rate helps avoid running into the buffer underflow that sometimes occurs.

Of course doing a 2 pass encode will always produce much better results than a 1 pass encode but it takes twice as long so it depends how valuable your time is.

If you have the full version of Procoder then I highly recomend the mastering quality setting which gives great results even at a lower bit rate but also takes a bit longer.

You'll also want to make sure you have correctly set the NTSC/PAL 4:3/16:9 settings in procoder as they don't always use the right one by defualt.

If you are rendering out mpgs for a third part authoring application then you will also want to make sure the 'closed gops' box is ticked for ease of chaptering.

Not all DVD players and amplifiers are spec'd to play back MPEG layer 2 audio so i reccomend using 48k PCM wave unless you are stretched for space on the disk.

That's about all i can think of right now, hope it helps.

Andrew, FF