Generating 16x9 SD MPEG2s from 720p Project

[Mike Truly]

So I've edited a project with 1280x720p settings and footage. Now I want to make the properly distorted 720x480 MPEGs for authoring into an 16x9 SD DVD (probably using DVDLabPro).

Is there a particular setting I should look for when outputting from the timeline via PCE or PC?

Or would I be better off rendering a finished HQ file, placing in a different project with different settings?

Somehow, I've got to re-scale the finished project down to the 16x9 SD format and of course I want the best quality.

Thanks!

[THoff]

Don't worry if your project is in HD, simply select a SD MPEG2 target in PCE or PC2/PC3, and it will scale the output during the encoding. To get the best output, choose "Mastering Quality" in PC2/PC3, and "Best Quality" in PCE (it doesn't support "Mastering Quality").

[Mike Truly]

THoff,

Thank you for this. I will look for those presets in Procoder.

Thanks again.

[Aristotelis]

I suggest that you use PC2 or PC3 for that...HD and SD use different color space so it helps if you add the 709 to 601 Color Correction video filter during the conversion... I can't go deeper on the technical side but I did some tests and the output looks much better when using that filter...

Can anyone else confirm that, or enlighten us on the technical side?

Thanks

[GrassValley_KH]

The name speaks for itself - the colourspace for HD is different from SD, so for best results, you really should apply the 709-to-601 space conversion filter when going from HD to SD.

Looks much better!

If you don't have ProCoder 2.0 or 3, your only real option to convert the colourspace is to, as summised, render to HQ and place on a new SD timeline.

Longer, but it'll give you the best results acheivable.

[Mike Truly]

Aristolelis,

Thanks for this tip! I wonder if this applies to my work in that my 1280x720 animation frames (that were then converted to an 1280x720 HQ file) were 24bit TGAs to begin with. I wonder if I had used a higher than 24bit color format (such as PNGs) if the resulting HQ file would have better color resolution?

Thanks again.

[Mike Truly]

Kenneally,

If I was planning to do some color correction when outputting from PC3 as MPEG2s, I guess I should add the color correction BEFORE the 709 to 601 conversion?

Thanks!

[GrassValley_KH]

Yes - you have two types of CC:

1. The ones within the project itself - these must always be done, because you're editing the source content that will ultimately need downconversion

2. The overall HD-to-SD CC, this comes in the final step during the conversion/encoding to SD MPEG-2

[Mike Truly]

Kenneally,

Thank you. I guess what I was asking was, in Procoder only, when you add video effects to the list and you wanted to do some CC in Procoder, you should add the Color Correction item to the list first (so the CC is done first) then add the 709 to 601 conversion second. Like so:

1. Color Correction
2. 709 to 601

(Hmmm... this thread has moved in the direction of Procoder... move it if necessary).

Thanks!

[Aristotelis]

Mike that sounds like the proper way...
However why don't you add the color correction filter inside Edius before exporting?

[GrassValley_KH]

Mike, you're absolutely correct - ProCoder is a 'first in, first served' type of application when it comes to applying filters so ordering is important.

So put that sepia tone in first, before the colourspace conversion! ;)

[Mike Truly]

Aristolelis,

Good question. Basically, I know that doing the color correction in Edius is the better way to do CC.

I'm talking about those situations when the edit is basically done, you're under a time constraint (for whatever reason) and rather than going back into the edit for many CCs on numerous clips, you simply do some overall CC boosting in Procoder during output to MPEG2s. Not ideal... but sometimes necessary.

Thanks!

[Aristotelis]

Yes, you are right... :-)

Talking of procoder filters and conversions I have something to ask as well about the color space conversion filters...

In procoder you have the choice to apply the filter at the source material, at the target or at both...I did a downconversion test using the 709 to 601 Color Correction filter first at the source and then again at the target....I cant see a difference between the final mpeg2 files...
In which cases we must choose to apply the filter before and in which after the conversion??

[GrassValley_KH]

The reason why you can apply a filter either on the source or the target, is so to handle the 'many to one' and 'one to many' conversion workflows.

Consider the following scenarios:

Scenario 1:

You have two clips, one is HD and the other is SD. You need to stitch these together and output an SD MPEG-2 stream. The SD source clip doesn't need to have a colourspace conversion, but does need to be letterboxed. The HD source clip needs colourspace conversion (obviously), but is already going to be treated in the end as a 4:3 letterboxed clip (since ProCoder's master settings have been set to pillar/letterbox where possible).

This means you'd add a source filter for the HD clip to do the colourspace conversion, and then for the SD source, a crop filter.

The target needs nothing.


Scenario 2:

You have two HD clips that must be stitched and exported as SD MPEG-2. The output file also needs a company logo watermark.

You don't have to do anything to the source files. Instead, just add a colourspace conversion to the target clip, and also a Bitmap keyer filter (for the watermarking).

Hope this helps.

[Aristotelis]

! I have never though of that!
It is finally clear to me! :-)
Thank you for sharing!