720p HD Live-Action Stream to DVD?

[CubDukat]

I am looking at recording the Oscars this year in HD to make DVDs out of them (don't ask me why; I just like recording the Oscars.)

Unfortunately the problem I ran into back in 2004 when I did it was that I used the old script that was on inmatrix.com for downconverting 720p streams to DVD. It's barely tolerable for film-based programming, but for non-24p-based video, it's absoultely unacceptable.

Instead of deleting every other frame, wouldn't it be possible to combine two frames as if they were fields and then encode at 29.97 interlaced to retain the live video look? I seem to remember that Premiere Pro might have a function for that purpose, but it doesn't load AC-3 files.

Also, I'm hoping that the answer to this might resolve the jerkiness of motion I have had with previous 720p projects, such as the upcoming season of "24" and the "Alias" finale.

Here's my current workflow:

1. Record w/FusionHDTV2 (soon to be 5 or MyHD)
2. Edit with HDTVtoMPEG2
3. Demux w/DVD2AVI
4a. Modify Inmatrix AVISynth script for the specific .d2v project
4b. Correct AC-3 sync errors in BeSweet or convert to WAV
5a. Load AVISynth script into TMPGEnc Plus 2.5 and encode w/o edits @ 852x480, 16:9, Constant VBR w/high quality (around 6000-8000Mbps, although I could drop to as low as 4500 without too bad of a quality loss)
5b. OR Add WAV file to TMPGEnc Plus 2.5 and encode w/edits
6. Remux in TMPGEnc
7. Edit in Ulead MediaStudio Pro 7 to preserve AC-3 and add transitions and titles
8. Render for DVD
9. Import into TMPGEnc DVD Author
10 Burn DVD.

If anyone can think of any shortcuts that would get more quality, please let me know...

[jagabo]

Assuming a 16:9, progressive, 59.94 frame per second source, the following AVISynth script lines should convert it to 29.97 frame per second interlaced NTSC video:

#after opening your video file
LanczosResize(720, 480) #for 16:9 anamorphic DVD
AssumeTFF()
SeparateFields()
SelectEvery(4,0,3) #top field from first frame, bottom from second
Weave()

Feed that to your MPEG2 encoder and encode as 29.97 fps interlaced 16:9.