HDV - DVD...camera or software conversion?

[Rudyard]

Im making a DVD of some footage captured with my sony HC3 HDV cam.

I was wondering if it makes any difference to the quality if I set the camera to output to DV format, so I get a hardware conversion of HDV to DV and then using Vegas convert to MPEG2 DVD specs or if I capture the HDV, do all my editing and convert the HDV to MPEG2 DVD specs directly?

I assume the 2nd is one less conversion and as such is probably best but am unsure and thought maybe the camera has decent converting hardware which may be of some benfit?

My PC (Pent D 3ghz, 2gig ram XPSP2 running Vegas 7) seems to have no problem handling the HDV footage so PC perormance isnt an issue....im just curious as what gives me the best quality.

[Soopafresh]

The higher the resolution your source video is, the better your encoded Mpeg2 will look. Even if the camera can do the downsizing, it'll be cleaner and sharper if you you keep it at HD res. So the HDV-->Mpeg2 encode will almost certainly look the best.

[edDV]

Try a few representative clips such as high motion, low light, high detail and high detail in slow diagonal pan. Try it both ways and compare.

[2Bdecided]

Yes, you have to try it yourself (unless someone with the same camcorder and software has done it already). In your tests, also include sharp and defocussed saturated colours, preferably still and moving, with edges at a shallow gradient (diagonal).


On my HV20, I do the conversion in the camera if I'm in a hurry, or use AVIsynth with various scripts if I want better quality. Either way, I have to do the final MPEG-2 encoding elsewhere.

Cheers,
David.

[racer-x]

I also say to experiment both ways..............

As for me, I always output at least two final formats. A high quality HDV 1440 x 1080i, high quality SD/DVD 480p or 480i. I also output to H.264 or WMV VC-1 in 720p more often then not. I simply capture and edit full res. HDV. I then frameserve to different AVS scripts to process and then encode with the prospective encoders. Quality has never been an issue yet......................

I have the means to play all my formats through my TVIX SH4100.

[Rudyard]

racer-x, what is 'frameserve'?

[racer-x]

Here's a Frameserve Tutorial I did some time ago. It doesn't directly relate to HDV, but will give you an idea of what happens. The only addition to what I'm doing with HDV, is I feed the signpost avi to an Avisynth script, then feed the script to an encoder:

http://www.fortvir.net/gallery2/2133-1/frameserve.mov?g2_GALLERYSID=96c7dda8d7f0034cb05aef56ff3bcfc8