upconversion of 960x540 footage to HD-DVD?

[ravisankar]

I am Ravisankar, Editing Supervisor, Working in DQ Entertainment Ltd,India.
Recently we have done a project in 960x540 resolution at 24 fps.
But we want to release it in HD-DVD format.
Can we convert 960x540 footage to HD-DVD without any quality loss?
What is the process behind the upconversion of 960x540 footage to HD-DVD?
I tried to upress 960x540 footage to 1280x720 using buil-in scaling tools in AVID MC soft.
Also i tried another option of exporing to 1280x720 from AVID.
But in both the cases I observed the image is getting blurred little bit.

[Guiboche]

I think the best way to do this would be to use AVISynth and the Lanczos4Resize method.

Here's a starter script for you. If you need more help, just reply

AVISource("FileLocationGoesHere")
AssumeFPS(24000,1001,true)
Lanczos4Resize(1920,1080)

The "AssumeFPS" converts the framerate to NTSC friendy 23.976fps and stretches the audio to match. You did say your footage is 24p, but didn't indicate of it's 24.000 or 23.976. If your source is indeed 23.976, then you don't need to use AssumeFPS.

The upscale should look pretty good.

Hope this helps

Later

[manono]

Not directly related, but I think the Indian DVD production companies should learn how to put out a decent DVD before trying to release movies in Hi-Def. Of the maybe 200 or so Indian DVDs I've examined, not one - not one - can compare in quality to even a mediocre Hollywood release. And most are just laughable, they are encoded and authored so poorly.

960x540 isn't Hi-Def. You can resize it to 1920x1080 or 1280x720 if you like, but that doesn't make it Hi-Def. It'll be just another lie, like Indian DVD companies using VHS tapes as masters for DVDs (almost always PAL VHS tapes for NTSC DVDs), and saying they've been "digitally remastered", like that's supposed to mean something. I've never heard of your company, but all of them, from the biggest to the smallest, Eros, Yash Raj, Shemaroo, Baba Digital, Sky, UTV, Ultra DVD, T-Series, Bollywood Films, etc., they're all horrible.

If you're planning on releasing a video in HD-DVD, ordinarily you'd start with a 2k or better master and encode for 1920x1080. Although the HD-DVD specs support all kinds of resolutions, all the movies released so far have been 1080p. Interpolating up from 540p doesn't cut it. You're starting with one-quarter the resolution.

Can we convert 960x540 footage to HD-DVD without any quality loss?

You're an editing supervisor and yet you ask that question?

But I would do it the same as Guiboche, also adding in some sharpening. Some of us here using free tools can do a better job than you and your thousands of dollars worth of equipment from AVID and others.

[jagabo]

Look into software like InstantHD or Video Enhancer.

http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/instanthd.html
http://www.thedeemon.com/VideoEnhancer/