HD Settings

[kiwikiwi]

Hi,

I will work on a vidéo/animation who is supposed to be rendered in HD and as it is the first time i will work in full HD i really want to be sure avout my settings before starting my project.
The final project must be playable on any DVD player (mainly in europe...but should work in usa too), on a normal TV, HDTV or pc with the best quality possible.
The création will be in after-effect/Première

This is what i think i need:

- 1920/1080 pixel
- square pixel
- 24 images/sec
- final render with AVC-MPEG 4 codec ... then burn to a DVD

I am not sure about 2 things:

- Is it better to start the project with 24i/sec then transform it at the end into a 30i/s version (for ntsc) or start with 30i/sec then go for a 24i/sec. The best quality (if i can't have both) should be for european dvd player.
My logic says 30 into 24, but i already noticed that even like that it's not that "smooth" so that's why i am asking.

- If my client ask for a cinemascope format, should i start my project with 1920/1080 and 2 black borders in the composition or is it better to start with a 1920/750 and add borders while rendering the final project for DVD players ?

Sorry if this sounds like newbies questions ... but i really want to be sure as it is my first "big" commercial project and i am short in time so i prefer to not restart from the beginning after 2 weeks of work

Kiwi

[aedipuss]

dvd is only mpeg-2.

HD avc-mpeg-4 will not play.

if you want HD you will have to use blu-ray

[yoda313]

Yes aedipuss is correct.

You must keep each seperate. You would need to first create the project in high def 1920x1080 for high def output. Then in a seperate project it would need to be downconverted to 720x480/576 for dvd authoring.

Of course a hybrid method is to use compressed high definition formats like hd mp4 or wmv hd. However those would only be playable on the ps3 and possibly the xbox 360 (the 360 is picky on mp4 formats but the ps3 is more flexible - it will handle wmv easily) as well as computers.

There are very few if any standalone dvd players that can playback high definition compressed video files.

So you will need to do two projects - one in high definition and then another in standard definition. As mentioned bluray will need to be used for burning high definition (for "standard" bluray players not the compressed formats I mentioned earlier)

[edDV]

Actually three distribution versions. It would be best to render each separately.

1920x1080p/24 fps for Blu-Ray
720x576p/25 fps (sped up and audio processed) for PAL DVD
720x480p/23.976 fps (slightly slowed) for NTSC DVD
see https://www.videohelp.com/dvd

If the program was short enough, you could include a computer playable HD-WMV or HD Divx version as a DVD extra.

[edDV]

...
I am not sure about 2 things:

- Is it better to start the project with 24i/sec then transform it at the end into a 30i/s version (for ntsc) or start with 30i/sec then go for a 24i/sec. The best quality (if i can't have both) should be for european dvd player.
My logic says 30 into 24, but i already noticed that even like that it's not that "smooth" so that's why i am asking.

For an animation you probably would want to go progressive and then let the DVD player do the conversion to interlace.

For PAL DVD you would ideally render to 720x576p/25 fps or render 24fps and speed it up through interpolation. The PAL DVD player will play this as 720x576i/25 fps or frame repeat to 720x576p/50 fps.

For NTSC DVD a 720x480p/23.976fps render is required. The NTSC DVD player will play this as either 720x480i/29.97 fps (telecined) or frame repeated progressive at 720x480p/59.94 fps.

Blue Ray accepts 1920x1080p/24 fps worldwide and converts in the player to local formats.

- If my client ask for a cinemascope format, should i start my project with 1920/1080 and 2 black borders in the composition or is it better to start with a 1920/750 and add borders while rendering the final project for DVD players ?
Kiwi

DVD wide screen formats are non-square pixel. If you want to start with a square pixel raster and then H resize, you would start with

PAL square pixel 16:9 = 1024x576 resized to 720x576 for DVD
PAL square pixel 4:3 = 768x576 resized to 720x576 for DVD

NTSC square pixel 16:9 = 854x480 resized to 720x480 for DVD
NTSC square pixel 4:3 = 640x480 resized to 720x480 for DVD

I would render to non-square pixel to save the resize.

True "cinemascope" format is much wider than 16:9 (2.35:1) so would require letterbox.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_ratio_(image)

[kiwikiwi]

Woaw!

Thank's a lot, i think you give me here everything i was looking for =)
After reading your posts & the links, the best solution in my case is:

(final résolution will be 1920/800 (grrr) >> force me to use letterbox )

1 - i create a project in AE with 1920/800, square pixel & 24i/s

2 - i render it separatly :

>> HD : 1920/1080 with letterbox, 24i/s & MPEG2 (progressive) on a Bluray-R working only on Blueray player or ps3

>> DVD PAL : i speed up with interpolation first (24>25i/s) then 720/576, MPEG2 (progressive) on a DVD-R working on any PAL DVDplayer

>> DVD NTSC : 720/480 with letterbox, 24i/s & MPEG2 (progressive) on a DVD-R working on any NTSC DVD player

>> A PC playable version (with HDdivx or HD-wmv) working on any player (quicktime, mediaplayer, kmplayer,...)


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Correct ? ^^

[yoda313]

@kiwikiwi - yes that should do it. Of course that pc playable version would not be a requirement. That would only be if you have space available on the disc and want to go the extra mile (kilometer for the rest of you out there ).

@eddv - yes sorry about missing the double duty conversion for dvd pal and ntsc. I just was making sure the high def and standard versions were mentioned as seperate outputs.

[kiwikiwi]

Wuhuuu

[quote="yoda313"]@kiwikiwi - yes that should do it. Of course that pc playable version would not be a requirement. That would only be if you have space available on the disc and want to go the extra mile (kilometer for the rest of you out there ).

Ho, so i can burn both NTSC & PAL on the same DVD-R ? And the player will choose the right one ?

[yoda313]

Well not exactly.

It is my understanding that pal dvd players will play both pal and ntsc.

For ntsc it has to be ntsc or else it won't be recognized.

[kiwikiwi]

Ok i got it =)

Well, thanks a lot for everything