Converting DVD to Mini DV - and it gets more complicated

[NSP]

Hi everyone!
I have to convert a DVD to Mini DV because I lost data on a hard disk.
The only copy I have is a DVD copy.
It's a short film that has been selected for a competition and they ask for a more professional copy than a DVD.
Unfotunately, I lost all the data (not the footage though) such as high quality final copies in AVI, AVHCD and Vegas sessions...
The thing is (well... there are several "things"...) the short was edited based on HD 1440x1080 footage from a HD handycam with a hard drive. It has widescreen atributes (16:9 aspect ratio) that my Mini DV camera does not have (here's another thing, I would like to save a couple hundred bucks and do it myself in Mini DV than pay someone to do it, as they accept Mini DV in the competition).
After converting the DVD to an AVI file and recording it to a Mini DV tape, will the 16:9 picture be faithful to the original copy on the DVD? Will the aspect ratio be the same, or will it cut the sides or squash the image? I know quality wise it doesn't make much sense, but it's a question of accepted formats vs $.
I haven't tried it yet because I'm waiting for the DVD to arrive, but I wanted to get as much information as possible beforehand because I won't have much time to do this.
Is it worth it to pay to have it converted to BetaCam?
Thanks!!

[NSP]

Oh, and another thing!!
Do Mini DV players usually read both NTSC and PAL??
That's another problem. My camera is NTSC, but I'm in a PAL zone, so I suppose that if they don't I'll have to get another camera to do it (or pay the price of not having triple backups...).
Thanks again.

[Krispy Kritter]

First, as it was already converted to DVD, it will no longer be HD quality. Since you are obviously wanting to retain as much quality as possible, don't convert to avi. Each conversion will reduce quality. Depending on your camera, you may be able to simply play back the DVD on a DVD player and record directly onto your camera.

[minidv2dvd]

miniDV has a widescreen mode, it's approximately 864x480 in square pixel terms. on miniDV it's recorded as non-square pixel 720x480.

if you have an editor like vegas pro you can import your video, render it to a dv avi 720x480 widescreen file and then print that back to minidv tape.

[DereX888]

First, as it was already converted to DVD, it will no longer be HD quality. Since you are obviously wanting to retain as much quality as possible, don't convert to avi. Each conversion will reduce quality.

Same as DVD, miniDV have never been HD quality (you thought of HDV I guess).
Conversion of DVD's MPEG-2 to DVpro AVI codec will not degrade nor reduce his DVD quality, as it will be conversion from more compressed to less compressed format within basically very same resolution. It's more like "inflating the file in size" rather than any real "conversion" (as in i.e. converting DVD to XViD, where significant losss of details *IS* lost).
Not every conversion reduces quality.
You can convert anything to RAW AVI and you will never loose any quality of the source format, it will be preserved exactly as is

miniDV has a widescreen mode, it's approximately 864x480 in square pixel terms. on miniDV it's recorded as non-square pixel 720x480.

if you have an editor like vegas pro you can import your video, render it to a dv avi 720x480 widescreen file and then print that back to minidv tape.

That's correct. Of course miniDVD has 16x9 too, and I haven't seen 4x3-only for many years.
Also minidv2dvd is correct here:
S*ny Vegas seems the best for this job (or at least easiest).
(OTOH sure you can write to mDV even with Windows Movie Maker too IIRC, but I wouldn't even think about it )


@NSP
If your mDV deck is NTSC it won't play PAL (and vice versa).
Some years ago I was searching for multiformat deck myself, and the only one I found was a semiprofessional deck in a higher $3K price range (IIRC Toshiba brand).
Unless something has changed since 2002 (which I doubt, since mDV is basically rapidly dying format) you won't be lucky to find any standalone mDV deck capable of PAL and NTSC in one without forking tons of money. Not to mention that it still won't play any HDV tapes either... (again - unless there have been some progress I'm not aware of; it's been quite few years)

[NSP]

Thanks for the help so far guys!
The DVD arrives tomorrow morning and I will start putting to practice some of the advice.
I'll keep you posted on any other issues that arise.

Cheers!

[NSP]

Hey!
I finally got the DVD. So now I'm converting it to an AVI file..
As the purpuse of the render I'm about to do is to copy it to Mini DV, how should I handle deinterlance on this?
Mini DV is interlaced lower field first right?

Thanks!

[edDV]

No need to deinterlace. It would lower quality.

Yes DV is lower field first (interlace) for both PAL and NTSC.

What format is the DVD?
16:9 (wide)?
interlace or progressive?
frame rate?

[NSP]

The DVD is progressive scan 25fps.
It's PAL wide 720x576.

[edDV]

Then the DV will have both fields from the same frame. No need to deinterlace.

[NSP]

Will this be a problem when playing the tape on a Mini DV player?
Or is it the same whether it's interlaced or not?

I'm sending this Mini DV copy to be viewed by the jury of the competition.
I need it to be as perfect as posible.

[edDV]

Test it on an interlace TV. It should play fine.

[minidv2dvd]

don't forget you can only get about 60 minutes on a miniDV tape. if the flick is longer you will need to cut it into pieces.

miniDV is the same resolution as PAL DVD so there shouldn't be much quality loss in the rendering to dv avi. 720x576 for both. you will need a PAL cam to do the transfer to tape.

[NSP]

Well... After I got to look at the DVD a couple of times I got this depressing sensation that It looked far less impressive than it's HD twin.
So, I took all the footage and re-edited it this weekend
I didn't think it would be possible, but with the references from the DVD it didn't take that long.
I even got the chance to correct a couple of mistakes.

I's at the studio now being converted to Digital Betacam from an HD AVI!
It will be ready today.
That way it will surely look great on the big screen.

Thanks for the help guys!

Stay cool.