Very crappy looking quality when exporting SD DVD

[zack zhou]

hi guys,

i tried to export a project to SD DVD, but omg! it looks horrible (had to rub my eyes a few times). this is the way i did it

4k fcp sequence - export quicktime ProRes 422HQ standard definition (no interlace), quality amazing - new SD quicktime send to compressor "Best quality DVD: 90 mins"- then to dvd studio pro - and shocking outcome, the crappest dvd i ever burnt (look worst than hand camcorder DV quality, that's all i need to say)

can anyone tell me the best way to export DVD that looks decent? maybe i am missing detailed parts? thanks for reading and hope to hear from you soon.

[Stephen Strangways]

Care to post a screenshot so we can see why it looks "horrible," and thus try to figure out why?

[Howard Shaw]

If you google "best settings for apple compressor DVD" you should be able to find a recipe. You have to tweak compressor to get really good results. if you toggle through the tabs in the compression applet there are many variables.

[jimhare]

For best results downsize before going to compressor. Also, I have found it MANDATORY to add additional contrast at the compressor stage or everything comes out blocky and pale.

If you get the formula right (you have to do a bit of testing for each project) you will find that compressor can make very good encodes from Red. Get it wrong and it looks like the worst thing you've ever seen.

[zack zhou]

hey jim, can i learn the right set of formulas from you?? hope you can elaborate more

stephen, i do not have the dvd with me (it was so crap that we throw it away ) , probably can get screen shots earliest by monday.

[jimhare]

Happy to tell you what I've learned so far, though I'm far from perfecting it.

The first time I put a Red project on DVD (it was a live concert) I almost cried it looked so bad. It was strange because it was the same settings I always used for my FCP project, but it looked horrible. Pasty, blocky, yech.

But since my FCP project looked great, I knew there must be an answer so I started experimenting.

I found by adding what felt like an unnatural amount of contrast in Compressor, the DVD suddenly looked rich, clean and very filmic.

I've since applied this through every stage, and it seemed everywhere along the way more contrast made Red footage look better and better.

It's all about testing, and I end up using different settings on every project, but try going into the image processing area in the compressor presets and adding +4 contrast. Some people like to add a bit of sharpness at this stage as well but that's up to you.

Start with short tests, like 30 seconds, to save time.

For me the change was night and day.

[Uli Plank]

I was never very happy with the downscaling in FCP or Compressor, and finally I found this: http://www.precomposed.com/blog/2009...-best-methods/

Looks great and it's free!

[zack zhou]

uli thanks for the resource, but i guess i'm surrounded by only apple for now

upon researching online, i tried this setting in compressor

Frame Controls On:
Retiming: (Best) High quality Motion Compensated
Resize Filter: Statistical Prediction
Deinterlace Filter: Best (Motion Compensated)
Adaptive Details: On
Antialias: 0
Detail Level: 0
Field Output: Same as Source

guess what? the DVD quality improved from iphone to DVX quality. bravo!!

anyone else out there can give me more advice? more workflows? there is still a tinyyy hope that i can produce hollywood standard dvd am i the only one with this problem??

jim, i will play around with your advice tmr, see how it turns out and post the result here. thanks man!

[Luca Immesi]

On the mac side: this is a pack of plugin that works for compressor http://www.compressorpack.com/ it works quite fine and it's not expensive.
The best results for me is to use videopurifier and bitvice together as suggested by innobits, it costs a bit more but it's well worth it.

[Cüneyt Kaya]

i use directly toast, couldnt stand compressor anymore and have much better results....but i use dvd only for dailies or rough edits for the distributors.