Best way to compress for a NTSC 720X480 DVD?

[FELIPE.AGUILAR]

Hello, I've been looking around for some answers in this area, but most of the workflow topic and threads stop at HD.
I am trying to convert a piece that looks superb on the monitor @1080p at 24fps, when I convert it to 480x720 @ 30fps via After Effects or Shake, it does not look good at all...all the nice RED quality and texture is lost.
Does Anyone have some advice for this final and crucial step?
Thanks
ƒ

 

[Luke Stewart]

Using 3:2 pulldown?

 

[Camilo Ganado]

We try the 3:2 pulldown in shake, but the blacks go all down, and the compression is to much, and then like is not enough went burning to DVD by DVD Studio Pro, the compression gets worst and watching in a TV get so lame.

 

[Uli Plank]

Every DVD player can do the pulldown internally.

 

[Roy Pearson]

I just posted this in another thread:

I've been getting great quality using cinema craft mp:
http://www.omni-cinemacraft.com/prod...ncodermp.shtml

Also, when converting from HD it's very important to turn on frame controls in compressor and change the resize filter to "best."

 

[Uli Plank]

I second Cinema Craft – simply the best.

BTW, Purifier by Innobits is an excellent downscaler too.

 

[Camilo Ganado]

I've been getting great quality using cinema craft mp:
http://www.omni-cinemacraft.com/prod...ncodermp.shtml

Hi Roy tks for the answ but the link is broken...can u post it again?

Camilo

 

[Roy Pearson]

Sorry, here you go:
http://www.omni-cinemacraft.com/products_cinemacraft_encodermp.shtml

 

[jimhare]

cinema craft mp looks very promising for DVD. In its own FAQ however it basically says not to use its standards conversion. Any advice about this?

If I have a PAL HD master and want to make both PAL and NTSC DVDs, what's the best way to prepare the material?

I saw another thread that said Compressor, like FCP, doesn't do a proper pulldown.


24. Are Compressor’s built-in Frame Control settings usable with CCE-MP?

Yes, this works both as a function of Compressor 3 and CCE-MP. However, the
recommended workflow for standards conversion is the following:
Perform the conversion using Compressor’s Frame Controls function, and then
encode that output with CCE-MP.

 

[Uli Plank]

It depends, a standard conversion between 50i and 60 i (or vice versa) will hardly ever be perfect. Try G Converter by Graeme Nattress, if you need that. Compressor is not worth the wait, IMHO.

But if we are talking film style here (i.e. 24p or 25p), I'd stay progressive and just re-conform with Cinema Tools. Much faster and better quality.

 

[Kaku Ito]

Although I spend a lot of time with the Compressor and other ways, I find that BitVice by Innobits works very easy and achieve very good quality.

I will add the pulldown for you, and also includes the same noise reduction you find in Innobits' Video Purifier which works really well. Another break through for me was to use the dual layer DVD and increase the mpeg2 transferring rate as high as possible. Since RED's image is very high resolution, it requires more transferring rate than regular video.

 

[Camilo Ganado]

Ok, tks all for the replies, we have made a decent MPG-2 and a good quality DVD at 864 x 486, but when we try to convert the 1024 x 512 to a 720 x 486 the image stretches and loses most of the flavor.

 

[Uli Plank]

… and a good quality DVD at 864 x 486, but when we try to convert the 1024 x 512 to a 720 x 486 the image stretches and loses most of the flavor.

864 x 486 has never been a legal format on DVD!
DVD always has 720 horizontal pixels, irrespective of 16:9 or 3:4. The only choice you have is anamorphic (using every single pixel for quality) or letterbox (less resolution, in particular if the user zooms in to fill a 16:9 display).

The unsqueezing (even 3:4 is squeezed a bit) is done by the reproducing devices.

BTW, I second BitVice. It became very fast in the recent incarnation. It was always good not only at reducing noise with it's DVNR, but on the other end as well: compressing very clean images (as we may expect from R1). Always worth a try!

 

[Cail Young]

Stop. Calm down.

The DVD spec (as mentioned earlier) allows for a 23.98P MPEG-2 track to be encoded on the disc, and the player will add pulldown as required. So, all you need to do is make a 23.98 M2V, which Compressor is perfectly capable of doing.

 

[Cail Young]

And Jim, your best bet would be to do a Conform in Cinema tools to 23.98, and then encode your 25fps audio track with a "standards conversion" in Compressor with the 25->23.98 setting. Encode video as 23.98.

 

[Pietro Impagliazzo]

Is it better to do the downscale in the encode program?

Wouldn't downscaling from RED Cine from the get go be the best choice?

 

[Camilo Ganado]

Ok so we bought the CC we are making some presets with it, im sending a 2048 x 1024 sequence from FC to Compressor, but the CC preset doesnt letterbox automatic, can i use the letterbox from compressor? what % of it should i use if im coming from 2:1 to 4:3? Can some one send me some presets with CC?
Tks