Best DVD

[Alex De Vivo]

Hello there, maybe someone can help! I shot at 24p (Red Epic) and I have to make DVD's for festivals submissions. What is the workflow to have a good dvd (PAL and NTSC)? Thank you!

 

[Alex De Vivo]

My final export is DPX (1920x1080 and 5k)!

 

[Alex De Vivo]

Anyone there?

 

[Eric Santiago]

You will need a decent DVD authoring software as well as a great compression app.
If you have access to any Adobe suite try Adobe Encore.
Keep in mind that your footage will get crunched to 720x480 which is a huge loss from EPIC > HD (DPX) to NTSC

 

[Alex De Vivo]

I know, but unfortunately festival submission are in DVD
So, Media Encoder for compression and Encore for burning?

 

[Eric Santiago]

You can let Encore do all that as well.
Even at the burn stage.
Make sure you have wide option on since I take its 16:9 aspect ratio.
I go as high as 8.3 on the quality settings.
DVD players of late are actually doing a better job at playing that setting.

 

[Elsie N]

I know, but unfortunately festival submission are in DVD
So, Media Encoder for compression and Encore for burning?

In Media Encoder, export it as a Blu Ray Mpeg 2 at highest quality. When you go to burn it in Encore, click the DVD disk option. Encore will further encode the asset when put on the timeline and instructed to 'Build', but the finished DVD will be very good quality. Plus, you will have that originally encoded asset in Blu Ray quality should you wish to burn a Blu Ray instead of a DVD.

Are you sure the Festival will not accept Blu Ray? Even a small festival like the Marfa Film Festival accepts Blu Ray alongside DVD.

EDIT: To be clear, the above is a method I've used exporting an R3D sequence from Adobe Premiere. I've not done a DPX from Adobe or any other App.

 

[Simon Dunne]

In Media Encoder, export it as a Blu Ray Mpeg 2 at highest quality.

I'll have to disagree with this workflow, as it's double compression. 5K > 1080 > SD.....you're adding in an extra step that isn't needed.

-First off, do they have a DVD player and display that will show 24P (The DVD spec is actually 23.976p, so 24P still needs converting anyway)?
-Secondly, most DVD's and displays will at some stage in the chain convert to interlaced, unless you can guarantee that a 23.976P signal will be displayed.

Going interlaced is your safest option, but will give a slightly different look to your film. I'd go with the following from Premiere using AME;

1: PAL - 5K > 720x576 Widescreen @50i (or 25P) MPEG-2 CBR @ 8mb with Dolby AC3 Audio @ 320Kbps
2: NTSC - 5K > 720x480 Widescreen @60i (or 23.976P) MPEG-2 CBR @ 8mb with Dolby AC3 Audio @ 320Kbps

When doing the conversion, select USE MAXIMUM RENDER QUALITY for proper scaling and select USE FRAME BLENDING for smoother frame rate conversion. The DVD spec does allow for a bit rate of up to 9.6Mb, but again, this can vary from player to player, so 8 is safext and CBR always beats VBR. AC3 audio is the most compatible, so shy away from PCM. You'll only get 4:2:0 colour on DVD, so that's why it's best to do the conversion straight from the master for best results. Then burn in Encore, but don't let it re-mux the media, you need it to burn the M2V and AC3 files that AME has just made for you....don't select the DVD option which gives you a muxed MPG file.