Workflow

[jimfallis04]

Hi All:

I am looking for the ultimate HD work flow guide that will allow me to start with a M2T file (from a Canon HV20 and HDVSplit, thank you Paul for that great advice) edit the footage in PrEl 3.0 then:

1. Be able to burn a DVD in PrEl 3.0 that will play on existing SD DVD players.

2. Be able to burn a DVD with 720 lines of resolution, help me with hardware for this please, and

3. Be able to burn an HD-DVD or Blue-Ray DVD once the hardware is more accessable.

Thank you

Jim

PS I did a test video with a preset of HDV 1080, I burned a DVD, it plays on all my SD DVD players. The quality is excellent - can you please help me understand what format was used by PrEl

[Paul LS]

Just sent you an email Jim... here is my answer to your part 3:

Anyways, my workflow for watching HD DVDs on my HDTV is as follows:

- Capture as HDV in a HDV project. I use either PE3, PE2 with the Mainconcept Elements Plugin or ULEAD VideoStudio 10+. The latter two allow me to use smart rendering so that unedited sections of the HDV footage is not re-rendered on export. PE3 will re-render on HDV MPEG2 export and thus introduce a generation of quality loss. It is not very noticeable, but can be seen. I edit the project and export as a HDV MPEG2 file.
- I bring this into ULEAD DVD MovieFactory 6+ which allows me to add a menu and burn to a standard DVD. At the 25MB/s HDV MPEG2 quality I can get 20mins on a standard DVD or 40 mins on a dual layer DVD. By reducing the bitrate I can get more on but I lose a little quality.
- I then play the DVD in my computer using CyberLink Power DVD HD DVD Edition (Edition 7.3) which allows you to play HD DVDs if your computer meets the required specs. That is a fast processor and a suitable graphics card... the graphics card has hardware acceleration which takes some of the load off the processor. The graphics card I have has HDTV Component outputs which are connected to my HDTV.

Or you can buy a Toshiba HD DVD player for ~ $300 which will play the HD DVDs directly to your HDTV. However I can not use it as it currently does not supported PAL 50i only NTSC 60i. So you could go this way.
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-HD-A2-HD- ... B000IJV4BC

[Chuck Engels]

Here is some input from a friend of mine;

Like Jim, I have been shooting weddings in HDV using Canon camcorders. My approach to workflow always begins with the final output format. Because HD-DVD and Blu-Ray formats are still difficult to deliver on because of cost, availability and compatibility, I am still delivering SD DVDs to my clients even though I am shooting in HD. I shoot in HD 16x9 and down convert on capture into a 16x9 SD project.

For me, until the three big “A”s (Adobe, Apple and Avid) are providing authoring tools for HD delivery (Adobe is providing Blu-Ray support with their new version of Encore) and I have clients that have the players, I will wait to deliver in HD. Here’s why:

1. My testing (and that of many prominent professionals) has shown that the final SD DVD quality looks the same. Editing HD footage and transcoding to the same mpeg2 doesn’t make the DVD look any better.

2. Editing in HD requires a tremendous amount of resources (memory, ram and transcoding time).

3. Most pros agree that while HDV is a great recording format, it is a terrible editing format. You cannot view the footage on capture in the capture window. Rendering times are substantially longer than those in SD.

Furthermore, I have had some friends do the entire HD workflow and deliver on HD DVD to find that their client’s player would not even play the media. Ouch, for me it is still to early to commit to a complete HD workflow. Until then, I will keep archiving my beautiful HD raw footage for a future HD demo reel with hopes that I can truly show the end client the beauty of the wedding day.

Thanks,

Rich Fiallo
Director of Communications
Trinity Chapel
4665 Macland Rd
Powder Springs, GA 30127