Another HD to DVD workflow question

[Spot]

Hi All,
This is a very popular subject about there is so much information here that I am confusing myself!
So could someone please simplify a workflow for me for the following:

I have a HV40 HD camera. I take some HD footage and capture it using HDV Split. This is now a .m2t file which I think is mpg2?

I would like to produce a SD widescreen (PAL) DVD using this footage.

I'll be using Premiere CS4 to edit and Encore CS4 to build the DVD.

What I'm looking for is the settings to use at each stage and any pitfalls.

E.g... What setup do I use for HDV split. What type of project do I use in Prem? What type of project settings do I use in Encore.

Thanks..
JohnB

[Steve Grisetti]

I would suggest that the easiest and most efficient workflow would be to set the camcorder to DV Lock and capture your video not as HDV but as standard DV footage. (When your camcorder is in DV Lock mode, you can capture standard DV footage with Premiere Elements, Windows MovieMaker or WinDV. Your captured files will be DV-AVIs.)

Once in this format, you can edit your video in a standard DV project and easily output excellent looking DVD files!

[Spot]

Thanks Steve, as usual I had overlooked a change to step one!
I was thinking along the lines of having a HD backup for the footage but I keep the tapes anyway.

[Chuck Engels]

Hi John,

You can capture in HDVSplit and then add the clips to your project (1080i) using Get Media.
The clips will not need rendering.

Premiere Pro does a nice job of down conversion to SD. The only tip I can give you is to work in projects that are under 30 minutes.
That helps to keep things quick. I've editied quite a few HDV projects now and all have gone very well.

I have also down converted on capture as Steve says above, also with excellent results.
If the finished product is going to be SD, and you are going to save the tapes anyway, it is probably easiest to down convert in the camera and work with the SD footage.
You can use Premiere Elements or WinDV to capture (if you have over 100 clips I recommend WinDV so it names the clips correctly) and then editing is not as much of a load on your system.

It just depends on what you are comfortable with, you can go either way with excellent results.

[Spot]

Hi Chuck,
I did have a go at this workflow as I already had some HD footage from HDV split.
Premiere took it fine and no rendering was needed.
My question to you then is when setting up the project in premiere do I make it an SD one or a HD one?
The quick test I did resulted in a good looking DVD but when displaying on my (old analog) tv some heads were cut off?
I'm thinking this is because I set up the project incorrectly.
In "project settings" I have set the capture format to HDV.

thanks
JohnB

[Chuck Engels]

If you are going to capture and edit the HDV files from the HV40 you need to use the HDV 1080i project preset.

When burning you then have an option to select Blu Ray or DVD.
If you select DVD it will down convert automatically.

Be sure to use the Safe Margins

[Bobby]

I have an HV-30 and my workflow now is to HDVSplit and downconvert in PRE7. I have tried both and don't notice much difference on the DVD, but I want to store the hi def footage on hard drive for the future if I ever want to go back to it. Using this workflow you can generate either HD or SD by just changing PRE7 output settings. Should be the same for Pro.

[Chuck Engels]

In Premiere Pro you will use the Adobe Media Encoder to export your HDV files to be imported into Encore.
Maybe Hunt can chime in on what method is best, used to be it wasn't wise to use the 'Send To EncoreDVD' option.
That may not apply to version CS4.

[momoffduty]

In Pro, tried to capture the video with project set up as 1080i. In the capture window have the settings to Canon, but do not see HV30. The video appears in the capture window when I press play, but with the record button there is a screen with the usual languages. However, the video was added to my project file.

1. How do I properly set this up in Pro?

2. Why isn't the HV30 listed?

3. Was HDVSplit recommended on the this thread for the above reasons? Was trying to avoid an unnecessary step.

My workflow is to capture HD video on tape. Edit in HD. Output to SD disc. And possible output of HD as an H264.

Thanks.

[Chuck Engels]

Cheryl, Use HDVSplit and save yourself the hassle

[momoffduty]

I'll give it a try. Guess I just google HDVsplit? And free?

[Chuck Engels]

Here is the link, sorry
http://strony.aster.pl/paviko/

[tiny]

Re- Steve's suggestion:

So I had heard this advice from many others, saying that SD capture using an HV20/30/40 cam looked better when published to a DVD than HD capture being down converted to DVD.

Unfortunately, I don't know if I did something wrong, but this was not my experience. It seems like I got a lot of artifacts that were non existent in my HD footage. Maybe this was a fluke. . .

[Bobby]

I agree with Tiny. I haven't noticed any artifacts, etc. specifically, but I always download as HDV from my HV30 and let PRE downconvert - with no issues.

[Chuck Engels]

At one point (maybe version 4) everyone seemed to think that downconverting in the camera (DV Lock) would produce better results when burned to DVD. The thinking was that the camera did a better job of the downconversion that Premiere Elements did.

I don't know if the method changed in version 7 or if this was never really the case. Premiere Pro and Elements both do an excellent job of downconverting HDV footage to a SD DVD. The quality is quite good and definitely better than capturing standard definition footage.