Help! HD Project Preset When Combining HDV Video and Stills?

[George Tyndall]

Most of my work consists of creating slide shows using 2288x1520 stills on a 1920x1080 project-preset timeline.

If I want wish to add an HDV (1440x1080) clip to the end of the slide show, what is the correct preset for the overall project, 1920x1080 or 1440x1080?

Thank you .

[Chuck Engels]

I always use the HDV 1080i 30 preset George. That is 1440 x 1080

[George Tyndall]

I always use the HDV 1080i 30 preset George. That is 1440 x 1080

Thank you, sir.

[Bob]

what is the correct preset for the overall project

I wouldn't phrase it that way, George. Neither one is more correct than the other. And, either way, you'll get something that looks good. There are differences though.

Both will have the correct field order for the video and both will fill a 1080p TV (The 1440 will have a rectangular pixel aspect ratio of 1.333 while the 1920 will have a square pixel aspect ratio of 1.0). However, the 1920 will have a higher horizontal resolution than the 1440 since it will have 480 more pixels (that's 33.3% more than 1440). Using 1920 won't increase the resolution of the HDV footage, it is what it is, but it will allow for more horizontal detail in your still images. On the other hand, It is theoretically possible that resampling the video from 1440 to 1920 could soften the HDV image very slightly.

Like everything in life, it's a trade off. Since you are dealing primarily with a slide show, you may want to use the 1920 preset and go for the higher horizontal resolution. Especially if the amount of HDV footage is small in comparison. If you have mainly HDV footage with some stills thrown in, it may be better to use the 1440.

It's your call.

[George Tyndall]

what is the correct preset for the overall project

Since you are dealing primarily with a slide show, you may want to use the 1920 preset and go for the higher horizontal resolution. Especially if the amount of HDV footage is small in comparison. If you have mainly HDV footage with some stills thrown in, it may be better to use the 1440. It's your call.

Thanks for weighing in, Bob.

For this project, I tried some things I had not done before:

--whereas in the past I would create the Album for my slide shows with edited PSDs, this time I created an Album consisting of 99 JPEGS that were made with my HV30 in Still mode (all 1920x1080)
--of those that needed editing (usually just "dust spotting"=pixel removal) I saved over the originals with the edited JPEGs (high-quality)
--after adding the 99 stills to the PRE7 Timeline (Project Preset 1920x1080), I added the 8 minutes of HDV footage at the end
--amazingly, PRE7 never even blinked or coughed = did not crash even once despite the onslaught

I am very satisified with the output.

If ever I do a project that consists mostly of video but with a few added stills, then I intend to do what Chuck does and what you suggested, that is, use the 1440 x 1080 Project Preset.

Thanks again for the input.