how to convert HD .MOV file to SD DV-AVI 16:9?

[Margthecar]

Up until now I have only worked in SD DV-AVI 4:3 aspect ratio in PE8, either shot myself or converted to it using Prism Video converter. I am now working on a project in which I have some of that type of footage, but have also been handed a segment shot by someone else in the following format: MOV 1920x1088 23fps.

I thought it might be nice to preserve the 16:9 aspect ratio of the MOV footage, but downconvert it to SD. Then the resulting project would have some 4:3 and some 16:9 segments, but all SD. I was able to create a SD project in PE8 that has the aspect ratio of 16:9 and could still put my 4:3 footage into the frame (and got the expected black bars). But I ran into trouble trying to convert the MOV footage to SD 16:9 DV-AVI format.

I tried doing this with the Prism converter but I could not get the settings right and the resulting files won't play. *CAN* I use the Prism converter to convert the HD MOV footage to 16:9 DV-AVI? If so, what settings do I need?

If I cannot do this with Prism, what software should I use? Free is the best price, but I am willing to pay a little bit if there is some good shareware software. I also must sheepishly admit that I own, but have not yet installed, the Adobe CS5 Production Premium so if there is some software in there that can do the conversion for me, please let me know which one.

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

Adobe Media Encoder in the CS5 suite might do the trick.

The other tool that I use is this:-

http://www.deskshare.com/audio-video-converter.aspx

You can download to try before you buy. I haven't checked whether there are any restrictions on the trial (e.g. length of output; watermark....)

[Steve Grisetti]

The Media Encoder would definitely be the best first choice. It comes with Adobe's Creative Suite software.

Short of that, you may want to check out Quicktime Pro -- a very powerful encoder for $29 from Apple.com.

[Chuck Engels]

I have used Premiere Elements 9, 7 and 4 to convert 1080p HD MOV files from my GE DV1 camcorder to DV NTSC Widescreen without any problems. Have you tried using Premiere Elements to convert the file?
Just be sure you use the correct project preset for your footage and you shouldn't have any trouble at all.

[Margthecar]

Chuck, great minds think alike! (Or at least I like to think my mind occassionally has a not-too-bad thought).

Before I read any of your responses to my questions, I woke up this morning realizing that I could perhaps do exactly as you said, Chuck--input the HD MOV files into PrE8 and output them as DV NTSC Widescreen (yes it does work). I was also intrigued by the software suggested, Deskshare's Digital Media Converter, because the Pro version has a lot of features I could use in other projects, especially the audio FLAC to MP3 conversion to deal with hundreds of goofy music files sent to me by Swedish cousin. But I digress....

So I set about testing the two conversions side-by-side. I just took the default settings in both cases. Probably if I spent a lot of time I might be able to get better and/or faster results, but I don't expect to do this type of conversion very often, so I did not think it worth the effort. Here are my results:

Original file: HD MOV about 7 minutes long, 2.3GB

PreE8 input settings (I guessed): HD,Flash HD 1080i 30 project preset; output: DV NTSC Widescreen, took about 20 minutes to convert, file is 1.46 GB, playback quality is very good.

Since I have total about an hour of HD MOV footage to convert, I was hoping the software Digital Media Converter would be faster. It was not. By a longshot. (I used the demo version which BTW does put a watermark on the converted footage).

Digital Media converter: Input settings: super easy interface to select file but I could not find a DV-AVI WIDESCREEN setting, so I just told it to go ahead with DV-AVI. It took nearly an hour to convert! (56 minutes exactly). Resulting file was 1.18GB. Once I imported the footage into PrE8 it was squished horizontally, so I widened it out to widescreen at which point it looked normal and rendered it. Unfortunately, the quality was far inferior to the footage converted in PrE8. It was very pixelated. Perhaps there are settings in DMC that would improve it, but given the cost of the software and the fact it takes 3X as long to convert, it is not worth it.

I am off to convert my footage using Chuck's method!

Thanks to all for your suggestions.