Shooting video for DVD. What camera settings?

[ptessier]

I’m shooting a video with a HD only camera. This will end up on a DVD. I’m using Final Cut Pro for editing. What are the best settings for a DVD? Frame size will be 1280 X 720. Now I have many choices for frame rate. 30p, 24p, 60i… Is it important whether I shoot in progressive or interlaced mode? Thanks for the help.

[Rob]

You can shoot whatever you want. Once you are finished editing, go to File > Export > Quicktime Movie, and then export a self-contain Quicktime at Current Settings.

Bring that exported file into Compressor and encode your MPEG2 and .AC3 files.

Bring your MPEG2 and .AC3 into DVD Studio Pro and burn.

[langel]

If you create a DVD for NTSC system, you have to shoot in 60i or 30p,

and 50i or 25p for PAL. 24p gives a cinematographic look.

Have in mind that most of the cameras do not shoot ‘real’ progressive, so check what is the case with your camera.

[theonecanoe]

I’ve used Vegas Pro, Premier and Avid. I’m not familiar with Final Cut Pro as an editing platform, but as far as putting thefinal product on a DVD, it does not really matter what the camera settings are. You can shoot and edit in any format/frame rate…when you goto makrethe DVD, your editing software then ‘renders as’ or ‘transcodes’ the timeline to a file that can be burned to a DVD (usually mpeg2, 720X480, 29.97 framesfor NTSC) Remember if the original was shot in HD and resulting the DVD is shown on a SD TV, you’ll have black bars on the top and bottom.

[langel]

The camera itself has these different settings, because it Does matter.

The NLE itself has the diffrent settings to match your settings. The encoder/transcoder has different settings to match your need.

If you shoot 60i and you need a PAL DVD, the soft will cut 5 frames every second(you loose every 6th frame)to make it 50i. NTSC frame size is 720×480 and PAL is 720×576, so the soft has to add 96 pxls – interpolated or blank, or to stretch vertically.More time to render, lossof quality.

Most of the cameras don’t shoot real progressive – they write the footage in a progressive format, but doing the same thing a software would do from an interlaced footage – deinterlacing by doubling or blending. You should use it, only if you really need it.

So it really does metter what settings you will chose, and your choise should depend on your need.

[Author]

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