May 01, 2008
Through the format wars to Widescreen DVD

So I've shot in 1280X720 30P XDCAM format on the Sony PMW-EX1, transferred to Final Cut as mp4 using the XDCAM Transfer app from Sony (actually a rewrap from mxf to Quicktime), edited, exported a movie of the whole piece, then converted that in Quicktime player to AppleTV format for a smaller file and frame.

Along the way I brought old DV footage into the HD cut by converting the digitized DV to HDV with a crop on top and bottom to create the new aspect ratio. To do that I used Compressor. The HDV drops right into the otherwise XDCAM mp4 sequence in Final Cut.

And I took several WMV clips shot in movie mode on a Canon still camera, and (Compressor) converted those to a 1280X720 frame, with better results than I expected.

In a side project, I needed to convert some XDCAM HD raw footage to DVCPRO50 in standard definition and aspect, for delivery in SD. That clipped the sides of the frame off and transcoded the file - again in Compressor.

Now I need to use DVD Studio Pro for the first time to create a widescreen DVD that will play well on a normal DVD player and be shown on a 42" plasma display. In HD.

Here's my first stop to make sure I understand widescreen anamorphic DVDs. Then I'll find the settings for DVD Studio Pro.

The Ultimate Guide to Anamorphic Widescreen DVD for Everyone!

Posted by Dave at May 01, 2008 10:45 PM