Best Way to go with Progressive Video -> DVD?

drdespair wrote on 8/15/2003, 4:22 AM

Hello,

I have the Vegas+DVD package, and I was wondering what is the best way to publish to DVD if your source material is progressive scan (PAL 25p) . Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

DrD

Comments

RBartlett wrote on 8/15/2003, 5:43 AM

Either code it as 50 fields per second, interlaced, which will suit either type of playback device quite well. (25p PAL res is barely a valid DVD target format). You could modify the final DVDA render with IFO-Edit to mark it as progressive. Line doubling 100Hz TVs won't make it look special, but regular progressive TV will make it look the same if it is marked as interlaced or 25p. So the best thing, IMHO, is to know it is progressive, use Vegas in progressive mode but use a render format that is interlaced (either in Vegas or DVDA depending on your workflow).

The other "best" alternative is to change the frame size to NTSC, stretch the films length so that it is effectively 24p and increase, through pitch conversion, the audio. This will give it a vestige of the American film look on NTSC decks and 25p playback on PAL (just the resolution of the video (and some of the spectral integrity of the audio) will be affected)

Specialist DVD players understand 25p PAL, like Tag McLaren.
If "Hollywood" was in a PAL region, you'd be having an easier time with this.

drdespair wrote on 8/15/2003, 6:21 AM

For the "best" alternative, how do I go about doing that? Is there a guide on this for Vegas? because I would realy love to test that method, but I am not shure how to go about accomplishing it in Vegas.

Thanks!

RBartlett wrote on 8/15/2003, 6:41 AM

http://www.sonicfoundry.com/download/step2.asp?DID=441
Set your project to NTSC(720x480 bit) 23.97fps progressive.
Import your PAL 25p into this project and scale/crop it to fit - whichever gives you the best look.
Stretch the length so it is now 25/24 (4%) longer using the ruler.
You need to stretch the audio - maybe with a key held down like ctrl - not sure.
Then apply a pitch conversion to increase all frequencies by 4% as you've effectively reduced them to match the lip sync etc.

Render as NTSC 24p and PCM/AC3 audio (NTSC timing is automatic for the project).

My first option of modifying the created files to be progressive after rendering is probably the simplest. Hollywood does tend to create 25p format with 25i menus, as I was just reading. Just that progressive TVs even in PAL regions tend to only operate in 60i mode on an NTSC frame size. Just because they have been a bit niche with YUV connections etc. I'd expect this to be sorted in the more expensive models and for those with one of the players and displays that suit the pockets of mortals.

The main part of this is that irrespective of what is flagged on the DVD. If you have a progressive piece it will be drawn in a single scan on a progressive player+TV combo (or virtually all cases in a PC). Same way that a progressive TV can play an interlaced frame all in one go on these systems and not necessarily make it look better.

Some folk think of it like this: Films play faster in Europe and computer games play faster in America. This isn't always true though. It usually depends on where the author is and his native mode or largest market he sells to.