MP2 vs .MOV vs. WMV

otter wrote on 2/24/2009, 11:09 PM
I'm producing a TV commercial that was shot and edited in HD but needs to be rendered in standard def for Comcast to accept it (They haven't quite caught up to HD for locally inserted commercials) Anyway... I render to mpeg2 and the graphics look like crap... I render to .mov and it doesn't really work (I guess I need to buy quicktime I hear.. since it doesn't work just having the free version)... Then I render to WMV and everything looks great in the windows media playback. The only problem is that it doesn't give a TV standard def 720x480 option... only a PC standard def of 640x480. Then when the 640x480 render is done... the windows media player shows video that should be hidden outside what should be the 640 width.

Any suggestions?

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 2/24/2009, 11:25 PM
Go into custom settings and you can set any frame size and PAR you wish.
rs170a wrote on 2/25/2009, 3:25 AM
Instead of trying renders to a bunch of different formats, ask your local cable company what format they want it in and then render to that for delivery.
It may be that they'll take miniDV tape but you won't know until you ask.

Mike
otter wrote on 2/25/2009, 8:36 AM
They don't accept digital files or consumer tape formats like mini DV. They prefer BetaSP (Like who has one of those) and they'll accept a DVD but charge you to convert it. My concern is the compression of the DVD losing the crispness... plus one more copy of a copy as they put that on Beta SP before entering it into their computer system.

Any idea why the .mov render is not working? Do I need to buy the retail version of Quicktime to be able to render in .mov?
TheHappyFriar wrote on 2/25/2009, 9:43 AM
they don't accept digital formats? Maybe they still run everything via tape, even commercials??? Outdated! :)

Find someone who has a BetaSP recording deck & see if they will let you dub. Perhaps a local TV station would do it for next to nothing.