Settings For DVD Played On 35mm Cinema Projector?

DenisL wrote on 9/13/2011, 10:03 PM
Hi folks, I'm afraid I desperately need help understanding the very best method and settings, etc. we should use to encode a movie created with Sony Vegas and burn it to a DVD that we need to play (with high video and audio quality) on an old cinema's 35mm projector to a large cinema screen.

We already encoded and burned a DVD and the video and audio was quite good when the DVD was played on our home DVD player and TV - but when we did an early test at the cinema with the cinemas 35mm projector and sound system the video was much darker and the sound was low and muddled - not great quality.

And of course the "premiere" showing of this movie at this old cimema is soon - this coming Saturday morning!

Can you please help or point me to some person or source that can?

Many thanks in advance!

DenisL

Comments

musicvid10 wrote on 9/13/2011, 10:46 PM
If the video and audio levels on the DVD are correct, there is nothing further you can do. Sounds like the projector may by out of whack, but two wrongs won't make it right in this case.

If you'll upload a sample of your video with audio to mediafire or dropbox, you may get some norming advice, that's the best anyone here can do, sorry.
DenisL wrote on 9/13/2011, 11:57 PM
When we encoded/rendered we used the HDV 1080 60i setting, and I'm wondering whether the NTSC DVD setting would have been better?

But again the resulting DVD sounded fine with our home DVD player and TV setup.

The problem may be that the DVD player at the cinema is playing to and through the 35mm projector. So I'm wondering if some setting at the encoding end would push to and through the 35mm projector better.

Or I suppose we could encode/render in Sony Vegas to BluRay format instead of DVD format, and then use the BluRay player at the cinema to play to and through the 35mm projector. Any thoughts on whether that should result in better quality video and audio in the cinema?

musicvid10 wrote on 9/14/2011, 12:26 AM
[EDIT]
Please post your original video properties as reported by MediaInfo, a free download.
Please upload a sample of your original project video. (2nd request).
Speculation isn't going to solve your problem by Saturday.

Best of luck.
Chienworks wrote on 9/14/2011, 3:14 AM
Just curious, but how do you project video through a film projector? I doubt you're having the video converted to film on such a short schedule. Is this a projector that has been custom converted from film to video somehow? Or is it actually a high-lux video projector and not really "35mm" at all?

Video: have you seen other videos projected on the same screen from the same projector? How did they look? Were they also dark or did they look ok? Maybe it's not your video so much as the projector is either not bright enough for the venue or the projector's settings need to be tweaked properly.

You can certainly add a filter in Vegas to make the rendered video brighter. Color curves would be my preference, though lots of folks like levels. In fact, i'd do that *now* so that you've got another version ready to try just in case nothing else can be fixed. You could pick a few seconds of a few different scenes and try making a DVD that has several versions at different brightness levels. Try that on the projector as soon as possible to see what settings look best and then render the whole thing again that way.

Audio: same thing, how does other material sound there? If they have the slightest bit modern audio system (as in, 1970s vintage or newer) then there's no good reason it shouldn't sound the same or better than when you listen to your DVD at home. Did you mention the poor quality to the projectionist while you were there? It might be someone with a "tin ear" who just doesn't realize how lousy it is and doesn't know how to adjust it better. Take along a popular commercial music CD that most folks will know well and play that through the system. If that sounds ok then your audio may need improvement. However, i suspect it will sound just as lousy as your project does and that would indicate that the theater needs to fix their stuff.
TOG62 wrote on 9/14/2011, 4:09 AM
When we encoded/rendered we used the HDV 1080 60i setting, and I'm wondering whether the NTSC DVD setting would have been better?
If your source is HD then you be far better off rendering and burning Blu-ray. If not, stick to DVD.
richard-amirault wrote on 9/14/2011, 7:05 AM
To be sure the problem is NOT with the projector .. get a commercial movie on DVD and play it to see how it looks.