Currently Being Moderated

Why does my DVD doesn’t look as good as my original recording?

Why does my DVD doesn’t look as good as my original recording?

 

Several reasons. To mention a few:

 

 

1) Resolution

 

Nowadays fullHD offers 1920x1080 pixel (and latest ‘4k’ even four-times more). DVDs were invented when TV was broadcasted arial = SDef, means 720x480 (US), 756x576 (world).


So, you’re watching your recs in fullHD, down-size it in the process of making a DVD to about a 1/6th of its original size, … and finally ‘blow-up’ again, to watch it on your fullHD telly.

 


Solution:

Never judge your disk on a computer; use a standalone DVDplayer and your TV - they are optimized for all those scaling-procedures, necessary to playback SDef on HDef.

And: Don’t expect a DVD being HDef.



2) Interlaced pt.I 1080 vs 480


‘Interlaced’, a format from the past, when bandwidth was rare  - and video displayed on tubes, which had an inherent ‘afterglow’ effect, smearing the two fields of an interlaced video together.


Not so flat-screens.

No flat-screen supports interlaced; any i-material has to be technically de-interlaced when shown on any flat display (computer, TV, phone, watch, …).


But how do you scale 1080i down to 480i?

You can’t. 1080/480 = not 3, not 2 … an ‘uneven’ scale factor, how to divide ‘every second line’ by 2.25?!

No way to avoid ‘lines’ by downscaling with this factor.


Solution:

De-interlace 1080i; then make disk; which will re-interlace the p material to 480i. ‘cause, a DVD, by standards, is interlaced.

Or, just simply record in progressive.



3) interlaced pt.II It’s about blur


So, why interlaced for HDef at all?

Because that ‘smearing’ adds some sort of ‘natural motion blur’ to any horizontal action - a running football player, or to your ‘Hoover Pan’ with the camera.


You can create (a much better) motion-blur, by setting your cam to a slow shutter speed, such as 1/60th (the ‘mother’ of all film-looks: 24p allows shutter-speed down to 1/48th) …


The correlation btw. shutter speed, frame-rate and ‘action’ is well illustrated on this interactive web-site.


… and, no: DVDs don’t support HFR, no 48/60fps optional on a DVD.


Solution:

Avoid HDef interlaced. Learn how and why to create motion-blur.

 


4) Transcoding aka 'conversion'


Any video is compressed. Disks are compressed any further. FCPX can handle most consumer formats natively, no need to transcode.

But what if your source isn’t straight out of a cam? ‘Manually’ converted stuff? Converted converted material ‘somewhere’ from the web?


Solution:

Avoid useless transcodings. Avoid highly compressed material, even when ‘it looks good’. Import native. Export as ‘master’.



5) How big is too big? And why is big not too big?


Single-layer DVD-r fits about 4.7GB.  AND, by standards, use a special ‘format’.

Don’t care for file-size of your project - care for length!


Again: avoid useless transcodings, just because you think you have to compress your project down to 4.7GBs.


DVD-authoring tools such as iDVD do the math for you to downsize = compressing the video, keeping the standards of max. ~9mbps bit-rate.


Rule-of-thumb: 60min give superb results; add content of animated menus into equation. 120min should be max. for SL disks.


Solution:

Stay under 60min length. Never care for file-size.


 

 

6) Colors, gradients, motion


By standards, a DVD offers a tiny spectrum of resolution, color-space, luma detail, etc. compared to what any 300$ cam records nowadays. Don’t ‘overwhelm’ the DVD-encoders! Avoid over-saturated colors, avoid super-black/-white signals (use the scopes), avoid filigran gradients, avoid artificially enhanced details, avoid ‘noise’/gain, avoid too much ‘action’ bw. two frames.


Solution:

Film smart. Apply the Broadcast-safe filter/effect onto your material. (and don’t forget the audio, keep it within standards, e.g. 48kHz,  -5 to -3db)

 


But any Hollywood movie does look better on 5$ DVD!


For sure! ‘cause a Director of Photography, with +30y of experience, created it. Photographed it. Keeping things in mind, such as dynamic range, final grading, technical standards & limitations.


The famous ‘Zakuto Shoot Out’, where an iPhone competed with +100k$ cinema-cams, was performed by pros. Nonsense to say, the lentils-sized optics of a mobile outperforms a beast of Alexa/Red/… ; but in the hands of a pro, you can get impressive results.


Just purchasing the latest 4k-toy doesn’t replace experience. And skills. And knowledge.


Solution:

Compare your quality to ‘Hollywood’ only, when you ‘do Hollywood’.

 


Management summary:


For a good DVD from fullHD video, try…

  • Record in highest possible quality - which means not just pushing some ‘überHQ’ button in your cams menus, but learn to photograph.
  • Avoid interlaced on recording; or, deinterlace before transfer to your disk-maker.
  • Avoid useless ‘inbetweens’ - go straight from cam into FCPX. Convert non-cam material straight to FCPX’ own format proRes.
  • Avoid highly compressed stills (and audio). Keep in mind, video is only 1920x1080/RGB/8bit (and has no such thing as ‘dots-per-inch’ - 1080pixel is 1080’dots’ on any screen-size!).
  • Avoid compression on transfer to your DVD-maker.
  • Don’t judge DVDs super-scaled on a computer monitor.

 

This is the actual ‘size’ of a DVD on an 5k iMac…

 

dvd fullhd 5k.jpg

 

Imagine the scale factor, playing a disk ‘full screen’ …

 

Finally:

Consider ‘other’ delivery methods than DVD.-


Replies

Delete User Tip

Are you sure you want to delete this user tip?