Optimal Settings for Converting Sony AVCHD .MTS Footage for DVD Delivery

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Optimal Settings for Converting Sony AVCHD .MTS Footage for DVD Delivery

I am starting with footage from a Sony HDR-SR7 camcorder. Since iMovie is still kind of wonky with this, I am going to batch convert all my clips using the VeggieTools plug-in scripting for *Sony Vegas Pro* (under my Windows partition of my MacBook Pro). I can convert over each file into a new clip in a lot of different formats.

My goal is to *bring the footage over to Mac and edit it in Final Cut Express.* Eventually, I will be mastering and delivering on DVD (most likely through iDVD). And I am looking for guidance.

First, I have a lot of choices for the conversion format. But I am not sure what to use. I know that the original is upper field dominant and HD in size (16:9). I will eventually be going to standard DVD NTSC (with letterboxing top and bottom to fill up the format space of the 4:3 aspect ratio). And I assume that is lower field dominant.

Do I need to find some setting that lets me convert the footage to double the 29.97 fps rate while interpolating the fields? Or do I not have to worry about this? I am worried that bringing the size of the footage down will create some weird artifacts if this isn't taken care of first.

I guess the main question is, since I am looking to pretty much just edit these clips together and won't be doing much in the way of special effects, what's the best way or format to choose to *turn the HD footage into high quality SD footage* that I can quickly trim and string together *in Final Cut Express*...

Not sure if I gave enough info. I will be checking often in anyone wishes to try and tackle this one and needs more details...

And thanks for listening!!

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5), HDR-SR7 Camcorder

Posted on Sep 20, 2008 9:30 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,022 points

Sep 20, 2008 9:39 PM in response to Achy Fakey

To start let's assume you're in North America. Probably the easiest thing to do is to convert to QuickTime using the DV codec at 29.97fps set to anamorphic 720x480. Presumably Vegas will handle the field ordering properly.

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Answer 2

Achy Fakey Author

Level 1

35 points

Sep 20, 2008 10:42 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

That just about sounds right. Gotta run a test. But I do have full control of the "render template" I want to create. Any detailed suggestions based on the choices below?

A) I can choose any frame size (such as 1920 x 1080, or 720 x 480, or 720 x 576, or any custom size). I can make my own letterbox effect if later on since I don't want to fill the frame with distorted footage.

B) I can choose 29.97 NTSC (and yes, in the U.S. here), or 59.940.

C) Field order choices: Upper, Lower or "None (progressive scan)".

D) Pixel aspect ratio (from 1.000 to 1.457 or down to .909). Not a big deal because I can always horizontally scale.

E) Video Format (such as "DV/DVC Pro NTSC" with options for scan mode and aspect ratio, "None", "MPEG-4", Component Video and many more)

F) Compressed depth (up to 32bpp color, which is the default).

G) "Quality" (from low to high... high sounds gooood)

H) Date rate constraining (this is grayed out on many settings).

Thanks for the assist... so needed...

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Answer 3

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,022 points

Sep 20, 2008 11:29 PM in response to Achy Fakey

If you're really going to deliver on DVD only then I'd let the DVD do the letterboxing. It's part of the DVD specification. You have a widescreen TV attached, it plays widescreen. You have a 4:3 TV attached it plays letterboxed.

If that's what you want to do then I'd change my mind and do it all in HD. 1920x1080i60 which is 29.97fps upper first. Pixel aspect is square.

Here's the tricky part and I don't know if your PC will do it. The codec needs to be the Apple Intermediate Codec.

If you can't, then you may be better off re-ingesting the material in FCE to get it into the right format.

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Answer 4

Achy Fakey Author

Level 1

35 points

Sep 21, 2008 12:06 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

OK my fault for not being clear on an extremely important point: I don't need anamorphic widescreen. Sorry to waste your brainpower on my lack of clarity. Mea culpa.

I intend to show this only on a standard definition TV from a standard definition DVD player. The "letterboxing" I spoke of is intentional on my part inside the standard def 4:3 frame. I will just let there be black bars at the top and the bottom.

So I don't need full super high resolution during this transfer ( IF iMovie hadn't stopped recognizing my Sony AVCHD MTS camera after the first batch of video I collected, this wouldn't even be an issue. Been spending days on the forums trying all the solutions for the rest of my footage...).

But now that I have a workaround, I am just mostly confused about what to do about the field order (and thus, the frame rate) and the resizing (for convenience in size and playback speed). The original is upper first, and I am pretty sure that the QuickTime Movie I eventually make for iDVD should be lower field first (haven't tried tackling the can of worms of ideal MOV settings for an iDVD standard def disc yet).

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Answer 5

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,022 points

Sep 21, 2008 5:25 AM in response to Achy Fakey

First of all, field order has absolutely nothing at all to do with the frame rate. If the material is DV is field order is lower. If it's HD it's upper. The frame rate is 29.97.

In which case you should export it in letterboxed format from Vegas so that it's 4:3 DV 720x480, 29.97, lower. Vegas should take care of the field order adjustment.

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