Why can't I create a PROGRESSIVE SD DVD in Dvd Studio Pro?!!!!!!

Yeah, it was never HD, but now the only way to author your DVD using a setting of 720 x 480 progressive is to select a HD project in DVDSP 4. Only then can you select 720 x 480 p. Problem is then when you build the DVD it is authored as a HD DVD, which will not play in a standard DVD player.

If you select a SD project in DVDSP 4, the only option you can select is interlaced regardless of how you encoded your video. Progressive is grayed out. Same thing is true for still menus.

So Apple is essentially saying that the only way to author a 720 x 480 p DVD is by making it a HD DVD. This was not a limitation in version 3, you could select progressive on menus and video clips using a SD project.

I do use compressor. I never use DVDSP to encode my videos.

My workflow is as follows:

FCP to Compressor - import .m2v file into DVDSP - now when you import your clip into DVDSP and place it in your project you have the option to choose how it is interpreted. HERE is where the problem is, DVDSP DOES NOT allow you to have the file be interpreted as progressive in a SD project, only as INTERLACED.

There are absolutely settings in DVD Studio Pro to determine if a clip is progressive or not.

I am working with 23.98 clips too.

Add your clip to the project. Then with it highlighted in the graphical view, look in the inspector window. You will see 720x480i. With no option to change it! Same holds true for menus!

Now if you open up a HD project in DVDSP and add the same clip and look at the inspector, you will find options to change it to 720x480p.

I have been using this program since it first came out and have been creating progressive DVDs since then. I know this is possible, it truly seems though that it has been removed in this last version.

Section 1.40

"Progressive-source video (such as from film) is usually encoded on DVD as interlaced field pairs that can be reinterleaved by a progressive player to recreate the original progressive video."

My source is progressive. They are mostly graphic screens I have created in After Effects. I also use graphics, mostly text in still menus.

How am I determining if it is an interlaced signal I am watching? Because 1. I seriously have been using this program since it's inception and can tell instantly when text on a television is being displayed as interlaced. 2. Because the same material, videos, menus that looked clear in version 3, now look horrible. 3. I have tested these on my computer as well to eliminate the TV or the dvd player as the problem and it's absolutely interlaced.

My steps:

1. Project is to take text screens, charts, graphs, etc, spruce them up and put them on DVDs to be looped on wall mounted TVs in our offices (hence the need for progressive DVDs).

2. Created still images for the most of the material in Photoshop at 720x480.

3. Import stills into DVDSP4, and place them into the project.

4. HERE IS THE KEY PART: where I USE to be able to designate them as progressive in the previous version on DVDSP, I am no longer able to do so. Only option is interlaced.

5. Build and burn the DVD.

6. Put the DVD into the DVD players.

7. Get frustrated because the text falls apart and is next to unreadable because it is being authored as a interlaced DVD.


Do you know of the inspector window in DVDSP that I speak of? Have you seen that the only option now is interlaced? Have you used version 3 or version 4?

Thanks for the article. It kind of addresses the issue. I do in fact have all the updates installed.

However, I believe the ability to specify how a menu is to be interpreted has been removed by Apple in this new version.

Now I have to go searching for version 3, only problem is the original instal I believe is for PowerPC only. There is an update that allows it to be opened by Rosetta but I don't think Apple is making that available any longer.