Convert HD DVD project to SD, or start over?

Question

Convert HD DVD project to SD, or start over?

I shot and edited an instructional video that has 12 parts. I shot it in 1080P so it would look good on big TV's. The idea was to create a DVD that the viewer could use to select the desired subject on the menu and watch it. The menu works great, the video looks good, so I burned it to DVD's. They play perfectly in the Mac, and nowhere else. From what I've read in this forum, HD DVDs made in Studio Pro 4 won't play in regular DVD players. HD DVD lost out to Blue-Ray, blah, blah,blah.

So my question is: is there a way to convert what I've got to SD and move on, or do I need to start over with a totally new project and re-create the menus, import the video as 16:9, etc. ? Thanks for any help.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on Mar 8, 2016 7:57 AM

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Answer 1

Studio X

Level 7

27,229 points

Mar 8, 2016 11:52 AM in response to Bill Woodward

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

It's the start over path.

x

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Answer 2

Mar 8, 2016 3:02 PM in response to Bill Woodward

Welcome to the boards Bill.

Although no SD DVD players (that I know of) will play HD DVDs, HD DVDs may be playable in a Blu-Ray player. My Sony has no problem.

That being said, you do not need to recreate your FCP project. However, you don't mention if you created DVD m2v/ac3 files for DVDSP or if you used quicktime HD files and let DVDSP do the encoding. I highly recommend that you use compressor to create DVD m2v/ac3 files for your project. The video will look much better, and the DVD Build will be created in minutes instead of hours.

Use one of the Compressor 16x9 factory presets (depending on the length of the video).
Open the DVDSP project and delete the content on the track time line. DO NOT delete the track itself. This will maintain all the chapter and menu links.
in DVDSP preference>Project, Change DVD Standard to SD DVD
in DVDSP preference>General: SD DVD Menus..., Change Display Mode to 16x9 Letterbox
In the Project Outline tab, click on Menu 1(or what ever you called the main menu) and then the menu tab in the inspector. Verify the Menu display mode is 16x9. This may result in the menu layout needing to be adjusted.
In the Project Outline tab, click on the track, then the General tab in the inspector. Verify the display mode is 16x9
Once compressor has completed creating the anamorphic 16x9 m2v/ac3 files, rename the files so that they are exactly the same EXCEPT for the extension.
Drag the files into the Assets tab pane.
Drag the m2v file to the track. If the m2v and ac3 files have the same name, the ac3 file will automatically be placed in the track.
Assuming all the display modes have been changed correctly, you should now be able to Build a SD DVD.

Good luck

Gary

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Answer 3

Mar 8, 2016 5:29 PM in response to Bill Woodward

No experience doing this, but I'd try recompressing your video using compressor as standard def (making sure that the 16:9 material is anamorphic) and try selecting your menus and file: export: item description and see if the resulting file will open in a standard def DVD project. You may have to relink your media, but might save you some time rebuilding menus, etc.

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Answer 4

Mar 9, 2016 9:28 AM in response to Gary Sumlak

I deleted the assets from the track (but not the track itself) and even deleted the existing m2v files from the project but when I go to change the preferences in your steps 3 & 4, there's a small notice that any changes will take place only in NEW projects. In the General tab for the disc, the DVD Standard is still HD DVD and both that and the SD DVD choice are "greyed out" meaning sorry - this is what it is and is going to stay for this project.

Unless I'm totally missing something.

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Answer 5

Shane Ross

Level 8

43,110 points

Mar 9, 2016 10:05 AM in response to Gary Sumlak

Gary....

"Although no SD DVD players (that I know of) will play HD DVDs, HD DVDs may be playable in a Blu-Ray player. My Sony has no problem."

Your Sony plays BluRay discs. Those are indeed High Definition DVDs...but they aren't HD DVDs. See, HD DVDs was a TOSHIBA format. And for a while, HD DVD and BluRay were in competition...just like in the 1970's VHS and Betamax were in competition...for home video sales. Apple bet on HD DVDs, and lost. The only machines that will play HD DVDs are Mac computers equipped with Superdrives, Toshiba HD DVD players, and X-Box 360 game machines (which also is based on HD DVD).

The HD DVD format that DVD SP makes will not play in a BluRay player.

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Answer 6

Mar 9, 2016 3:06 PM in response to Michael Grenadier

From your old HD project try exporting an item asset from each menu . . Compress the material using the sd dvd preset in compressor. Create a new SD DVD project. See if dvdsp will allow you to import into your standard def dvd project recreating your menusMake sense. Not sure it'll work but worth a shot.

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Answer 7

Mar 11, 2016 6:41 AM in response to Bill Woodward

Success!

I started over, using my existing .m2v and .ac3 files from Compressor. Even though they were compressed using HD DVD settings, they came into the new SD project without any problem. I'm guessing that DVD SP just shrinks them down to make them fit, because it says that the video is 720x404. My menu is very simple so that only took a few minutes to recreate, since I already knew what it should look like and how it should work. I set the project to be 16:9 and used letterbox & pan and scan. After "Build & Format" the resulting DVD actually worked in a DVD player connected to a TV. The video looks fine; not as good as Hi Def would look, but still clear and usable.

If it matters to anyone, I used DVD-R discs.

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Answer 8

Mar 11, 2016 7:19 AM in response to Bill Woodward

fwiw, you would get better quality going back to your original source files rather than scaing and recompressing the files that had already been heaviiy compressed. Not sure how much visual difference there would be, but you might want to do a short test and see if there's a noticeable difference.

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Answer 9

Mar 11, 2016 9:38 AM in response to Shane Ross

What can I say? Mine does. Been authoring content for 16 years, so I do know the difference. Here is a link to a dual format LG that is sold on Amazon, one for Samsung. There are options available that can be found with a simple Google search.

Besides, I never said I had a current player. Mine was purchased during the format wars, so there were many options available at the time.

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