Replicating DVD's

Okay for you PC folks out there.

This was our 6th Master DVD-r Glass replication project. We have never used the DDP image or DLT tape method.

1: Edit the HDV with EDIUS 4 and then encode straigth out to a progressive MPEG 2 CBR 8.5 mbps dvd file with a standard tiny MPEG2 sound file. 2.5 hour encode for a 55 minute HDV timeline.

As it was PAL you don't need AC3 audio. (NTSC is a different matter)

2: Author with DVDLAB PRO. (Menu graphics done in Photoshop)

3: Compile the DVD to your harddrive to play and test.

4: Burn the compiled DVD to a blank Taiyo Yuden DVD-r disk with DVDLAB PRO's built in burning software.

5: Verifie the burn, the ones we burnt with Nero and GEAR PRO Mastering failed verification?

6: Test play, one very old beat up MAC Powerbook G4 with OS9, old beat up PC laptop, 2 other PC computers, one very fussy SONY DVD player hooked up to a Epson TW700 projector and old 4.3 TV.

7:Watch the Disk thoroughly a few times.

8: Off to the replicators with graphics.

There was no zone restriction nor copy protection as it's very easy to get around anyhow.

The progressive enocde looks so much better than the interlaced ones we did especially on the computer and hence why we went that way this time.

Great info Wags. I will have to go through the same in a couple of months. Thanks.

Peter

A couple of questions Wags...

As you have the space, why not go AC3 or even PCM WAV for the audio? In theory they should sound better than MPEG 1 layer 2 audio. Sometimes I think my AC3 encodes sound even better than the original WAV. (edit: on 2nd thoughts maybe you don't have the space at 8.5mbps/55 mins).

Secondly, can you describe in what way progressive looked better than interlaced when seen on TV? Sharper? Smoother? More film-like?

No AC3 encoder with Procoder Express but it looks like Procoder 3 will have it.

PCM wav is way to big.

For us MPEG 2 sound is simple & fine for the DVD's we make.

I don't know if it was true progressive that Procoder Express put out but it certainly made a difference when viewing them not only on the computers but the projector and TV as well? Mainly the image was just sharper and colour wise is looked the exact same as what was on the HDV timeline.

I think I did my AC3 in an add-on for TMPGEnc DVD author. But only fussy audiophiles might be able to tell the difference from MP2. Far more important to get the output level right (i.e. peaks near 0dB but not over). I still use WAV on "dailies" unless they're really long.

I'd expect your progressive encode would look better on computer because doing it in Procoder Express should make a better job of it than the player software doing it in real time. But on CRT TV I would have thought that keeping the interlacing should give at least a smoother result, because that's how the TV works and what it expects. I'm very curious about this issue because over here I'm still churning out PAL interlaced DVDs.

It looks like for a small fee you can get a AC3 plugin for DVDLAB Pro as well, so might end up doing that.

Yes getting the sound right takes allot of work.

Nick here are two small DVD clips straight out of EDIUS.

Tell me what ya think but even on the old 4.3 TV played from the fussy Sony DVD player they look better.

8megs each

Interlaced

Progressive

Will do Wags. I'll burn them on DVD and compare on TV. Computers got major gremlins at the moment so can't do anything at the moment.

Computer bugs..bummer....I though you had your c: drive all mirrored?

We have our Glass Replicated DVD's back now, once again the replication all went fine and just await the incerts.

Loading up a 480 meg progressive DVD sytem file (m2p) for some overseas folks. Can pm you the link if you want so you can download the 10 minute clip as well. It was done at CBR 6mbps.

Got our hands on a Hi8 camera as well and today was going through some of the Ningaloo footage from 1995. Funny to watch it and compare to HDV now? One thing I did notice was that people/students were slimmer then. People seem to be more overweight now days

To be quite honest Wags based on those short clips I presonally prefer the smoothness of the interlaced version. The progressive has a bit more of "film" look but reminded me slightly of our NTSC DVDs which have been translated from PAL. Note I've only watched these on a 4:3 CRT TV from 2 different DVD players.

By the way Vegas 7 wouldn't open the 2 files and WMP11 gave an error at the end of them. Must be that dodgy NLE you're using these days TMPGEnc DVD Author and Media Player Classic didn't complain though.

(p.s. Thanks for the link to the big file. Bombed first time after 30Mb. Will try again but maybe we need to use FTP.)

Huh....I suppose they were not the best examples.

Bizarre;)