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Anyone who has edited HD footage and has had to output to an SD DVD is well aware of the shortcomings of today’s NLEs. Whether you are using Adobe Premiere or Apple Final Cut Pro, when you export your HD footage to MPEG2 DVD, the results are very poor. In fact, you might be thinking to yourself that it would look better had it been recorded in SD to begin with. Well you would be correct. The problem with current editing software is that they use very bad downscaling algorithms, the math that is used to convert a higher resolution source to a lower resolution output, leaving you with footage that is almost unusable. In this article, I will primarily focus on Premiere and the PC, as I still haven’t found an equally good alternative on the Mac. Final Cut users, please read the update at the bottom of the article.
Why both companies release their software year after year without offering the ability to export a high quality mpeg2-dvd file continues to go unanswered. As an example, here are some screenshots comparing HDV 60i footage, shot on a Canon XH-A1, that was downscaled using Adobe Premiere CS4 (through the Adobe Media Encoder) versus the same footage that was edited in Premiere and downscaled using a 3rd party application:
Downscaled using Adobe Media Encoder - 7Mbit CBR
Downscaled using 3rd Party Application - 7Mbit CBR
Your footage comes out looking very low resolution using the Adobe Media Encoder’s downscaling, especially noticeable on titles.
Adobe has recently made some attempt to offer an option to have better quality rendering. In CS4, they have added an option to the Sequence Properties to enable “Maximum Render Quality” aka MRQ. With this little box checked off, your Adobe Media Encoder will take FOREVER to render, and here are the results:
Downscaled using Adobe Media Encoder w/ MRQ - 7Mbit CBR
As you can see, the results are much better than before, however there is noticeably more artifacts and strong ringing around high contrast areas. It looks as if the text has a black stroke effect applied. Lets not forget, it took the Adobe Media Encoder horribly long to render this out, where as our 3rd party application (which I will get into later) takes far less time and looks better!
If you are satisfied with the results of the Maximum Render Quality image and don’t care if it takes 5x - 10x longer to render, then you can stop here. For those of you who care about achieving the best quality downconversion using completely free utilities… keep on reading.
Before we go any further, I would like to give credit to Dan Isaacs who has devoted so much of his time to perfecting a downscaling workflow and offer his knowledge to the community, frequently posting in the Adobe user-to-user forums. He does have a tutorial on his website, however it is a little outdated and his most recent improvements in the workflow are found by scouring through posts in the Adobe forums. I will be going over his methods and offering some additional suggestions when possible.
At first you may feel a little overwhelmed by all the steps involved and programs you will need to download, but I assure you, the process goes quickly and the results are spectacular.
The basic steps of the workflow involve:
- Exporting your Video out of Premiere
- Downscaling and applying other filters to enhance the image
- Encoding to mpeg2
Lets go through each step at a time so you get a better understanding of why we do each process and why there are so many additional tools you must download.
Exporting out of Premiere:
The ideal way would be to have Premiere deliver it’s frames directly to a second application without compressing, altering it, or exporting a huge file. This was easily done in Premiere CS3 using the Debugmode Frameserver plugin. Unfortunately since Adobe has shifted all the exporting to the Adobe Media Encoder in CS4, frameserving is not currently possible. So we must export in a format that is near lossless, renders quickly, and doesn’t take up too much space. There is one format that pretty much meets all those requirements, and that is MPEG2 I-frame. If you have a Matrox editing card, go ahead and export using the Matrox MPEG2 I-frame codec at 100 Mbits/sec. If you don’t have the Matrox codec, you can still configure the Adobe Media Encoder to export to MPEG2 I-frame.
The output settings for MPEG2 can be overwhelming if you are unfamiliar with all it’s terms. I highly recommend you download these:
Adobe Media Encoder CS4 presets for 100Mbps MPEG-2 I-frame 4:2:2
Once you download and extract them to any folder, simply select MPEG2 as the output format in AME, click the icon to import a preset, then select the downloaded preset which matches your source footage.
Downscaling & Processing:
Once you have exported your HD master out of Premiere, its now time to apply advanced algorithms to the footage which will scale it down and do all kinds of optimizations for dvd playback. The free program you must download to do this is:
The program basically works like this; you create a script (commands in a text document) in the same location as your HD master export, which tells AVISynth what file to load and what effects/filters you want applied to it. AVISynth does not actually export your file, but rather does all the processing of the effects and filters, and delivers those processed frames to another application. Unfortunately Encore is not capable of importing the .avs file that the program generates, however many other programs and mpeg encoders are, such as Procoder, HC Encoder, and Virtual Dub among many others.
Dan Isaacs has provided a plugin/preset he created for AVISynth that does just about everything for you. Download it here:
hd2sd() conversion package for AviSynth
Instructions for how to use his conversion package are included in the zip file. No additional plugins for AVISynth are required, since Dan has provided all of them for you in the zip file. Please take the time to read through his documentation. It explains all the different settings and how to tweak them, in addition to how to configure it for different footage types such as 24p, 30p, PAL, NTSC, 4×3, 16×9, etc.
If you think all of this is starting to go over your head, its really not that difficult, especially if you have HD 60i source footage, your script will probably consist of just this:
hd2sd(”HD_Master.m2v”)
That’s it.
Now that your script is done, it might be ready to import into your mpeg encoder. If you will be using Encore to encode your mpeg2 file, you must create an AVI file that can be imported into the program. Having encore encode the mpeg2 file won’t look that bad since the quality issues mainly came from the downscaling which has already been done. The program you will need to install in order to open the AVISynth script and save as an AVI is called:
By default Virtual Dub will export an uncompressed AVI file, which takes up huge amounts of space. I highly recommend downloading and installing the free:
Once you install the codec and Virtual Dub, follow these instructions:
- Run VirtualDub
- Open your .avs script file in VirtualDub
- In VirtualDub, go to Video : Compression and select the Lagarith lossless codec
- Also set VirtualDub to use Video : Fast recompress mode
- Save your output to lagarith.avi
- Import lagarith.avi into Encore for transcoding and authoring
Encoding to MPEG2:
If you will be using Encore to encode, you should know where to go from here. I would suggest VBR 2-Pass encoding for best results, with a max bitrate of 8 Mbits, target of 7 Mbits, and minimum of 2 Mbits. You may need to adjust the target bitrate depending on how much content you need to fit on the disc.
If you want near studio quality mpeg encoding using a free program, I recommend downloading and installing HC Encoder which delivers extremely high quality results. A high quality mpeg encoder will produce slightly better looking video at greatly reduced bitrates, causing the file sizes to be much lower (did you ever wonder how hollywood movies are able to fit so much high quality video content on a single dvd? Its from using a good encoder).
Conclusion:
There sure are a lot of steps to get a quality downconversion out of Premiere. Once you go through the entire process one time and get all the programs you need, you will realize it’s not that complicated and moves along quite quickly.
One of the drawbacks to this method is that you cannot export chapter markers out of Premiere. You can always create them in Encore, or you can render out a draft quality mpeg2 file from Premiere with chapter markers intact, import that into Encore, then replace the asset with the high quality version and your chapter markers will remain.
I look forward to the day when Adobe offers some good quality downconversions. But until then… this is one of the best methods to use.
UPDATE: Apparently the latest version of Apple Compressor (3.5) is producing even worse downconversion results than the previous version (3.05). However, after comparing both versions, even with the best quality resize setting applied under the frame controls, the results are still extremely poor compared to using AVISynth and the hd2sd script.
Final Cut Users: Export a contained Pro Res 422 HD quicktime out of Final Cut, load it onto a windows system, and use the method above starting with the “Downscaling and Processing”. Your Pro Res file will be loaded by the script without issues. Just make sure you have the Apple Pro Res decoder installed for the PC and the latest version of Quicktime.
UPDATE 2: For those of you interested in following this topic on the Adobe forums, where Dan Isaacs and Jeff Bellune are posting responses and even more helpful details to this workflow and process, please read this thread.
UPDATE 3: Jeff Bellune has recorded a nice video tutorial of this workflow that can be seen here. He also includes some additional tips on how to make AVISynth perform faster on multiprocessor systems by using the MT plugin towards the end of the tutorial. I highly recommend watching it.
Awesome tips, thanks a lot!
Thank you for providing this valuable info for those that can use it, but for Matrox RT.X2 users, it seems bit redundant to create a Matrox .avi, then also use the scripts. Simply open a Matrox DV Widescreen project, and Import the Matrox MPEG-2 I-Frame HD file to the timeline. The Matrox hardware offers good quality downscaling in realtime, taking Adobe “out of the equation” in the area of scaling, so the user need only Export to MPEG-2 from Adobe to get clean results at that point.
Perhaps Dan’s scripts will yield even better results, haven’t tried, but the Matrox method does eliminate the scaling issues typically seen from Adobe with HDV to DVD and looks good to me.
Thanks
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers
Thank you for the tip as it may help some of our readers. Dan’s method does provide a better quality downconvert, however those who may not want to go through the trouble of using separate programs might try the suggestion you gave.
Very good tip.
Missing from the article: the appropriate amount of outrage that you need to go through all this to get good quality video when expensive software that used to be industry standard is incapable of yielding acceptable results.
I am a newbie to AviSynth, and all of this, and have 2 questions:
1. How do I make the 16:9 HD footage downconvert to 4:3 SD with top/bottom letterboxing? Dan Isaacs’ instructions indicated that it would be:
WidescreenType = -2,
but when I typed this in at the end of my script, Virtual dub did not recognize the file.
2. How to I incorporate the audio into the file into this process. I did a test, using AviSynth, Virtual Dub, and finally HC encoder and did not get audio (I also got squeezed 4:3 footage, hence issue #1).
1. Make sure your syntax is correct. Your script should be something along the lines of:
hd2sd(”myfile.avi”, WidescreenType = -2)
2. The audio is almost always done separately when dealing with encoding. From Premiere, you would export the audio as a wav file, then import this into Encore where it gets transcoded to ac3.
Thanks for the quick response Jon.
If I’m using HC Encoder (I started using it after reading this article), how do I merge the wav file with the mpeg2 video? Also, more generally, where can I get a nice primer on getting good settings with HC Encoder?
Hi, my ‘HD_master.m2v’ is in 16:9 format (1920\1080 60i), exported from Premiere CS4 using the downloaded preset. Viewing this file it certainly is 16:9.
However, getting a 16:9 file exported out of virtuadub (to put into Encore) is proving dificult as it always seems to end up a vertically stretched 4:3. My avs script reads as follows:
hd2sd(”HD_master.m2v”, OutputColorSpace=”YUY2″, OutputBFF=true)
Any help seriously appreciated, thanks
Virtual Dub does not export pixel aspect ratio information. In Encore, you must select your imported clip in the project panel, right click and go to interpret footage, then force it to conform to the proper pixel aspect ratio.
If you use a separate application to do the mpeg encoding, that is where you would specify the 16:9 pixel aspect ratio so that your imported mpeg file into encore would already have the 16:9 flag set.
I am also a newbie to avisynth and hc encoder.
I want to use the avisynth-hc encoder to create my SD m2v file.
I have installed avisynth, and put the various files in the avisynth plugin folder. I have also loaded hc encoder.
I have exported the file “Test1.m2v” from Premiere media encoder using the 100mbps preset. The original file in premiere was in HDV converted by Cineform Neoscene.
hd2sd(”Test1.m2v”)
I then launched HCgui_023.
I then clicked on the “input file name” button .
I then browsed to “C:\users\videos\test.avs” and clicked on it. “C:\users\videos” is the folder containing the video file and the “test.avs” file.
I get the following error
“error loading avisynth script, I don’t know what “avisynthPluginDir” means (C:\program files\avisynth 2.5\plugins\hd2sd.avsi”
obviously, I am doing something wrong.
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks
Sorry, I left out some important info.
The file “test.avs” in the same folder as “test1.m2v”. The contents of the file is 1 line
hd2sd(”Test1.m2v”)
Thanks very much Jon, wasn´t expecting it to be that easy!
Jim-
First, make sure your script has the same spelling as the file name. In your post, the script uses a capital “T” where as your video uses a lowercase “t”.
Second, confirm that you placed the hd2sd content into the proper folder. Do not place the folder “AviSynth 2.5 plugins” into the AviSynth folder. You must place all the contents of the “AviSynth 2.5 plugins” folder into the following location:
“C:\Program Files\AviSynth 2.5\plugins”
Make sure you also installed the included fftw3.dll into your system32 folder as the instructions indicate.
Thank you for this John, it’s the first time have had it explained to me in a way I can understand!
So now I have my dvd encoded (via HC Encoder) assets and blu-ray encoded versions too. I want to put them into your butterfly bliss menu, but I only want one project. How do I import the blu-ray assets and then manually point encore CS4 to the DVD versions of both the motion menus and content assets? This seems so simple but I can’t see how to do it!
I personally would start a new project for the SD version to avoid any problems with encore. It shouldn’t take too long to do, especially if you just did it for the HD version and can skim through the tutorial if necessary.
hey i havn’t done any HD footage videos mostly sd videos.. do u guys recommend HC encoder over adobe media encoder? will i see any quilty diffrence? i do wedding videos so alot of time i exceed 120 mins.. my videos are usuly around 140-150mins
thanks
OK John, thanks for the advice - which I will take.
djaqib - I’ve just done my first project in HCencoder and the quality improvement for me has been striking.
Joined the thread late, I’m a bit lost - what do I actually do in Avisynth, I have typed an avs as per thread, and installed the plugins, I understand that the program causes virtualdub to think it is dealing with filtered video, whats confusing me is that I use virtual dub and create an avi - (in my test I used hd2sd(”name of my file”) that seemed to work, then I opened HCencoded input file is fine, but what should the output file be? I am thinking I use one or the other …… Help
HC Encoder is only creating an mpeg2 dvd video, which is an .m2v file. So you “input” your avs script file into HCEncoder, and you “output” your mpeg2 video file.
You have 2 options for encoding in HC Encoder:
Option 1) You can bypass Virtual Dub completely, and load your .avs script into HCEncoder and it will do all the downscaling/processing and encoding at once. Since you are doing 2 passes of encoding in HCEncoder, it is going to re-process the downscale on the second pass which will make it take a little longer.
Option 2) You can use Virtual Dub to load the avs file, then export an SD AVI of your video just as the article explains. Once the downconversion has been rendered out, you can then create a new avs script to load that SD video into HC Encoder. The new script will not do any hd2sd conversion, and will simply consist of this:
AviSource(”d:\filename.avi”)
(Of course you will modify the path and filename to that of your own video)
If you do it this way, HC Encoder does not have to do any advanced pre-processing on the video before it encodes to m2v, and it can improve your rendering time.
As others have said, you will be impressed by the quality of HC Encoder compared to the Adobe Media Encoder, and it’s worth it to do the few extra steps (which don’t take that long). All you’re doing is creating a new text document, renaming the extension to .avs, entering in one short line of text, and loading that into HC Encoder.
Thank you so much for your response, Okay i get it now, I am exporting from Liquid Chrome (fusing) to get a .m2v file at 1440×1080 is this okay as the starting point or should I export something else? I could not match the process from premier at start of thread
Already seeing an improvement. This is exciting stuff, now just need to tweak the avs to match my needs what should it look like?
I have progressive 1440×1080 hdv , need to go to pal it created 720 x480 how do i get 720×576?
what other features have worked for others? eg sample avs’
thanks in advance
Genesco,
If your source is progressive PAL (25 fps), your script should look something like this:
hd2sd(”myfile.m2v”, Interlaced=false, OutputFieldRate=25)
If for some reason it is still outputting 720×480 (which it shouldn’t), then you can force it by adding the parameter: OutputHeight=576
How to get prestine progressive DVDs from HDV 1080i source.
It’s 2 years since I developed this work flow. If you would like true progressive picture quality on you DVDs from 1080i HDV source material this is what I do. This workflow uses readily available freeware tools. After using HDTV2MPEG2, I am able to open up the HDV material in VirtualDub MPEG-2 version. This can take 10 minutes to open for 1 hour of HDV material.
At this stage it will be 1080 X 1920 interlaced. (The true horizontal resolution is 1440)
In VirtualDub I use the following filters to get to pure 720 X 480 progressive.
Using the deinterlace filter select Discard field 2.
At this stage it will be 540 X 1920 pure progressive at 29.97 frames per second.
I use Lancoz3 resize to 540 X 810 to obtain the anamorphic DVD aspect ratio. (Horizontal resize only)
Using the crop option I crop 30 off both the top and bottom and 45 off both the left and right. This cuts 1/16 off each edge.
This gets me to 480 X 720 so that each of the 480 horizontal scan lines remain intact. (i.e. no vertical scaling just horizontal scaling)
This really helps in maintaining prestine quality of the picture. You might like to add some sharpening at this stage to suit your own preferences.
To avoid generation of large avi files, use frameserving from Virtual to avi2mpg2_vfw making sure you run virtualDub auxiliary setup and install the handler first.
Within avi2mpg2_vfw settings set your output mpg file to be a progressive sequence at 29.97 frames per second with 16:9 aspect ratio (Read the avi2mpg help)
Last step is the use ifoedit to create your dvd compatible files. Place them in a folder called VIDEO_TS and burn the VIDEO_TS to a DVD using DeepBurner.
The resulting DVD has a sharpness equal to any Hollywood progressive sourced DVD. but it will be 29.97 frames per sec instead of 24 for most film titles. It will play like any Hollywood progressive widescreen DVD offering (i.e. set DVD player to progressive scan output to enjoy the full quality)
Everyone I show these DVDs to is really impressed with the detail and sharpness that is non existant in standard interlaced home made DVDs.
My source material is 25Mbps HDV from my Canon HV10. The only reason I use HDTV2MPG is to remove the transport stream outer wrapping to enable it to open in Virtualdub MPEG2.
I am throwing away the even numbered scan lines, but I end up with the 540 odd numbered scan lines which are all captured in once instance of time 30 times per second - hence true 540 progressive full resolution 30 frames per second. DVD players will only decode progressive sourced material that is 30 frames per second or less. (Just like film sourced DVDs, the material is put on the DVD at 60 interlaced fields per second, but with the caveat that the odd and even field are captured at the same instance in time, this allows the DVD player to reinterleave the fields to produce a proper progressive frame with out combing)
Yes 5.5 % of the the picture is cropped from each side, but this is only because the HD size is not 960 X 1440 originally (which would easily scale to 480 x 720). This cropping enables the picture’s original scan lines (the odd numbered ones) to have a one to one scan line mapping without the degradation that (non interger) scaling would create.
I am extremely satisfied with the detail of the DVDs produced. The only other DVDs with equivalent quality that I know of is that produced from my friends 480p camcorder when recorded at 30 frames per second. This 480p camcorder was 4 times the price of my HV10.
Just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who has contributed their time and effort to this work flow. It has really dug me out of a hole on a rush job for a client, and once you’ve done it the first time, takes no time at all.
The results are better than anything I’ve managed to achieve using ‘industry standard’ software.
Jon, I am using this as a Avisynth script for 720\60p footage. To create a file to be encoded in Encore:
hd2sd(”festa.m2v”, OutputColorSpace=”YUY2″, OutputBFF=true, Interlaced=false)
Is there anything I have missed, I read the hd2sd txt and it doesnt mention 720/60p specifically.
Thanks
Hi there,
I’m also a new to AviSynth, and all of this.
I try to convert 2hours Matrox MPEG-2 I-Frame 1080 60i HD to 480i SD.
My script looks like hd2sd(”myfile.avi”). Loaded in HC it took 10 hours just for 1 pass. I’ve stoped at this point because I’ve
feeling I do something wrong. It was done on Core i7 920 12Gb RAM.
Am I on right way?
Thanks
Alex
Alex,
That does seem extremely long for what you are trying to do. It should take much less time.
Try this:
1) Use Virtual Dub to open the avisynth script. Just go to ‘File > Open video file…” and select the .avs script.
2) If you have plenty of harddrive space (few hundred GB), then you can just ’save as avi’ using the uncompressed codec. Otherwise, use the lagarith codec mentioned in the article.
3) Create a new AVISynth script for the file just exported from Virtual Dub using this script:
AviSource(”d:\filename.avi”)
Load this new script into HCEncoder and see how it goes. Using this method will reduce the amount of memory needed at a single time (since it won’t have to downscale in addition to mpeg encode at the same time). Please let me know if your results are better. The combined processing time of creating the Virtual Dub file and the HC Encoder m2v should be much less than what it is taking you now.
Jon,
Thanks for help.
In Virtual Dub I’ve got the same 10 hours for 2 hours timeline.
However then in HCEncoder it took 2,5 hours to output 2 pass
MPEG. I like the size and quality!
But 10 hours downscaling time sounds a little bit steep.
I’m running Core i7 with 12Gb RAM. InVirtual Dub CPU usage is 13-25%. I’ve no clue where to start.
Thanks again
Alex
Dear Jon,
Thanks for this great article/tutorial, researching all this myself would cost me a lot of valuable time…
However, I’ve a question: in Premiere CS3 I decoded directly to m2v via CinemaCraft, but I can’t get it to work in CS4.
Due to computer issues I found HDV editing a little laggy, so I decided to edit in SD directly, using in camera conversion from HDV to DV (Canon HV30, PAL 25PF (which is stored and read as 50i)). I’m quite happy with this in camera conversion quality.
But, after editing my project in CS4 (which is a combination of fast moving action scenes and some After Effects animations), do you think quality-wise it’s beter to make the MPEG2 conversion with HCEnc instead of AME; and if yes, which export settings do you recommend? Are there any MPEG2 I-frame export presets for (SD) DV-material?
Or should I send the project directly to Encore and let Encore do the conversion. Would there be any difference since Encore uses the same codecs as AME?
So in CS3, you used the Premiere Plugin from CinemaCraft to encode directly to m2v, and in CS4, it no longer works. This is caused by Adobe completely changing the way Premiere Exports using the Adobe Media Encoder. Many of the export plugins no longer function with the new version.
Many editors will edit in HD if it was shot in HD so that they always have the option of delivering an HD version of the edit. If you downconvert straight out of the camera and edit in SD, it kind of defeats the purpose of shooting in HD.
AME and Encore use the same encoder, so the quality will be the same. Only difference is in Encore, you can set the transcode quality to automatic, and it will set the bitrate to the highest possible safe value while still fitting everything on the disc. If you are using AME, and your content is over 80 - 90 minutes, you will need to use a bitrate calculator to determine the best settings.
HCEncoder will yield superior results to AME, but the difference in quality will be small compared to the quality difference of using a high quality downconverter to go from HD to SD.
Thanks for your quick response, Jon. I think I’m going to upgrade my computer for editing in HD and then downscaling to DVD using your tutorial for better overall quality than what I’m converting now.
Jon,
You mention that Debugmode Frameserver works w/ PPro 3. However, I’ve downloaded and installed it and don’t see any new options listed when exporting a movie from PPro3. The Frameserver website also says that the program works with PPro through v1.5. Am I missing something? Thanks
Craig
You must be missing something. Go to File > Export > Movie , then go into Settings, under General, select the file type as Debugmode Frameserver (should be at the very top). If you do not see this, you must not have installed it correctly.
Jon,
I can’t figure out why this isn’t working. An option for DFS just doesn’t appear in PPro when exporting a movie. When installing DFS, it couldn’t be simpler than clicking all the “yes” “OK” and “Accept” buttons. I’ve uninstalled it, reinstalled it, closed and reopened PPro, rebooted, even emailed DFS’s creator. He said it should work also, although he’s not tested it.
I know you’re not DFS tech support but I can’t help but think I’m missing something incredibly obvious. I greatly appreciate any help you can offer. If I can’t get this to work, I’ll just have to throw up my hands and accept the crap that PPro is exporting. Thanks in advance.
I and many others have tested it with CS3 and it works flawlessly. I really don’t know where your installation could be going wrong. Just make absolutely sure (double and triple check) everything is getting installed into the correct locations. All is not lost if you can’t get DFS to work in CS3. Just use an alternative method to export out of Premiere in a visually lossless codec.
I’m still a bit lost in this world of rendering/burning and I appreciate the dialogue going on here. Here is my situation. I made a feature film using a Canon HV20 in 24fps Cinema Mode, HD. I’m using Sony Vegas Pro 9 to edit it. I want to:
A. Render and burn it to a standard DVD in the highest quality I can.
and
B. Render a version that I can upload to potential websites so it can be viewed on-line in the highest quality it can be (without running into huge size issues).
I have had very mixed results with DL DVDs and the film is only 99 minutes long. I’ve created some DVDs already using mpeg2 and Sony DVD Architect 5 and they’re “good” just not as great as I think they could be.
You can view the trailer here (which I uploaded in HD): http://www.dstmovie.com
Any advice or suggestions would be welcome.
Thank you all…
A 99 minute movie will have to be encoded with a target bitrate around 5.8 mbps… which is a little on the low side for a standard mpeg encoder, however using HC Encoder and 2 pass VBR, you should get very nice results. You can export out of Vegas using a lossless codec (or visually lossless), then create an avs script for it using the methods mentioned in the article. You can either import that script directly into HC Encoder, or import into Virtual Dub, export as an SD AVI, then create a new script to import that SD AVI into HC Encoder. Using the hd2sd downconverter and HC Encoder should yield excellent results.
Thank you, Jon. I’ll give this blog a thorough read and download HC Encoder and see what happens. If you (or any others) have more of an easy step-by-step methodology that is easy for me to understand (I’m a bit clueless in all this), I would appreciate it.
Question: I attempted to export the Vegas File to an avi file and using the uncompressed and lossless codec. The file is probably going to top out around 200 gigs. Is that typical for this process or have I done something wrong? Should I have exported it in a different format?
Thank you in advance for your response.
Note: In trying to get this to work I recently did a render to .wmv using the “HD” option in Vegas. The file was 4 gigs and when I viewed it, it looked great. When I went to use DVD Architect to transfer the file to DVD, DVD Architect showed it as 6.5 gigs. When I chose to “fit it to disk” - the program automatically lowered the bit rate to the one you suggested above. It still took 3 hours to render it and burn it (far longer than it ever has before). I have yet to take a look at the final burn to see how it looks.
WMV is a highly compressed codec. I would not use it as an intermediate file. It’s best to use a visually lossless codec such as a matrox or cineform (which cost money) or the lagarith. MPEG2 also works well at 100 Mbit, and produces a much smaller file.
So my questions now are:
1) should/can I use the 170 gig AVI file?
2) should I render the file as MPEG2 but use the lossless codec?
I assume I want the uncompressed lossless codec file to be as high quality as possible. Quality in-Quality out, Garbage in-Garbage out.
Matt-
1) Yes
2) Use the 170 GB file in your script for the hd2sd script, no need to convert it to anything else before the hd2sd conversion
Thank you, Jon…
Last question and then I’ll leave you alone (I hope).
I’ve got the 170 gig file, I’ve downloaded all the other files. When I open HC Encoder it automatically looks for the AVS script but…I’m stumped on how to create it and run it.
In the directory I don’t see an application. I create a text document with the script that I want run:
hd2sd(”DST Vegas Pro 9.avi”)
But…then I don’t see how that creates the script. Am I supposed to be something more? I assumed there would be an application that I could just type in that and it would find the file (as they’re all in the same directory) and it would do what it needs to do…
Please help (or if there’s someone else reading this who could help…).
Thanks again. Hopefully I won’t bother you any more after this.
Jon,
Thank you so much for your help. I figured out how to do the script (easy as pie) and I did the double pass with a maximum of 5800 bitrate as you suggested. I was STUNNED to see that the file had gone from 170 gigs to an encoded 3 gigs. (It took, I think, 15 hours)
HC Encoder saved it as an MPEG file: .m2v
This is fine and I was able to upload it into Sony’s DVD Architect but, though the image is AMAZING, there’s no sound. I see that a sfx file was also saved by HC Encoder but DVD Architect doesn’t seem to be linking it to the image.
Lastly, and this is more a DVD Architect issue, not an HC Encoder issue…when I pull the 3 gig file into DVD Architect - it reads it as 6.1 gigs and too large for a standard DVD. I will do some research on line and see if I can get answers to my questions.
When I get this all to work, I will post detailed step-by-step instructions so others out there with Sony Vegas can learn from my mistakes.
Thanks again to everyone.
HC Encoder is just for encoding the video. You should be creating the ac3 file separately. You can export a wav file from Vegas and use that in conjunction with the m2v file in Encore, or you can use any program you like to encode to ac3 and then import into Encore.
I’m not sure what could be causing DVD Architect to detect it as twice the size.
I was curious about that myself, pulling in the wav file I created before when I originally had Vegas render to an Mpeg without audio.
Once I get the sound thing figured out…I’ll see if it all works.
Question: Why would HC Encoder create an .sfvx file if it won’t actually use it?
Hopefully this is the last you’ll hear from me until I get this all figured out and create a step-by-step guide.
Everyone…
I finally had success in this process. Below is my step-by-step process using Sony Vegas Pro 9. Feel free to edit or change if I have some of the wording incorrect.
USING SONY VEGAS AND HC ENCODER
Step-by-Step Guide
Background: I’m a Seattle based film-maker/screenwriter/teacher. I made a feature film over 2008 and 2009 on a miniscule budget ($3,000). In the fall of 2009 I was attempting to enter the film into film festivals and wanted to figure out how to make/produce the BEST COPY I could possibly make.
Equipment Used: I used a consumer Canon HV20 camera filming at 1080i HD on “cinema mode” and 24fps and edited on Sony Vegas Pro 8 and, eventually, Sony Vegas Pro 9. I have used Sony’s DVD Architect 5 to create DVDs that I have given to cast members and have submitted to film festivals.
Film: 99 minutes, entitled “Daylight Saving Time” – for trailers, go to: http://www.dstmovie.com
Here is the “step-by-step” guide.
1. Make sure you have well over 300 gigs hard drive space available.
2. Download all the programs listed in this guide, except for “Virtual Dub” – you will not need that (download it if you want – it’s free! – As with all the other programs – donations accepted and you don’t need Adobe Media Encoder).
3. Install the programs. Read the instructions carefully (especially Avisynth as there are files you are going to have to manually place)
4. Copy all the Avisynth files to the directory where HC Encoder has been installed
5. Open Sony Vegas (I will assume this will work on all versions of Sony Vegas, but I could be wrong)
6. Open your film
7. Once the film is loaded, render it as an AVI file – UNCOMPRESSED
8. While still in that screen, go to “custom” and use the lossless codec that was downloaded earlier in step 1.
9. Begin rendering (note, depending on your film, this may take hours to render – it took my computer – Windows Vista, 6 gigs RAM, about 8 hours to render)
10. Find where Sony Vegas put the file. My 99 minute film rendered out to 170 gigs.
11. Copy or Move the file (which we’ll call “Test.avi” for the sake of this guide) to the directory where you installed HC Encoder
12. You should now see all your Avisynth files and directories, the HC Encoder executable files and its directories and the pre-made custom files (Dan Isaacs plugins ) you also downloaded and your large avi file
13. Create an “avs script” which is very easy… “right click” and choose – make a text document – this will open up notepad. Type in notepad: hd2sd (“test.avi”) – yes you need quotes and parentheses – note there are examples in the text documents that have already been created, you can cut and paste those into your text document – just make sure you change all the titles to the title of your film
14. Save text file with whatever you want to call it (for example: test hdsd.txt)
15. Now change the extension to avs so it looks like this: test hdsd.avs – if you can’t change/see the extension – go to “Windows Help” and search “view extensions” – within moments you’ll be able to check a box that will allow you to view extensions. Rename the file as test hdsd.avs
16. Note: if you want to do far more with the scripting, you can do so by looking through the txt files that are provided to you.
17. Now it’s time to encode. Double click on HCgui_023 (not HCenc_023 – we’ll get to that in a moment)
18. HCgui_023 brings up the interface so you can tweak how the file will encode. You can change bit rates and modify other things. I really have no idea how you do most of the things in this interface. I changed the maximum bit rate to “5800” as Jon had said I would need to run it at 5.8 to enable to burn it onto a standard DVD. You can tell the program want you want it called and then click “encode.”
19. HCenc_023 will now run and you can watch the images go by in a small screen and take a look at all the aspects of the process. Average bit rates, how long has passed, how long it will take.
20. Walk away. The process will go through TWO passes, both approximately the same amount of time. It took 16 hours for my film to be encoded.
21. Once the encoding is done you will find your file (“Test.m2v”) in the directory and quite a bit smaller than what you started with (though your main file is not damaged in any way) – 170 gigs was encoded down to 3.
22. Note: HC Encoder only encodes the VIDEO not the sound. You will have to figure out how to render the sound (Vegas does this fine).
23. IMPORTANT: Once you are done encoding, I would suggest changing the title of your file to something like “test1.m2v” – why? Well…if you’re like me and you wanted to check out the interface and instead of clicking on HCgui_023 – you click on HCenc_023 – it will automatically start the encoding process thus completely wiping out the file you just created and forcing you to redo the 16 hour process. Make sure, though, that when you render the sound, you change that, too, so your wav file (or whatever) reads “test1.wav” so DVD Architect (or other similar program) will put them both together.
24. A log file has also been created to give you all the details of the process – so you can re-check what did what and for how long.
25. At the end of this process you should have a reasonably sized .m2v (MPEG) file and a sound file that you’ve encoded/rendered from somewhere else.
26. Using a DVD creator, create the DVD. I do not know how long this will take or what issues you may find. DVD Architect 5 kept showing that my 3 gig file was going to render onto DVD at 6.1 gigs. I have no idea why. NOTE: When I did this again, DVD Architect 5 found it as 3.2 gigs - so it was reading it properly now.
I hope this dialogue helps.
Thanks again for everyone who helped.
Thanks for the guide. I’m sure it will be helpful to many people, as you included some tips for those that might be a little on the non-technical side that might be attempting this process, even for those not using Sony Vegas.
Only thing I would comment on is that your target bitrate is what should have been set to 5.8 mbps, with a max bitrate of 7 or so, and a minimum of 1.5.
Hey john, I appreciate the work you put in putting this together, but have run into a problem, and hoped you could hel;p me. I’m trying to get the .m2v into vdub through the avs file. I know the avs file is good because it loads into hcenc fine, but vdub tells me there is an error every time i try to import it. Is there some setting I need to change, or am I doing something wrong. vdub will load an .avi fine, but not the .m2v
Thank you in advance-Brett
ok, so I thought that it might be an issue with the 64 bit version of vdub, so I got the 32 bit and now the m2v file loads, but the screen is green.
on a side note… When I load and have hcenc do all the work (bypassing the vdub step) everything works well, but I get some shift that makes the audio drift and not sync as it plays when I load the two in encore to burn it. any thoughts of what’s happening?
ok, after tinkering again tonight, I figured out that there was two things going on, first was that I had the 64 bit version of vdub and it didn’t work (possibly didn’t have the right plug in available where the 32 bit had it) and the second issue was that i had dolby audio, and it needed a wav file for audio. hope this might help someone in the future.
Hello Jon,
first of all, thanks for making this guide.
I found it very complete and useful.
I have generated a HDtoSD .AVI file from VirtualDub and I was impressed by the quality of the video.
My only concern is now how to make the DVD from this .AVI file.
Nero wants a .VOB file for the DVD and if I convert it with some other software (Canopus Pro Coder) the quality gets awful again!!
Thanks in advance,
Federico
How long is your video? Encoding at 2-pass VBR with a target bitrate above 6 should produce good results with procoder or HC Encoder.
just 10 seconds, I am doing some testing.
what I dont understand is how I can make a DVD usinc HC Encoder, since the output is .M2V and Nero want .VOB
Am I using the wrong burining software?
Thanks again,
Federico
Do you have access to any other authoring application? Just about all will accept m2v.
Hi!
I was trying DVD Architect 5 to generate the DVD files from the .m2v file, but the quality get ugly again!
I mean, to make a DVD I have to create VOB files anyway, right?
And this is the thing…when I create the VOB file, no matter what program I use, they are always with bad quality again!!! (even if the .m2v was almost perfect)
thanks in advance,
federico
Hi Jon,
Thank you very much for your helpful post. This is great material here. I am also new to the video world and currently volunteering to help a non profit group record live video and create dvd’s. Our SD video always appeared fuzzy or soft as you described and I can’t wait to try this out to see some great video quality.
I have two questions which I hope you will be able to answer when you have time.
1) Could you create a guide that details what steps/settings a person should use to export HD video from PPCS4? So basically a HD 2 HD guide. Whenever I export my HD video (using Adobe Media Encoder), the results are always soft/fuzzy and never sharp like the original footage.
2) I noticed that Hollywood’s 1080p Movie Trailers look fantastic and yet at such a small file size. Technically, if that movie trailer were 2 hours long, a person could fit that movie trailer onto a single sided DVD (4.7GB)
Any ideas on what settings/steps are used because I would like to convert my Canon 24Mbps HD footage so that I could fit at least 1 or 2 hours on a DVD. Right now 30 minutes of 24Mbps takes up 4Gb easily. File type doesn’t matter as I plan on always having a computer hooked up to my TV (and I’m pretty sure the future of technology will move that way also).
Nathanael,
1) We will consider creating a guide in the future, however you should be using h.264 codec, not mpeg2. Make sure you use 2-pass VBR encoding, and play with the settings.
2) A couple things to keep in mind is that hollywood movies are almost always 24p, which uses 20% fewer frames than video shot at 30 fps. That almost translates to a 20% smaller file size. Also remember they are using much more advanced encoders for h264, and are able to get those file sizes down pretty small using at least 2-pass encoding with a variable bitrate. Adobe’s h264 encoder is not too bad, producing good results as long as you are not doing any scaling. Resolution also plays a big factor in file size. If you really need to get it smaller, you might want to consider 720p (1280×720).
Where do you set the min bit rate in HCEcncode?
It’s actually set under the “Settings 2″ tab, under “VBR Bias”
A value of 0 indicates unlimited change within the bitrate and VBV limitations selected. The higher the number, the less bitrate change is allowed, up to a value of 100, which creates a CBR (Constant Bitrate) video stream
I highly recommend reading this guide for HC Encoder:
http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/hc_encoder_settings.cfm
Thanks, read that but still not sure what setting to put in there? Is there a formula, or do you just try and see what works best?
Thanks!
I always leave it at 0 for best results.
hrm…
Well in this case I’ve seen my bitrate drop as low as ~436, far from the 1.5mb min discussed above? Shouldn’t this be changed if we want to maintain a higher min bitrate?
Have another question if you don’t mind - based on what I’ve learned in this blog and other reading my current workflow is:
1) Render out 1280X720 Cineform “highest” Intermediary file from Vegas 9C as Cineform .avi (use .709, up convert to 4:4:4, Higher HD, Progressive, square Pixels 1.0)
2) Import into Vdub using Avisynth 2.5 script (Dan Isaacs - hd2sd(”filename.avi”, Interlaced = false) and use Lanczo3 to re-size to 720X480
3) Export using Lagarith lossless Codec
4) Import into HCEncode using Avisynth 2.5 and script provided by “Fit2disc”
I’ve been pretty happy with the results so far, but one thing that I seem to have to do in HCEncode is add “ConvertToYV12() ”
Today messing around in Vdub I noticed that in the Lagarith settings I can tell it to output in YV12.
My second question is, should I do this in Vdub or just do it in HC encode or am I totally daft here?
Maybe virtual dub is converting it to YUY2 when saving to Lagarith.
Can you skip the Virtual Dub process and just open the hd2sd script in HC Encoder? hd2sd should pass a YV12 stream to HC Encoder.
Great tips,
I am using latest Adobe Production Premium CS4 to edit my weddings, shot with the new Sony HDV Z7P, when downscaling I did initially have issues with quality but I found it was my own fault though.
Recently converting 1440×1080i to MPEG2-DVD 720×576 PAL with render at max quality I have no issues with quality, all my clients have commented on how great it looks on their screens, could adobe have changed something apart from the render at max quality?
Taking me on average to render at max quality a 2.5 hour wedding to mpeg2-DVD about 5 hours, with near perfect results.
Cheers
I am pretty sure Adobe did not change anything. Like the images show, the max render quality setting does greatly improve the image quality, bringing it much closer to the AVISynth method, though it does have strong edge enhancement. This is by no means unacceptable (like the non-MRQ setting is), but it could be even better if you wanted to take a few extra steps, and use a couple more programs, though not requiring much more time.
A 2.5 hr wedding rendering in 5 hrs does sound pretty fast for the MRQ setting to be on.
Dear Jon,
I found the link to this blog on DVinfo.net. I wonder would you just share here a simple script to encode file from FCP ProRes 422, rendered as Upper field first. It contains footage from XH A1 shot in 25f mode into PAL DVD? I wish to test the Avisynth method with HC Encoder.
Thank you.
Regards,
Pavel
Pavel,
Recently I encountered a problem with a ProRes 422 file not having it’s framerate detected properly in Windows (was detected as 5.75 fps instead of 29.97). I spoke with Dan Isaacs and he offered a little adjustment to the script to correct this little problem. Assuming you encounter this same issue, I would try using this script:
ConditionalVideoSource(”myfile.mov”)
AssumeFPS(25, 1)
hd2sd(Interlaced=false, OutputFieldRate=25, OutputColorSpace=”YV12″)
You may need to adjust the OutputColorSpace type depending on what program you will be using to mpeg encode:
use “YUY2″ for CCE or ProCoder
use “YV12″ for HCEncoder or QuEnc
use “RGB24″ for TMPEG, Adobe Media Encoder, Encore or output to RGB .avi
use “RGB32″ for output to RGB .avi
One other addition to the script you may or may not want to make is the WidescreenType. Just read the hd2sd documentation on this parameter and see if you want to change it from it’s default. By default it will crop a little off the top and bottom to use all visible pixels and maintain a perfect 16×9 aspect ratio.
NOTE: If you copy/paste the script, you may need to re-type the quotation marks or else your script will likely not load.
Thanks so much for the your article, brilliant!!!!
It has completely explained why I’m getting such poor results, as per your sample pictures above and have wasted 2 weeks trying to work it out
I’m using Compressor (latest version) on the Mac and need to get a 20 min HD film (1080i) onto a SD DVD and have failed miserably but at least now I know why
I have followed all of the instructions you have laid out, ie on the PC downloaded AVIsynth and Virtualdub and followed all the installation instructions
Can any of you smart dudes help a non programmer get this process right?
What I get when i run my script ( a notepad .txt doc in same folder as my test.mov) from Virtual dub is a message as follows….
Error during script execcution at line 1, column6: variable ‘hd2sd’ not foundhd2sd(”test.mov”, OutputFieldRate=50, OutputBFF=True)
This might as well be Chinese to me. Can anyone explain what I need to do to make this work?
ps my script is….. hd2sd(”test.vov” , outputfieldrate=50, outputBFF=true)
Making the film and editing was easy!!!!!
Many thanks
Sam
Is there not a way to export the HD the video from Premiere with Lagarith codec (and use this as the input to hd2sd)?
Correct me if I am wrong, but it are there not some unneccesary color space conversions (leading to qulaity loss)? Could two of these convertions be avoided?
Source footage (YUV) is converted to RGB in Premeire for editing,
then converted to YUV for MPEG2-I frame preset,
back to RGB for lagarith codec (after hd2sd script),
and finally back to YUV for the MPEG2 DVD.
Sam-
Make sure you also install the hd2sd add-on for AVISynth (provided in the article) and install it to the correct folder. Also, make sure your script is accurate, as in your comment, you said “test.vov” when in fact it should be “test.mov”. Also, make sure you don’t reverse the fields when downscaling. If your HD source is TFF, so should your sd dvd file.
Chaz-
I’ve heard of colorspace issues when exporting lagarith directly out of premiere. I recommend the method in the article. I usually use HC Encoder to encode mpeg2, which can open the avisynth script directly, therefore no going back to RGB, but even if you do, there shouldn’t be loss in quality by converting the colorspace.
Big thanks Jon I appreciate your help!
I had installed the hd2sd add-on, copied the plug ins to the AviSynth plug ins folder and the .dll to the system directory as specified in the instructions (have double checked!).
My script is accurate (unlike my post as you pointed out)
Having verified all this I still get the same error dialog screen showing as a VirtualDub error
Frustrating close but no cigar as yet!
Any further ideas help welcome
Cheers
Sam
Sam-
hd2sd is a special add-on (that you downloaded) that goes with avisynth. Normally, if you just typed hd2sd(…) into an avisynth script, it won’t know what you are talking about, hence the variable hd2sd not found. If you did have it installed correctly, then it will know what to do when you put hd2sd(…) in your script. Does that make sense?
You should have a folder called something like “AviSynth 2.5″ in your “Program Files” directory. In the AviSynth folder you should have a “plugins” folder. This is where you should place all the files located in the “AviSynth 2.5 plugins” folder from the hd2sd zip download.
Remember, do not just place the “AviSynth 2.5 plugins” folder into the “plugins” folder, you must place the contents of it into the “plugins” folder. Are you sure you did this part correctly?
Also, make sure you renamed your .txt document to .avs
Jon
Your para 1… yes I have done that exactly and yes that is crystal clear (maybe I will have to uninstall and reinstall AviSynth and try again?)
Your para 2 and 3 … Yes have done exactly this (as per included hd2sd readme instructions)
I hadn’t renamed my text doc to .avs which I have now done, however still getting the same error when i run the scripts
ie: variable ‘hd2sd’ not found hd2sd(”test.mov”)
Ah the joys of computing……got any other magic moves I can try?
Many thanks
Sam
Hmm, I really don’t know why it would be giving you that error and not recognizing the hd2sd command. Triple check to make sure you didn’t misspell hd2sd or have caps lock on or something (hey, it happens sometimes). What version of AVISynth are you using? Maybe try a different version (either the latest or the same one used in the article). If you did indeed install it correctly, I don’t know what else could be causing the problem.
Jon
Have triple checked, all correct
AviSynth is version 2.5
VirtualDub 1.9.7
Have uninstalled and reinstalled AViSynth (including all hd2sd mods) and same old error!
I guess I’m beat on this one, thanks for your time and input
All the best
Cheers
Sam
Sam, Jon,
I have been working all day at this technique using my Mac and Parallels. When I run my script, I get the same error that Sam gets:
‘Error during script execution at line 1, column 6: Variable ‘hd2sd’ not found hd2sd(”test.mov”)
Any more ideas?
Have any Mac to Windows users had success?
Regards,
Tim
“Variable ‘hd2sd’ not found” is an indication that avisynth is not finding the hd2sd add-on script. I wonder if Sam is also using Parallels?
Jon,
I just reloaded everything onto another Mac. After getting the same error, I finally realized in a prior post that from Virtualdub I need to run the script from, “Open video file…” NOT “Run script…”. Sam probably was doing the same thing. However, now I get the following error:
Avisynth open failure:
LoadPlugin: unable to load”C\program files\AviSynth2.5\plugins\hd2sd_sd2hd/ColorMatrix.dll”
(hd2sd.avsi, line16)
(hd2sd.avsi, line 73)
(\\.PSF\.Home\Documents\VID TEST\Test.avs, line 1)
The ColorMatrix.dll IS located in the plugins folder as are the sd2hd and hd2sd autoload files.
Any ideas. I really want to see this work. You don’t know how much I am looking forward to getting decent quality HD to SD footage. Thanks for your thoughts.
It’s possible that it just doesn’t work in Parallels. I don’t think we have had anyone confirm that it does.
I have never heard of any WIndows programs not working in Parallels. I could be wrong but I still think I may have some other problem. I think I remember reading somewhere that it works with Bootcamp - is this correct? The Error message didn’t offer any insight? Thanks.
I’m trying to use avisynth but your instructions for this part are really confusing.
Please watch this video tutorial on the workflow discussed in this article
One more thing to consider:
HD has rec.709 color space, PAL has Rec.601.
So, only downconverting HD to PAL in Avisynth does not give you proper PAL Rec601, you have to convert the color space as well.
Read more:
http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/pdfs/hdprimer.pdf
(SD color space versus HD color space)
I suggest to use After Effects for properly downconverting HDV to PAL.
If you are using Filedskit (http://www.revisionfx.com/products/fieldskit/), then you can get better results with AE than with any other software mentioned here. Keep in mind, that you will have to also find solutions for aliasing problems before encoding to MPEG-2, because you can loose a lot of bandwith due to aliasing problems when encoding. Brilliant option is to use TMTS free plugins in Final Cut Pro.
Hello, have been following this thread from the beginning.
Tq for all the information. Just a few questions:
1. referring to what Tanel said, i’m a lil bit confused. HD and PAL is not the same thing right? HD is referring to resolution and PAL refers to video format according to location generally and is 25 frames per second. So how can it have different color space?
2. Jon, can the article and the video tutorial cover for PAL? Are the settings and script exactly the same for 1080p25 source footage? And must i consideer what Tanel have said about PAL’s color space?
Thanks in advance for all the knowledge.
1. He was referring to PAL SD 25fps. The colorspace difference is between HD and SD material (and not PAL related). The script properly converts this, and gives you the option to specify it as well.
2. Yes, the script works for PAL as well, and automatically detects if the source is 25 fps and converts to the proper format. You can also manually tell it to convert to a different format, such as NTSC to PAL with excellent results. All that information along with additional parameters are included with the text document that accompanies the script.
I have followed your tutorial using Dan Isaacs’ avisynth filter. Apparently virtual dub crashed and it couldn’t continue when I selected the lagarith lossless codec and saved as an avi. As a result I thought I should try H.C encoder but it took about 16 hours to complete 2 passes.
The funny thing is that I have got a 2 hour timeline and when HC encoder completed I only had 1 hr 2mins of footage. I don’t know what happenned to the rest. When I edited SD I could fit at least 2hours of footage on a 4.7gb dvd in Encore.
Do I really need to tweak anything in HC encoder to get it to complete the encoding in far less time, without cutting out my footage.
I am running a HP XW6600 powered by a Xeon quad core @2.5ghz and 22 GB of RAM.
Thanks for the help.
Shaddy, you might be particularly interested in the information provided in “Update 3″ at the very bottom of the article.
Can you comment if CS5 has made any improvements on the HD to SD conversion, or should we still plan on using this sort of work around?
I’m sorry, but I’m not at liberty to comment on that until after it’s official release.
Hi Jon
This is a great asset and has helped me vastly improve the quality of a micro budget film I made - so thanks for that. What I want to ask advise on is if you know of anyway to reduce noise. I’ve got some scenes with a lot of noise - especially on solid blocks of black.
I downloaded and installed deen and this improved things somewhat. I was wondering of this is the best way to denoise.
Footage
HDV 1080i 1440 x 1080
pixel aspect ratio HD Anamorphic 1080(1.333)
Upper fields first
Exported using MPEG2 I-frame 1440×1080 @ 50i.epr
Then used following script it open in virtualdub 1.9.9
hd2sd(”Sequence 02.m2v”, Interlaced = true,
\ Interlaced_out = false,
\ OutputFieldRate = 50,
\ OutputHeight = 480,
\ OutputColorSpace = “YV12″,
\ Output601 = true,
\ OutputBFF = false,
\ WidescreenType = 1,
\ CropCenter = 0.5,
\ ResizeSharper = true,
\ FixWrongRGB = true,
\ Input601 = false,
\ InputBlackLevel = 0,
\ InputWhiteLevel = 255,
\ InputGamma = 1.0,
\ ScaleBlack = false,
\ ScaleWhite = false,
\ LimitBlack = true,
\ LimitWhite = true,
\ LimitColor = true,
\ ExpandRGB = true,
\ Sharpness = 0.0,
\ VerticalBlur = 0.0,
\ HQFiltering = true,
\ SmoothTime = true,
\ NR = 0,
\ GrapeSmootherAmount = 20,
\ FFT3DAmount = 256,
\ ShowHistogram = false,
\ PreviewPAR = false,
\ DeintMethod = 3,
\ HybridProtect = false)
Deen(”c3d”,1,9,12)
Totally new to all this, on a Mac, but prepared to buy Bootcamp or Parallels to get these free software packages up and running… but it would be great if they were still online! your links are now dead.
Where oh where can I get a hold of a copy of hd2sd?? I managed to get the others from a few sources…
any help would be greatly appreciated! mathew@yourwebworks.co.uk
This link doesn`t work any more:
Adobe Media Encoder CS4 presets for 100Mbps MPEG-2 I-frame 4:2:2
Could anybody suggest smething else?
I just tested all the links and they work for me.
Now that CS5 is shipping (Not to be a pest… and I promise this is the last time I will inquire…) does the version of Media Encoder shipping with CS5 bundles improve any of this, or should I still plan on this work around?
Speed of the export is now faster with the 64 bit native support, however we have not had time to do a full analyses of the quality differences. We will be sure to keep everyone informed of our findings.
I am using Premiere Pro CS4 and have exported my video as MPEG2 I-frame, using Dan’s presets.
I then created my script:
hd2sd(”Sequence 02.m2v”, OutputColorSpace=”YUY2″, OutputBFF=true)
Each time I tried to open this in Virtual Dub it would freeze up (”Program Not Responding”)
So I did a little more research and tried this script:
MPEG2Source(”Sequence 02.m2v”)
hd2sd(”Sequence 02.m2v”, OutputColorSpace=”YUY2″, OutputBFF=true)
Now I get an error that reads:
Avisynth open failure:
Script error: there is no function named “MPEG2Source”
I have saved the script in the same folder as my video (per Jeff’s great tutorial). But I just can’t seem to make it work. My script is obviously wrong, but I don’t know what else to do. How should my script read? Is there something else I’m over looking?
I am fairly new to the video world and all this is a little overwhelming. Any help would be great. Thanks.
First of all, if you declare the mpeg2 source in the line above hd2sd, you do not need to specify it in hd2sd as well.
Second, you should be using DG MPEG Decode, also discussed in Jeff’s tutorial. Using this, you should be specifying the .d2v file in the MPEGSource, and not the actual m2v. Once you install DGIndex, let me know if you still have problems.
One more thing, you should not be reversing the fields, even though SD NTSC by default is BFF. If your source is HD TFF, then keep it that way through the end. Otherwise, you will have problems with your video.
I copied that straight out of Dan’s “read me” file:
# My currently recommended workflow for converting files from Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 is to export HD MPEG2 I-frame .m2v + .wav files
# The function will “find” the .wav audio and dub it automatically, so you need only supply the .m2v filename
# NOTE: This is only recommend with I-frame only MPEG2 files… .ts files and other multiplexed format may not work well.
# You can download the AME CS4 presets here: http://invertedhorn.axspace.com/ame_hd_mpeg2i_cs4.zip
hd2sd(”myfile.m2v”, OutputColorSpace=”YUY2″, OutputBFF=true)
Does this not apply to my situation?
I am also talking with jeff over on the adobe forums. here is my last post:
After going back and revising my steps, I finally got through VirtualDub using the following script:
SetMTMode(2,0)
MPEG2Source(”Bankson_Final_DGI.d2v”)
hd2sd(OutputColorSpace=”YUY2″, OutputBFF=true)
However, my aspect ratio seems to be off (It’s “squeezed’ horizontally which makes everyting appear tall and skinny). I also have no audio.
I checked the details of the .avi that came from VirtualDub and it said it was 720×480 @ 23 frames per second. 720×480 is correct but i’m not sure about the frames per second?
As I said before, I am using Premiere Pro CS4 and have exported my video as MPEG2 I-frame, using Dan’s presets for 1440×1080 @ 24p (which matches my source video). The exported video from AME looks great and sounds great. (aspect ratio looks fine)
The quality of the video from VirtualDub looks really great aside from the squeezed image.
Is there still something wrong with my script? I’m not real sure where the “squeeze” is happening in my process. Hope you can help. Thanks for all you’ve done so far.
Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I have a GREAT looking DVD of my project. With a little perseverance and A LOT of help from Dan, Jeff and Jon.
Jon, after my last post I went back through all your post here and found the answers I was looking for. Thanks a ton.
So I am totally new to all this video editing and conversion, but with thanks to this I’ve been able to learn a lot. I went through all the steps and made a nice .avi to import into Encore, but after transcoding it at NTSC DV High Quality 7Mb VBR 2 Pass and building my dvd, I still ends up with a poor quality output. I am back to square one it feels. Am I doing something wrong?
So the downscaled avi looks good? Your 7mbit m2v should also look good then.
Yes my avi 7 m2v’s look good but the problem is when I build and create my dvd files and play them back they are of poor quality. Unfortunately Encore is fairly new to me too, but something must be happening during this final process. Any help would be appreciated.
Jon,
I’ve tried everyting. I’ve even reload all the required files over dozen times and VirtualDub is giving error message. I’ve followed Mr. Garrett’s setting and it’s giving “no setmtmode” after i’ve erased setmtmode(2,0) and it’s giving out “no mpeg2source.
My source video is 1920×1080i60 and output m2v following cs5 AME setting and I don’t know what to do. I’m using window 7, 64bit. Please help
Finally, Mr. Garrett’s VirtualDub using script worked:
SetMTMode(2,0)
MPEG2Source(”Bankson_Final_DGI.d2v”)
hd2sd(OutputColorSpace=”YUY2″, OutputBFF=true)
The problem of not recongnizing the “SetMTMode” and “MPEG2Source” was not properly installing Avisynth, hd2sd, MT and Mpegdecorder file install.
When you download on Window 7, 64 bit file(any files), don’t use Administer previlege thing i. Just double click the Avisynth.exe file and it will say “Don’t install…blah blah blah.”
If you don’t double click it, the Avisynth 2.5 that creates in the C: won’t have “plugins” file.
After following Mr. Jon’s and Mr. Jeff’s steps, the VirtualDub reconized the script.
But there is one problem. The largarith.avi footage looks great, but it has noise and jitter problem when person or camera was moving.
How do I use script to solve this problem?
Please help. I live in Alaska and this is the only place I can get help. Thank you.
Hi
First I would like to say thank you to Jon to shear all information and give me a direction, I did try it and the quality is become great, but still I have the same problem as “S.Jun, have, “there is one problem. The largarith.avi footage looks great, but it has noise and jitter problem when person or camera was moving.”
S.Jun, I find out this tutorial that fix our problem, try it, hope that helps.
Thank you all
Sorry, I forgot to add the link to the tutorial here it is” http://bellunevideo.com/tutorials/CS4_HD2SD/CS4_HD2SD.html