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Can a movie's levels be downsized when it comes to DVD?

Let's say I make a master copy of my movie and I render the movie with the level at 5.1, the highest, for the best quality. However, can I downgrade it later if I want to put it on DVD? Or do I have to re-render the movie again in order to make a DVD copy?
 
True, I was thinking of the BM cameras which offer both uncompressed and compressed options for raw - I believe they use a lossless compression only though. I forgot about RedCode, and wasn't aware the Sony used compression.
 
Okay thanks. Well I have been trying to install avidcodecs on my computer based on the tutorial that was provided. I restarted the computer after, but it seems no matter what I do, I cannot get quicktime appear on Premiere Pro as an export option. I need to get Premiere Pro to work with quicktime first before I can export in DNxHD, but I cannot get Premiere Pro to recognize quicktime and work with it. I have followed three tutorials now, which all say the same thing. To install quicktime, and avid codecs, and to restart the computer after. But even after doing all that, Premiere Pro, still does not acknowledge quicktime as an option. What I a missing?
 
Okay thanks. I have it working now, and I can now export at DNxHD. However, how much bit, should I choose when exporting? It goes from 24bit, to 64bit. Some say to use 24bit, and some say to use 32, but is their a more proper one for quality?
 
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As for the 23.976/24 issue, I'd personally stick with 23.976 for your master since that's what you shot and edited with. It'll work fine for online and disc-based (DVD or Blu-ray) delivery.

23.976fps is the standard frame rate for HD video. DVD obviously doesn't support HD video and therefore the video would have to be converted to NTSC which is 29.97fps (59.94 fields per sec). Of course, I'm talking about an actual DVD-Video disk rather than a data disk.

Some film festivals have told us though, that they want 24 fps, and that 23.976 may present problems cause that's not the spec they ask for. That is why I thought about exporting to 24, cause of that.

It's not difficult H44, as a little basic research would have told you! Cinema is 24fps (in all regions), HD video is most commonly 23.976fps, standard def video is 29.97fps (in your region). There are variations on these frame rates but this is the general rule of thumb.

I think when I created the Premiere Pro file though, it asked me if I wanted 24, and I said yes, way back, so is that a problem?

All your original production sound recordings will now drift by 0.1% relative to your video, do you think that's a problem?

G
 
I did do research, and everyone was asking for 24 fps ...

No, nobody asks for 24fps except cinemas and even many cinemas can now screen 23.976fps if they are SMPTE DCP compliant instead of the older DCI DCP compliance.

... and no one said that the sound will be thrown off, if converting.

In reality, there is of course no such thing as a fraction of a frame. There is no ".976" of a frame in HD video or ".97" of a frame in SD video. Look in a HD video file and you'll find 24 full frames per second, 30 in SD. In countries which use the American video standard, video is run at a slightly slower speed, called unsurprisingly, "video speed". In other words, the difference is actually in the duration of a second! A second of time-code does not equal a second of real time at video speed, whereas at "film speed" it does. Averaged out in real time is how one arrives at a figure of 23.976fps (or 29.97fps) for video. To convert your video to film speed you speed up your video by 0.1% (technically called a "pull up"). Obviously your original production recordings have not been converted and are therefore still at video speed and will drift out of time if you need to revert, re-import or hand them off to an audio post person/team.

G
 
23.976fps is the standard frame rate for HD video. DVD obviously doesn't support HD video and therefore the video would have to be converted to NTSC which is 29.97fps (59.94 fields per sec). Of course, I'm talking about an actual DVD-Video disk rather than a data disk.

The DVD standard actually supports files encoded as 23.976 - the player will add pulldown on output for compatibility with NTSC televisions - so the frame rate doesn't need to be changed, just the resolution. Most films on DVD are encoded this way as it's more efficient to store the progressive frames rather than convert them to interlaced with an embedded pulldown.
 
Okay thanks. We wanted to send out film into some festivals and they said they wanted 24fps in their specs. That's what I meant when I said, the people we asked. But if they can take 23.976, then that's good. I was curious, why was video speed invented? It seems the standard was already set at 24 with film speed, so why did they change it for when digital came along?
 
The DVD standard actually supports files encoded as 23.976 - the player will add pulldown on output for compatibility with NTSC televisions - so the frame rate doesn't need to be changed, just the resolution. Most films on DVD are encoded this way as it's more efficient to store the progressive frames rather than convert them to interlaced with an embedded pulldown.

I stand corrected. Most of the DVDs I've worked on were in PAL and the few for North America were always in 29.97. I haven't done one in a while though, good to know just in case. Is that a relatively new thing?

Okay thanks. We wanted to send out film into some festivals and they said they wanted 24fps in their specs. That's what I meant when I said, the people we asked. But if they can take 23.976, then that's good.

If they say 24fps, then that is what you MUST give them! I presume that is for exhibition though. For entry, most fests require a DVD and if chosen the better festivals (those which screen in real commercial cinemas) will then require an exhibition version in theatrical format.

I was curious, why was video speed invented? It seems the standard was already set at 24 with film speed, so why did they change it for when digital came along?

It wasn't invented for digital, it was invented for colour TV in the 1950s! B&W TV was at 30fps but apparently there was the possibility of interference of the colour TV carrier signal and the power supply which at 60Hz was the same as the fields per second rate, so they (the NTSC) slowed down the video slightly to break the relationship. That's the story I was told anyway!

G
 
I stand corrected. Most of the DVDs I've worked on were in PAL and the few for North America were always in 29.97. I haven't done one in a while though, good to know just in case. Is that a relatively new thing?

As far as I know it's been part of the spec since the beginning - it would have to be to maintain playback compatibility with all hardware. It's just a lot more efficient from a compression standpoint to store 24 progressive frames than 30 interlaced ones. It can be confusing too because a properly encoded MPEG2 stream will actually report itself as 29.97fps & interlaced even if it actually contains a 23.98 progressive stream - but the extra frames are actually just internal flags indicating which frames to repeat, and those are then interlaced on playback.
 
However, how much bit, should I choose when exporting? It goes from 24bit, to 64bit. Some say to use 24bit, and some say to use 32, but is their a more proper one for quality?

You should be outputting to one of the 10bit DNxHD formats - they have an 'x' at the end of their names.

I assume the numbers you're referring to are the internal color space it's rendering to - in that case I believe 24 or 32 would both refer to 8bits per channel, 32 just includes an alpha so it doesn't change the quality (and isn't relevant to a master).

Are these on a slider? Or do you have a list of options to choose from? It's a little odd to have a range like you've described, as you'd probably want 30 or 36 if those are available to maintain the best quality - although it depends on what you've done to the video.

Have you color corrected it at all? If not, i.e. if most of the video is essentially unchanged from the camera, then you won't gain anything by going over 24bit.
 
Okay thanks. We wanted to send out film into some festivals and they said they wanted 24fps in their specs. That's what I meant when I said, the people we asked. But if they can take 23.976, then that's good. I was curious, why was video speed invented? It seems the standard was already set at 24 with film speed, so why did they change it for when digital came along?

Unfortunate are the ones working with you: you've been spending a month making a DVD and you haven't succeeded yet... :/

You should have just exported MPEG-2 DVD and get it done.
Then worry about highquality or uncompressed master file.
Btw, I do use uncompressed masters. Yes, the files are huge.

Search wikipedia for NTSC and you'll know about the weird framerates...
 
I am outputting it for color grading. The lowest is 24 bit. It's not on a slider, just a range of options to choose from. 24, 32, 48, and 64 bit.

Well, I'm not really sure what specifically that option is referring to. There are several different areas where bit-depth comes into play, so without knowing what that control is for in premier's export process I can't give you a recommendation.
 
If a festival asks for 24 though, is it worth giving to them if converting to 24 will throw the audio off by 0.1 seconds though? Should I tell them that will happen?

Two points here:

1. If a festival asks for 24fps it's because that's the frame rate they can screen. If you give them a different frame rate from the one requested they cannot/will not screen your film! So if you want your film to be screened, you tell me if it's worth it?! I know of no festivals which require 24fps for submission, they usually want a (video speed) video for submission which they will watch on a laptop or TV initially and decide if they are going to accept your film for screening. If they accept your film, that is when they will require an exhibition version, an actual (film speed) film to screen. However, you will need to check with each individual festival and find out for sure exactly what they want for submission AND exactly what they want for screening. Send them the wrong thing and you're wasting your time (and money) entering in the first place!!

2. I didn't say that converting your video would throw it's audio off by 0.1%! It depends on how you convert the video but I would imagine that if you convert your entire Premiere session to film speed, by default it would copy and convert all the audio on your audio tracks to film speed as well and hopefully keep everything in sync. Whether you need to select certain settings in Premiere for this to occur I wouldn't know. Providing you do it right, the video and audio clips in your sequence should now all be at film speed, however, your original production sound recordings (which should be safely copied and stored somewhere) are obviously still at video speed. If you need to re-import any of those original production sound recordings for some reason, import new recordings/takes (which you didn't import before your conversion) or you are handing the original recordings off to say an audio post person/s, then they will have to be converted to film speed and re-sync'ed, otherwise they will drift by 0.1%!

G
 
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