HDV --> SD DVD Workflow (DebugMode FrameServer, AviSynth)

[Dan Isaacs]

While the old thread contains a wealth of great information, I've decided to break away from it. It's too old, too long, too confusing... In summary:

Many users are aware that Premiere/AME/Encore does a "less than stellar" job of converting 1080i HDV to interlaced SD DVD. I (and others) have tried every conceivable combination of options and found none that provided "professional quality" conversions. This is largely due to the way that Premiere handles scaling of interlaced material ... Example #1 ... Example #2 ... and Premiere's failure to convert from the HDV color matrix (Rec.709) to the SD specification (Rec.601).

In an effort to solve these problems, I developed a workflow (using several third-party freeware tools) that achieves results far superior to that of Premiere and/or Encore by themselves.

I have written a guide for this workflow, including step-by-step instructions and links to download all the required tools.

This page also contains a link to a more advanced option for doing these conversions (using mostly the same tools). Please do not attempt the advanced version unless you have already implemented my "basic" workflow!

The page and linked files will be updated frequently. It is a work in progress, but should already provide excellent quality. I look forward to comments and suggestions from this community (as always).

Enjoy! -- Dan

[Dan Isaacs]

> Warning, small source mismatch found in pass2, count: 677 frames

In HC (on the Settings 3 tab), there is a checkbox for "Reload Avisynth". This should be checked.

> An input contract violation has occurred!

I have no clue??? Never seen that one before.

[Dan Isaacs]

Just a follow-up: Thanks, Jeff, for helping out here.

Simon, Linda, et al: I really do recommend the "advanced" workflow. It's much smarter and actually easier than the basic one.

The only reason I suggest the basic workflow at all is as an introduction to the process.

With the advanced version, in most cases all you need is a one-line script. For HC Encoder (YV12, top field first)

hd2sd("signpost.avi")

Or, for Encore, ProCoder and most others (YUY2, bottom field first)

hd2sd("signpost.avi", OutputColorSpace="YUY2", OutputBFF=true)

Of course, there are plenty more options than this. See the hd2sd.txt file for a full description of each parameter. Here is a list of important parameters I posted a few days ago.

[_Simon_Zimmer_]

Hi Dan,

I will try out the advanced version right now.

What about the issue with the audio for HC Encoder? What program do you use for Audio?

Thanks,

Simon

[_Simon_Zimmer_]

Darn!

Getting this error in HC Encoder:

error loading Avisynth , Script error: ConditionalSmoothBob does not have a named arugment "se"
(Uui, line 280)

I am using the script you recommended:

hd2sd("j:/Wedding_DVD.avi")

I will reinstall the files. Maybe I messed that up for hd2sd.

Simon

[Dan Isaacs]

> ConditionalSmoothBob does not have a named arugment "se"

Oh, but it does 🙂 Make sure you've downloaded the most recent version and overwrite all existing files -- especially "ConditionalSmoothBob.avsi"

http://invertedhorn.axspace.com/hd2sd_sd2hd.zip

Did you already have an older version of one of my pacakges installed (hd2sd, sd2hd, dv2film, etc.) ???

It's hard for me to track versions right now... I'm working on a big update to all of my "packages" which should be done in a few days.

Simon -- you can email me if you continue to have problems @ d.isaacs --at-- comcast --dot-- net.

[_Simon_Zimmer_]

It is very possible that it is mixed up from the previous versions.

Maybe I should uninstall and reinstall avisynth and then copy your files from the zip file.

I will email you if I have any other questions.

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!

Simon

[Dan Isaacs]

Can anyone replicate the error Simon is getting? (ConditionalSmoothBob does not have a named arugment "se") I have no problem -- I installed it all from scratch on another machine and everything worked fine.

Also -- in answer to handling the audio with HC: Open the .avs file in VirtualDub and choose File/Save WAV. Being the WAV into Encore.

[Dan Isaacs]

I've uploaded new versions of hd2sd and sd2hd. Some minor performance improvements and better handling of 4:2:0 sources (though this is not directly applicable to frameserving from Premiere).

[Dan Isaacs]

[EDIT: oops. deleting my own accidental duplicate post]

[Dan Isaacs]

... and updated again

[_diffid_]

Dan

Is it possible to use your SD2HD avisynth script as a avs file?

I'm using an avisynth enabled version of Blender and importing .dv SD video from my consumer dv camera into Blenders sequence editor, from there I can overlay various avs scripts on the time line over various video sequence strips.

Does the avisynth + your script only work with .avi's all my years of video that I have captured to RAW .dv not .avi

Oh btw all this is using Linux + wine hence .dv format video from dvgrab.

Thanks

[Dan Isaacs]

Sorry... I know nothing about raw DV, nor about running AviSynth on Linux. There may be a way toget AviSynth to read raw DV -- post a message on Doom9's forum and someone will likely have an answer for you.

[Ed Cread]

Dan - bad news for me... I installed CS4 MC (including premiere pro cs4) but I am still using PPRO CS3 for editing until we figure out a way to get debug frameserver to work in CS4. But my problem is -- after installing CS4, I've lost my debug FS export option in CS3!

I've reinstalled DBFS and ensured that the plugin is appearing in the CS3 plugins folder, but still cant get the option under the export settings. Any ideas?

Thanks very much!

Ed

[_Lyndon_Cacho_]

I was having stair step effects? in my final videos. I have HDV 1080i60 footage and followed the advance steps going into Encore. I decided to check the deinterlace button in the export menu in PP3 and all is well now. Video came out perfect!!!

I used this script:

hd2sd("signpost.avi", OutputColorSpace="YUY2", OutputBFF=true)

So in summary all I did was follow Dan's instructions except I checked deinterlace in premiere.

[Dan Isaacs]

> except I checked deinterlace in premiere

Bad move. That's not a good solution. The whole point is allow the script to perform the deinterlacing -- and not to let Premiere do it.

I have no idea what's causing the artifacts you describe, but I have a feeling that it is some other setting in Premiere's export settings that is set incorrectly. Make sure the export menu is set to 1440x1080 Upper Field First.

Check this. If the problem persists, please post a sample somewhere.

Also: What type of display (TV) were you watching this on? If it's a 1080p or 720p display then that may explain the problem also. If you want progressive output, it's better to use:

hd2sd("signpost.avi", OutputColorSpace="YUY2", OutputFieldRate=30, SmoothTime=false)

This will output 30p. You can also try SmoothTime=true ... whether this is better or not depends on personal taste and the type of material you are converting (in general, fast motion will look terrible when SmoothTime=true)

[_Thomas_Dean_]

Dan,

I am trying to create a training video by combining video footage and video from Camtasia. No matter what I try the text from Camtasia ends up blurry. Any suggestions?

Thomas

[Dan Isaacs]

Yeah, Thomas -- what I do is to ALWAYS use at least pixel-for-pixel (and usually greater) crops of screen captures where legibility is important.

I usually do this in After Effects: creating an animation that follows the "action" (such as the pointer or cursor). Often I render 2 or views (like full-screen, medium-close and extreme CU) and then I place these in a multi-camera sequence and cut between them.

This is something totally separate from HD->SD conversion, however. There are also other things I do (like 200% "Nearest Neighbor" pre-resizing, post-filtering, etc.) to maximumize quality and legibility. If you want to continue the discussion on this further, start a new thread and I'll share all I know on the subject :)

[_ttatcs_]

Dan ,
Your website seems down.

[Dan Isaacs]

seems OK now... It's one of those "free" sites, so uptime is not really much of a priority for them :)

[_ttatcs_]

My fault .
Your site is OK. I am very happy viewing your valuable posts.Thank you!
I am from China where the Great Firewall that blocks the site to prevent someone like me to view "some" sites . your sitehoster is one of them .

just mention those who is from China mainland : viewing the Dans site via a proxy server software .

Cheers !

[Guest]

I don't know if I am doing something wrong however I downloaded and unzipped each file as instucted. Then exported by sequence from Premiere using Debug Mode. I set all my settings as you indicated in your instuctions. When I hit ok it says it is outputing my file as I named it to the location but when done it shows a window for FrameServer (Status) and a second window saying Rendering with Progress showing as Compliling. But nothing is happening. even the hardrive is not showing activity. Did I miss something? On the FramerServer window it shows statistics as 0%. Thanks
Dan

[Jeff Bellune]

>I don't know if I am doing something wrong

I think you've done everything right...so far. The next thing for you to do is to make sure the signpost.avi file is added to an .avs script. Then you either:

1. Load that script into VirtualDub where you will save the video as a new .avi file. You will have to encode the .avi file to DVD-legeal MPEG2 video.

2. Load the script into HCEncoder and create an .m2v video file that can be authored to DVD.

After all of that is done, then you can close the frameserver in Premiere.

[_Lyndon_Cacho_]

Hi Dan,

I followed your instructions to the T and checked all settings. The stair stepping was really bad. Im not sure what Im doing that my video is coming out bad when I dont have Premiere deinterlacing the video out.

I could see the stairstepping on my computer monitor and on a CRT 1080i/720p TV.

[Dan Isaacs]

Hi Lyndon --

I have no idea. In short, there is no real point in using the hd2sd process if you allow Premiere to do the deinterlacing.

If you can please do the following:
1.) start frameserving the video
2.) open the .AVS script in VirtualDub
3.) locate a frame that show the artifacts you are talking about
4.) Choose "copy source frame to clipboard"
5.) open Photoshop, paste, flatten, save as a .PNG
6.) post the image somewhere so I can see it

While you're at it, post some screenshots of the AVI export options in Premiere and settings you are using.

[Guest]

Hi guys, i know theres not been much activity on here in a while, but ive only recently discovered this workflow.

Hers the thing, I followed everything to a T, and it worked (was a bit worried when the uncompressed avi was squeezed to 4:3, but then i read that you simply set the PAR in encore, so problem solved there.

So I created a DVD with 2 versions of the same video (3 mins long)

Version 1: Adobe media encoder export

Version 2: Debug, frameserve, AviSynth

Burned the DVD, wathced them both,

Now, I am (or at least I thought i was) the type of person to notice even the slightest differences in quality,

BUT.....

After viewing both versions one after another, on 3 dif TV and 3 dif DVDs (one of which was a Blur ray so it upscaled) I simply cannot tell the difference?

Am I missing something here?

Your perplexed and confused,

Strangey316