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Dan, I'll be actively using your workflow, so I'll be monitoring this thread as well.

Thanks,
Kevin

What is a Mac user to do? I am using a mac at work and really miss debugmode. Any frame serving alternatives out there?

Chances are good there are equivalent utilities out there for Macs, but you'd have to ask in a Mac-centric community.

Cheers
Eddie

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>I simply cannot abide an OS that only recently saw fit to use two mouse buttons

Well said, brother!

Interestingly enough, I read a thread today on another forum where Final Cut users are experiencing the same HDV to SD quality problems using Compressor.

>But I guess you need to own a Mac + a license for PPro CS3 Windows. That may be only a small crowd of folks, no?

True. I have a license for PPro Win primarily for use on my laptop in the field, with a second installation on my Mac Pro Windows partition. I much prefer OS X to Windows, but there are definite advantages to keeping XP available.

I have to say that Dan has been unrelenting in his quest to educate people on the benefits of his workflow in going From HDV to SD DVD. I did some testing some months ago using his technique and the results looked pretty good but it was really difficult to judge just how much difference there was between an Adobe Media Encoder (AME) generated DVD file and the Frameserver/Avisythn process. To get a better means of comparing the two techniques, I recently used both work flows within CS3 to generate two DVD MPeg2 files from the same HDV source.

I then imported both files into a PP2 DVD NTSC 16x9 MPEGPro project. I laid the two video files on top of each other, in synch and then using the motion effect, split the screen so that the Avisynth-generated video and the AME-generated video were displayed simultaneously showing the lower half of both video files. I then exported the split screen to a DVD MPeg2 file and subsequently burned this onto a DVD.

Using a non-upscaling Sony DVD player (DVP-NS75P) and a 30" Sony Wega (KV-30HS420) Hi-def CRT based TV, previewed the split screen results. I can assure you that when viewing the two images directly, there is no question that Dan's workflow produces a sharper image with better colour and less motion blur. The difference is quite significant and I can assure you that I will be using his workflow from this point onwards to produce SD DVDs from HDV Premiere Projects.

You have done a great job Dan, not only in developing this workflow but also in having the perseverance to keep this in front of the Adobe forum folks. Thanks again for the help you have provided me in getting this process up and running.

As Dan mentions, deinterlacing is a key issue You can not properly scale without deinterlacing. In my previous post, I bundled deinterlacing into scaling, but it is really an issue in of itself. When I got access to my final workflow, we were using a predictive-motion algorithm prior to scaling. This was the primary fix for the frame/field artifacts and haloing. Dan is correct, it is key.

well -- after reading these posts for many months I decided to try it. Seems that I got much nicer color, but the field renedering must have weirded out the video.

1) I exported an m2v file straight from premiere using MPEGPRo pluging as a baseline for comparison.

2) I did the 'basic' workflow that Dan presented, then burned both timelines to a DVD in Encore CS3 (no transcoding was required in Encore because I did so in ProCoder first).

The AVISynth workflow looked very choppy - almost as if frames were missing or if somehow the whole field order thing was jacked.

My source was an m2T file from a canon HV20 straight to the timeline. A few cuts for fun, then output as described above and in Dans workflow guide.

Should I NOT be doing upper fields first?? I know you want UFF in HDV - which I did for the MPEGPro export and it looked fine.

Ed

Ed, I got this error in one of Dan's previous versions of hd2sd.avsi - which he has since corrected. I suggest redownloading the latest script from his guide page. I downloaded it Thursday night (he updated it on Wednesday, 7/2/08 with this fix) and used it successfully.

>I haven't used ProCoder in years. It supposedly supports .avs input. Can you please tell me the exact error? Which "version" of my script are you using: the basic one or the hd2sd() function?

The error reads: AviSource: Could not decompress frame 0
(E:\*myfilepath*\premiere.avs, line 1)

I'm using the hd2sd()script -- I think?!? I've selected some script commands you had in your text file and added to what was originally the 'basic' avs file I created from your basic workflow. Of course nothing would work then until I placed your hd2sd.avsi file into the plugin directory of AviSynth.

>Or, pass the parameter OutputColorSpace="RGB24" to the hd2sd() function in the advanced workflow.

Perhaps I am running before I've learned to walk, but you lose me with that one. What do you mean by "pass the parameter"? I tried adding the command you suggested but perhaps it was done incorrectly as I still get the same error.

If not out of line in the forum, I will copy and paste my script file from my 'premiere.avs' file that I am trying to open in Procoder and maybe you can see my obvious error? debubtest3.avi is my signpost file created by DEBUGMODE FS from premiere**

[Here is the script - less only the comments marked with #]

>avisource("E:\Video Projects\tests\AVISynth tests\debugtest3.avi")
ColorMatrix(mode="Rec.709->Rec.601", clamp=false)
LeakKernelBob(order=1, threshold=10, sharp=true, twoway=false)
Lanczos4Resize(720,480)
SeparateFields()
SelectEvery(4,1,2)
Weave()
Limiter(16, 235, 16, 240)
hd2sd(OutputColorSpace="RGB24")
hd2sd("debugtest3.avi", LimitWhite=false, OutputColorSpace="YUY2", Output601=true)
hd2sd("debugtest3.avi", OutputFieldRate=30, SmoothTime=false)

Thanks again for the assistance.

Ed

Hi Dan,

I added ONLY the line you provided and Procoder worked! Nice results and it only took about 10 minutes to encode the 1:51 second video.

I hate to wear out my welcome with more questions, but I am still a little confused on what you were meaning by telling me to do 'upper field first' in your latest post? I already had the script to do UFF [(SelectEvery(4,1,2)] and I have UFF selected in my export settings in Premiere. Are you suggesting something else?

Thanks very much for all of your time and assistance. I owe you an apology for thinking this was all a colossal over-kill considering my HD-SD videos already seemed to be looking good. It's the fine lines in the video that really suffer in the transition without doing this avisynth. I will enjoy the better outputs and it really wasn't that hard to get going with this workflow.

Ed

>Ed, are you using 2-pass VBR for your Procoder?

Yes - I do 2 pass VBR with a minimum bit rate of 7000, avg. bit rate of 7500, and max @ 7900.

>Are you feeding directly from PP3 -> DebugModeFrameserver -> Procoder? or are you creating an intermediate file from VirtualDub before having it go to Procoder?

This is where I was having trouble understanding what exactly I was supposed to do. When I run debugmodeframeserver as my export from Premiere, it gives me the signpost file. I was then taking my script and opening it up in VirtualDub to scrub the footage. At first, I was putting out an intermediary avi file (about 3.4GB in size for 1 min 51 second video). It took about 10 minutes to encode.

Then, I tried opening up my avs script directly in Procoder, and it worked. Took about the same amount of time as it did to encode the intermediate file. **But now it seems my procoder is not happy with my avs script even though I made no changes? Working on that right now...

Ed

hello Dan and thanx for the workflow.

I got a cannon xlh1 captured footage to premier under this specs;

Image Size: 1440 x 1080
Pixel Depth: 1440
Frame Rate: 29.97
Pixel Aspect Ratio: HD Anamorphic 1080 (1.333)
Fields order : upper field first
Display format : 30 fps drop frame TC

Then exported video to frameserver-->Virtual dub--> save as uncompressed AVI --> imported into encore.

I noticed some (bugs) concerning the border added to the video when viewed on Encore or exported to DVD ; is it normal? or should I remove out from script the line that says;
AddBorders(8,0,8,0)

Thank you anyway.