I am producing a DVD that I intend to market primarily in the UK, USA and Canada. I would like to be able to shoot at a high quality so that I can create an NTSC and a PAL version of my content from the same masterfootage.
I've thought about HDTV as the master format, but not sure about a few things i) Can I do it for a reasonable price? ii) Can I still edit the footage on a PC based NLE setup or will I need to hire more expensive post production facilities?
If HDTV is too expensive then I am assuming either shooting in a DV PAL or a DV PAL progressive scan format will give me the best all round results when I convert to NTSC?
Any help would be much appreciated. My budget is approx ?3,000 and need about 2 hours of footage that I will shoot myself.
Kind Regards
David Hill
Kind Regards
David Hill
Great question, HD vs. SD, PAL vs. NTSC, good stuff.
HD is not in your budget so we will talk more SD (DV/DVCAM) format. The big difference between DV/DVCAM is a function of color space and data bandwidth which is too technical a discussion for your question so we'll both pretend to understand it, choose DV for cost and convenience, and move on.
DV PAL (progressive scan) has two great things going for it. First it is cheap. It can be easily edited on a PC w/ NLE software, tapes are inexpensive, and w/ your budget a camcorder can be easily rented or possibly purchased. Second you will not lose anything going to NTSC. Now I'll get technical. DV PAL is 630 lines w/ 4:2:0 sampling at 25fps where DV NTSC is 530 lines w/ 4:1:1 sampling at 30fps. Your NTSC version will have more of a film look w/ frame rate, color sharpness will be the same.
The only downside is the sometimes-problematic PAL to NTSC conversion. If this were my project I would edit and create the PAL master DVD on my NLE. Pay someone else to make a NTSC copy before sending both out to the duplicator.
Let me know how it turns out and where/when I can purchase a copy of the finished work.
This is extremely helpful information, many thanks. I will keep you posted on how I get on (and once the project is in the can I'll send you a link to the finished result).
Cheers again,
Dave Hill
mailto:dave?hillworld.com
Kind Regards
David Hill
Kind Regards
David Hill
