Best Quality D8>Karat>DVD for HD Viewing Monitor??

[mvpfrank]

I'm looking for suggestions to get the best viewing quality on HD Flat Screen TV. I've Imported Digital 8 Video into my Karat Bogart 5.5 SD 720x480. I'm new to the Bogart form of editing. Can I convert the 720x480 to 1280x720 or1440x1080 without sacrificing quality? What steps would you recommend I use after I finish editing my videos to get the best quality on a DVD or Blue Ray disk? I have Arabesk 6. Thank you in advance for any help.

[Christopher6206]

I don't know that you would get any noticeable improvement in quality especially with a DVD player that has up scaling. However if you really want to try it, just set up your project before importing for an HD project with 1280 x 720 or 1440 x 1080 and then import your footage. The Karat should convert it after import. Alternatively, if you have already imported the footage into an SD project, make a new HD project with those settings and import the clips into the new project using the clipboard. The clips will be reformatted to the new resolution after import. As far as DVD or Blu Ray that shouldn't affect quality, just quantity. DVDs can only hold around 20 minutes of HD footage. And personally, I've had problems when trying to play back HD files on DVD.

[mvpfrank]

Thanks for the info. I will experiment with your suggestions for some future projects. The footage I imported was of a family wedding just under 2 hours. I need to get this to them ASAP. I assume if I keep it at SD 720x480 should fit on one DVD?

[Christopher6206]

Arabesk can get around 2 hours of footage on a a standard DVD, usually a little more. IF you are using the medium quality setting, which corresponds to "Normal" in the older Arabesk programs. You could go with the "high" quality setting which would use a higher bit rate but then it wouldn't fit onto a DVD, but you could use a dual layer DVD and get it to fit. The max setting will give you a warning that not all players can play the high bit rate. I'm not sure how the different settings affect picture quality as I have never done a side by side comparison. But medium quality will preserve the original quality of the 8mm tape.

[mvpfrank]

Thank you for all your help!

[LouBruno]

The new Arabesk has an auto setting and adjusts the bit rate in proportion to your media, I would suggest to give it a try and observe if you are satisfied with the results.

When upconverting a lower quality scene in our BOGART project window,it is essential to keep in mind that we are only increasing the FILE SIZE and not resolution.

I would think the DVD up converts we see via HDMI are different as they are relying on electronics...

[mvpfrank]

Thank you for that additional piece of info Lou!