I have a client that is wanting to output an animation to a 42" HD monitor - What is the best animation image size for this? - and is it possible to be burned to a DVD?
Thanks
Mike
Regular widescreen dvd is your only option at this stage unless you get some kind of HD player or take an output from a pc into the monitor.
So do I render at 720x480? This is so confusing - searched other threads and even more confused - I will be editing in premiere 2 - Any help would be appreciated -
Thanks
Mike
well you probably want to render anamorphic so that it will show properly widescreen. There are others here that know ALOT more about that then me. A coworker of mine is rendering out an animation to HD, and it will just be used in a sale center viewed most likely in quicktime output from a small computer purchased just for that purpose.
This is a dumb question but where is this setting for 720x480 Anamorphic? Thanks
Mike
This mite help you a little also, special tkx to DaForce 
http://www.apex.net.au/~daforce/vray/Video\_Standards.PNG
-dave
Okay so if I render square pixels at 720x480 in Max - Do I do the anamorphic thing in post?
Thanks
Mike
Im lost on a chart like that althought it looks very useful to someone who understands those terms. My knowledge of video is very limited in video. What is a safe resolution average for DVD. What can we render to and scale up?
There’s so much information on the Internet that it becomes overwhelming where to look. Perhaps someone could simplify standards for us. Thanks!
I just need someone to explain the process of doing an HD video - I have an animation that was rendered out at 720x480 sqare pixels and I need to either rerender it out for HD or convert it in post - Just not sure which is the best method for doing it - I am so confused!!!
Mike
Video settings 101
I’ll help you out. Very simply….
Theory
HD monitors usually output pixel resolutions higher then 720x480 9 The aspect ratio for HDTV is a widescreen 16:9. This translates into a screen resolution of 1,920 pixels x 1,080). Computers can send a signal to HD monitors at higher pixels resolutions where the HD monitors acts just like a computer monitor. In this case your animation resolution is limited by the computers ability to play back the movie smoothly (based on Codec used and bit transfer rate)
However if your HD monitor is plugged into a DVD player, it is limited by the Maximum resolution of the DVD player, which is 720x480 for standard DVD players whether it is widescreen(16:9) or standard format (4:3).
HD DVD players are still considered emerging technology and are not widely used yet.
Only when we plug an HD Video Camera into an HD Monitor and play back footage shot with it will we see HD format Footage.
Keep in mind that no matter what the resolution of the footage it will all need to
be compressed by a codec to shrink the transfer rate down enough for the footage to playback smoothly whether it is played back on a computer, HD DVD player, Standard DVD player or HD Video Camera.
OK if your still awake here are the 3DS Max Settings
Standard Format 720x480 (4:3) pixel aspect Ratio
Set your “output size” to custom
Set your width to 720 and height to 480
Set your Pixel Aspect to “0.9” which will force your image aspect to 1.35
Lock Both
Widescreen Format 720x480 (16:9) pixel aspect Ratio
Set your “output size” to custom
Set your width to 720 and height to 480
Set your Pixel Aspect to “1.2” which will force your image aspect to 1.8
Lock Both
You’ll see the difference in your view port when you change the settings if you turn the show safe frame option to on
Technically we’re just not ready to render, edit and author DVD’s in HD format yet.
So for now use the Widescreen settings above , edit and author your DVD’s to 720x480 widescreen and playback with a standard DVD player output to an HD Monitor.
This is the answer I was looking for - Thank you for clearing this grey area up - Awesome!
Mike
Wow man. Thank you very much. Finally, this makes a lot of sense.
However, I always thought DVD was higher than 720x480 - but I guess that is because I watch DVDs through a normal televsion.
Do you think it is wise to generally shoot for widescreen format for a client? I never asking my clients beforehand - always assumed they didn’t have much of a choice (or if one was presented, it would confuse them too much.)
lol thats basically what I told you per private message. I just told you a more exact pixel aspect, as opposed to the 1.2
Percy - Yes - Thanks for your help - This was just a little more indepth as to why it needs to be set - Thanks for the answers guys - All of you
Mike
Hey Percy - could you elaborate on the sepecific pixel aspect ratio?
DVD’s are only designed for SD tv viewing. Hence the 480 height, SD tv is 480i
lately i am wondering if it would be better to purchase a PC monitor with full HD res (1920X1080) or a LCD television with HDMI, also with full HD (thinking of Sony Bravia ones), mainly for monitoring HD purposes.
Any experiences with both kind of monitors?
Im glad it helped. It can be confusing.
I would stick with a PC monitor for now because the colors are generally better and the sharpness of the resolution will be better. When using vray its all about your monitors gamma settings. we’ve got a 42" HD monitor at my office hooked up to a PC and a DVD player to preview our animation work and i’d choose an lcd PC monitor any day.
so far my tests at 24p have worked pretty nicely (im on NTSC so 24p saves alot of time in rendering. not usefull to pal people)
I believe its 1.2121, or thats what my NTSC widescreen preset in Vegas says.