Hi Guys

Have a question surrounding DVD authoring. A friend is getting some classic Pakistani movies converted from the original BetaCam masters to DVD for screening at a film festival in the UK (exact date TBD). While the movies can be screened from the BetaCam tapes - there is a need to add subtitles to them so it looks like one option is going to be converting the movies to DVD and adding the sub-titles to the disc.

While locating DVD conversion firms we have found that the services offered vary greatly ... will need a quality transfer as potentially the disc will be projected on to a big screen. Anyway - I know bits and pieces about DVD conversions ... but just wanted to check a couple of things with the Zulmi gurus!

I asked about progressive transfers, and the answer that I got was that they can do progressive - but normally they do constant bit rate transfers! I really don't know what that means!

Also - we have a choice in getting the discs made up as single or dual layered (single layered will mean splitting the movies - but the movies are already split over two tapes anyway!)

I think that the betacams were created in the US - so it will be an NTSC transfer. I think that we should avoid converting to Pal. Just in case we have to convert to Pal for any reason - is there any way to do a clean Pal to NTSC conversion and avoid the ghosting effect?

Finally - does any one have any experience with adding sub-titles to an already authored disc? Is it an easy thing to do and is any software available to help us do this?

I really want to ensure that these DVD masters are created well ... the rights holder of the movies may want to release them to the market soon ... so hopefully this will mean that we get at least 6 good quality DVDs to watch!

Thanks in advance for your help!

Muz.

Mhafner, Sknath, where are you?

Also, you might try hometheaterforum.com.

For projection, you would be better off projecting from Betacam instead of DVD, if you can get the subtitled version on Betacam.

That's the plan hopefully! I will be sub-titling a couple of the movies myself ... But the rights holder will hopefully release them.

For the projection one of the options is to use the BetaCam master with 'soft-titles' but we have to get the movies transferred to allow us to subtitle them. I am hoping that is the tranfser is done well and the subtitles are done well then the rights-holder will allow them to be released.

This 'excellent' thread ( from long time back ) deals with this topic

What makes good DVD authoring? - Only Techno-Freaks pls reply!

perhaps this will help ( for starters ateast ).

BTW - what movies are on ur list , never seen a pakistani movie so will def be intersted in'em. I am just curious about the kind of movies that dominate the pakistani movie scene, any links/info is appreciated.

The only one that i am familiar with is this one

As for subtitle the following might be of help to u


http://www.videohelp.com/guides.php?howtoselect=5#5;20

http://www.darkwet.net/dvdsubber/News.asp

http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=SubtitleCreator


I am no techie and have not done either of this, but would love to hear your "horror" stories with'em

Thanks dude that link is excellent!

So the films will be shown in the Bite the Mango FF:

http://www.nmpft.org.uk/btm/2005/home.asp

Schedules and stuff are to be sorted out. I am only involved as I am helping with the subtitles for a couple of movies.

The list of the classic Pakistani movies are:

1. Intezar (1956) - Noor Jehan, Santosh (written and produced by KA)
http://films.hindi-movies-songs.com/intezaar.html

2. Zehr-e-Ishq (1958) - Mussarat Nazir, Habib, Yasmin (written and produced by KA)
http://films.hindi-movies-songs.com/zeher-i-ishq.html

3. Jhoomar (1959) - Mussarat Nazir, Sudhir, Laila (written and produced by KA)
http://films.hindi-movies-songs.com/jhuumar.html

4. Ghunghat (1962) - Nayyar Sultana, Santosh, Neelo (written, produced and directed by KA)
http://films.hindi-movies-songs.com/ghuunghata.html

5. Chingari (1964) - Shamim Ara, Santosh, Ejaz, Deeba (written, produced and directed by KA)
http://films.hindi-movies-songs.com/chingaria.html

6. Hamraz (1967) - Shamim Ara, Mohammad Ali (written, produced and directed by KA)
http://films.hindi-movies-songs.com/hamraaz.html

Probably can best describe this selection as a retrospective of 'Khurshid Anwar' the noted Director/Producer/Music Director. He is probably one of the finest examples of Pakistan's talents within the film industry.

I have read about a version of Heer Ranjha for which KA did the music and it is supposedly a very good album. Are the songs available online?

I thought Heer Ranjha was done by Rashid Atrey?

"wanjhli waladiya?

The songs of Heer Ranjha are by Khurshid Anwar.

Can be heard here:

http://www.themuzik.com/songs.php?album ... r%20Ranjha

... and here:

http://www.themuzik.com/songs.php?album ... r%20Ranjha

The songs are very good. Noor Jehan's voice is good and strong in these ... pretty much perfect for Punjabi songs.

Yes the list looks awesome, i am def into it when it finally arrives on DVD

BTW is the 50-60's pakistan's golder era in cinema history ?, Any info on the history of pakistan films ?? - info seems to be really sparse even on the WWW

No famous Heer Waaris Shah here?

I'll add Saheli to that..again, Nayar, darpan, shamim ara!

Another of Shamim/Santosh where she licks diamond to death..man!! sorry for spoiler.

No - mainly because Khurshid Anwar was only involved in this movie as a music director ... the films chosen are really the ones where he had more command on the direction and production.

- avoid constant bit rate unless it's very high, but then you might run out of space on the DVD with long films.
- Dual layer DVD, of course. Single layer can't support high compression quality for longer films.
- If the master is NTSC with correct pulldown put that pulldown on the DVD and the picture will be progressive from good DVD players with progressive option. Storing progressively on the DVD saves bits, but the shop really must be able to do this properly or they will do more damage than good.
- NO PAL conversions! And if PAL is not avoidable the NTSC must be made progressive first via reverse 2:3 pulldown, then resampled to PAL and put on the DVD with 4% speedup. No frame averaging! No analogue steps, all in the digital domain.
- I have my doubts that the Betacam stuff is any good, but if it is a nice DVD can be made. Not for cheap, though.

Thanks for the replies and information.

Does anyone have any contact details for BEI DVD authoring?