Using MC5 I burned a DVD (shot in 1080p) using the MC5 "DVD one step" option.

When I play it on certain televisions it looks great... very cinematic and movie-like. But on other

televisions the film looks more like a soap opera or the "live" look.

How can I burn the DVD so it retains the cinematic look on all tv's ?

That doesn't make sense. The DVD video will be what it is. if it looks different on different display devices that's down to the dipslay device.

You can't make video content that adjusts to the display device (assuming it knew what was even happening)

As long as the encode is correct (even the one step burn to DVD has settings you need to set) then it's good.

when you say DVD I am asuming your working in SD  not a blueray hd right?

Many TVs now have a default setting to smooth out film pulldown making everything look like interlaced video. You may want to check the individual TVs to make sure they're not processing the DVD image with anything like "Motion Flow". The name may vary by brand. This can always be turned off manually.

Welcome to the awful world of 240hz TVs. A product idea that may actually be worse than 3D.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2379206,00.asp

Sounds like you've played the DVD on HD TV's that are 120Mhz and above. Those displays pretty much remove motion blur, which is givng the soap opera feel. 

Thanks everyone for your input.  The article was an eye opener.

Regarding the "doesn't make sense" comment, please understand that I'm not looking for the DVD to adjust to anything. Instead, I was hoping to hear specs on choosing a lower resolution (i.e. 720 as apposed to 1080) when burning the DVD.  As I have noticed in the past that even commercially available Blu-ray discs tend to give a hybred Soap Opera/Cinematic look, which I attributed to the increased resolution.

Does anyone have any specs on choosing a resolution to burn the DVD at, that will inhibit a television from boosting the picture into an "interlaced" look.

Indyreel:

Thanks everyone for your input.  The article was an eye opener.

Regarding the "doesn't make sense" comment, please understand that I'm not looking for the DVD to adjust to anything. Instead, I was hoping to hear specs on choosing a lower resolution (i.e. 720 as apposed to 1080) when burning the DVD.  As I have noticed in the past that even commercially available Blu-ray discs tend to give a hybred Soap Opera/Cinematic look, which I attributed to the increased resolution.

Does anyone have any specs on choosing a resolution to burn the DVD at, that will inhibit a television from boosting the picture into an "interlaced" look.

I am still confused.  You are mixing terms / formats here.  You mention DVD (which is Standard Definition) and Blu-ray which can be many things.

What did you make (because it makes a difference to the answers you might recieve) SD or and HD based Blu-ray?

Jef

Sorry Jef,

I was multitasking and got confused there.  I burned a DVD (Standard Def) and when played on a few newer tv's some played it cimematically and others made it look like an interlaced video/soap opera look.

I was wondering if I burned the DVD at a lower resolution, bit rate or which ever setting is necessary (don't know which setting) would that then prevent the tv from making it look interlaced?

some of the issue may be upscaling by the dvd player

Several things are in play here.

Was your original sequence an HD Sequence?  If so how did you make it SD? 

You said something about "Send to DVD".  That implies there was a software based downconvert.  Software donwconverts are not the best looking, but you may have no alternative.

What was the frame rate of the HD Sequence?  Did that translate properly to the DVD? 

Did the DVD process accidenitally deinterllace footage that SHOULD have stayed interlaced?

Did the colorspace translate properly to the DVD?

Unfortunately, it is a complicated path.  I never trust a 1 button process for something with this many variables.

Jef

Coming at this from a different angle - I have always had problems making an SD DVD from an HD Avid master - usually using Avid DVD rather than the direct to DVD option but I am wondering if it the same thing. 

When I make a DVD from an Avid HD timeline the field order is generally "messed up" which could make it look filmlike on some displays and really bad on others.  Are you encoding your DVD from an HD Avid timeline?  Have you tried changing the Avid project settings to SD and then making the disc?

The render engine of televisions varies widely. Nothing you can do about it, especially with the picture "enhancements" that default on, and users leave them that way.

So true.  I think - in many ways - the visual quality of what you see on a display these days can be much worse that in the days of CRTs.  To many "features".  To much bad upconversion.  Poor color fidelity of LCD screens.

And that does not even begin to cover "content" .........    

Jef

When Grunge became art...