I am guessing that down converting from HD to SD on the timeline is not the best way to convert. I have tried under timeline properties and clip properties different settings and they all look awful. Is down converting from the camera the best way?

Thanks Mike

Just change the timeline properties from HDV to SD and rescale the image (Fit Best - Keep Aspect). If you go SD 16:9 the output will be anamorphic. If you go SD 4:3 the video will be letterboxed (on output and in the Liquid viewers). The quality will be reduced to SD quality in both cases.

If you want to make an SD DVD from your HDV material, work on an HDV timeline and then just output to DVD in the normal way. Liquid will do the downcovert to an SD anamorphic DVD and the quality will be excellent (almost as good as the original HDV material).

I do this all the time and the quality is excellent! LewS has it spot on just fit both and change to SD let it render and output. It is really that simple.....Edd

Now you've done it!  Once you do a DVD from an HDV timeline like Lew suggests, you will never go back to SD!

 

Rather than change the scaling property, I use the Classic 2D editor to scale the video. I think it produces a better result.

Supermeatball:

Thanks for the responds I changed the timeline properties from HDV 1080x59-94i to NTSC 16:9

It makes a better DVD if you leave the timeline as HDV and burn your DVD from the HDV timeline.  Liquid makes a standard def DVD from the HDV timeline and it looks gorgeous!  Try that, rather than converting your timeline to NTSC 16:9 and rescaling, etc. 

Let us know if you like that better...

Doing the video in HDV really isn't a waste as the resources are the same but the result is nicer!  Plus the fact that it won't be long before HD is the defacto standard and your clients will be clamoring for it.

I have not burned a DVD from the liquid timeline in years. This sounds good I will give it a try.

Thanks Mike