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stuttering footage in AE
When i go to info on the clip in the finder, file is 1920×1080.
I would bring the clip into FCP and do info on the clip there, file size is 1440×1080.
I would bring the same clip from the finder to AE and drag it over the “create new comp button and the comp would automaticaly be 1920×1080 29.97.Are these file size changes a normal thing?
The clip would play very choppy in AE, how do I make the video play smooth? I am using a G5 Quad PowerPc 2.5.With HDV footage would I need the Intel computer or would this computer be fine for HDV, and would it be best to convert the footage into Apple Pro Res 422 before I start to edit?
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8 Replies
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Ok well part of your video resolution thing is to do with aspect ratios. While HD has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 square pixels, non-square pixels can be used, just like in standard definition footage. In this case, 1440 x 1080 has a 1.33 pixel aspect ratio (have a look at the New Comp settings for HDV 1080, and you will see that aspect and resolution.
So I don’t know what your workflow is (if you aren’t DOING anything to the file but simply placing it in those programs i would think the resolution shouldn’t change but i don’t know).
In regards to playback, if you are trying to play back the footage in AE with the spacebar (a “normal” playback), forget it. AE isn’t meant to be an editing tool, and doesn’t handle realtime playback very well for many situations (maybe none? i don’t know, i certainly don’t do it). RAM previewing is the norm, I do this even with an untreated piece of HD footage.
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“While HD has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 square pixels, non-square pixels can be used, just like in standard definition footage. In this case, 1440 x 1080 has a 1.33 pixel aspect ratio (have a look at the New Comp settings for HDV 1080, and you will see that aspect and resolution. ”
I have tried this and the footage still stutters on play back. I don’t have a preset that says HDV the one that I see is HD TV 1920×1080, square pixels.
“In regards to playback, if you are trying to play back the footage in AE with the spacebar (a “normal” playback), forget it. AE isn’t meant to be an editing tool, and doesn’t handle realtime playback very well for many situations (maybe none? i don’t know, i certainly don’t do it). RAM previewing is the norm, I do this even with an untreated piece of HD footage.”
This is how I did it with ram preview shift “0” so every other frame plays back. I always do this for my SD stuff and everything is fine. I just did a ram preview “0” so every frame plays back and the footage is still stuttering. Is there any thing else I can try? thank you for your help.
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Regarding the stuttering playback its the HDV which is a long GOP compressed format and must be decompressed to play.
Search this forum for information about HDV and After Effects.
I’m surprised that Dave LaRonde didn’t take this one on , he must be busy this morning 😉
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1) I am using a G5 Quad PowerMac 2.5. Would I need Mac Intel to edit HDV footage, or DVCPro HD footage in AE?
2)This is very confusing I read so many things on the net, one person says stay in HDV the other says to use pro res 422, what is the difference for pro res 422 and pro res 422 HQ.
3)I have an older version of AE 5.5 and I can create a comp for 1920×1080 HD but don’t have the option for HDV/HDTV would this matter? What’s the difference if you stay in HDV or get out of it to another compressor.
4)I would render the footage in AE as apple pro res 422 then bring into final cut and it plays fine there. When I am in AE at 1080 and I do a new layer for text the text looks like there is a glow around it like some kind of wiredfrequency. When i bring it into FCP the text would show up a little jagged if you look really close.
5) how would I burn a DVD that is HDV footage, I did a test and rendered it in compressor as mpg2 as SD 16×9 then burned the DVD as 16×9 letterbox, is this correct? what are you guys doing?
Sorry for all the questions, have a few issues and a learning curve can anyone make this clear for me. HDV footage with AE, FCP,DVD.
Thank you all so much, you have been a great help so far.
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[johnsabbath d’urzo] “1) I am using a G5 Quad PowerMac 2.5. Would I need Mac Intel to edit HDV footage, or DVCPro HD footage in AE?”
no, your g5 will work fine with those codecs. dvcprohd will need a firewire 800 drive or faster (basically, you can’t use a usb drive for the media).
[johnsabbath d’urzo] “2)This is very confusing I read so many things on the net, one person says stay in HDV the other says to use pro res 422, what is the difference for pro res 422 and pro res 422 HQ.”
hdv is about the lowest quality hd format/codec there is, but if your camera shoots in hdv, you will not improve the quality by converting it. if all you are doing is editing the hdv, then you should be fine, however, when exporting clips from fcp to use in ae (or anything else, really) you should export as a higher quality codec. for ae (as has been discussed here) you want to stay away from codecs that use interframe compression. dvcprohd, pro res 422, photo-jpeg and lossless animation do not use interframe compression and would work much better in ae.
[johnsabbath d’urzo] “3)I have an older version of AE 5.5 and I can create a comp for 1920×1080 HD but don’t have the option for HDV/HDTV would this matter? What’s the difference if you stay in HDV or get out of it to another compressor.”
you can work with the square pixel comp settings in ae and render that way, fcp should handle those files correctly.
[johnsabbath d’urzo] “4)I would render the footage in AE as apple pro res 422 then bring into final cut and it plays fine there. When I am in AE at 1080 and I do a new layer for text the text looks like there is a glow around it like some kind of wiredfrequency. When i bring it into FCP the text would show up a little jagged if you look really close.”
when rendering from ae to fcp, i’d recommend the lossless animation codec… it supports alpha channels and won’t lose any quality, but if you are short on drive space and don’t have an alpha channel, you could render to dvcprohd or pro res 422 to take into fcp.
as far as the jaggies, it may be that fcp is interpreting the 1080 footage as interlaced, but it was rendered progressive. see if you can change the interpretation in fcp, or render from ae with fields (it’s an option in the render settings, 1080i is lower field first).
[johnsabbath d’urzo] “5) how would I burn a DVD that is HDV footage, I did a test and rendered it in compressor as mpg2 as SD 16×9 then burned the DVD as 16×9 letterbox, is this correct? what are you guys doing?”
you can’t actually burn hdv (or any hd) to dvd… dvds are sd only (as you probably know). using compressor to create a widescreen sd mpeg-2 is the right way to go about it, but you should also be able to burn a widescreen dvd, rather than 4×3 letter boxed. this will usually allow the viewer’s dvd player settings to determine whether to letterbox, center cut or display as widescreen (if connected to a 16×9 tv). you’d need to check the dvd apps manual for more about burning widescreen dvds.
Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW -
So what I gathered from what I read is that AE is useless with my HD camera. I only wish software makers were more up front with this information. Could you suggest a codec I can convert an m2t codec to, that will work well in AE? Possibly one that won’t degrade the footage that much?
I thank you in advance for any ideas you have.
Ryan Radchenko
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Hey Kevin. When you say “using compressor” what is that? Is it DVD burning software? What DVD burning software can I use that will give me these options when putting HDV footage on DVD?
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Thanks for the depressing information. What I would like to know is, what do the networks do when they need to add effects to their HD or HDV footage? Is there anything I can do?
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