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720p line converted to 1080p
Hi all,
Does anyone have experience line-converting (cross-converting) 720p material shot with the Varicam to 1080p. Both will be 24fps. I must deliver a show in 1080p 24ps, but would like to shoot with the Varicam. Any pitfalls in terms of line resolution or artifacts that would be noticeable? Varicam material will also be intercut with 1080p clips from D5. It’s OK for the native 1080p material to look better in the online but I just don’t want the 720p to be substandard by comparison.
Any thoughts are much appreciated!
Will Hooke
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6 Replies
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[William Hooke] “Does anyone have experience line-converting (cross-converting) 720p material shot with the Varicam to 1080p. Both will be 24fps. I must deliver a show in 1080p 24ps, but would like to shoot with the Varicam. Varicam material will also be intercut with 1080p clips from D5.”
Interestingly enough the panasonic decks (D5, 1200a , 1700) will output a 720p24 tape as 1080 24psf and properly configured the D5 and 1700 will output a true 1080p24 file. (note the difference in the naming structure referring to progressive vs segmented frames)
However depending on which Network you broadcast on they may require a teranex for this type of conversion.
gary
Join us at the NAB FCPUG SUPERMEET
Wed April 26th @ the RIO for details go to https://www.lafcpug.org/nab_2006.html -
Thanks for the reply! The final delivery will be BlueRay DVD and they are saying that 1080/24p is the way to go for that.
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NO need for the Terranex. That is old school (sorry Gary).
If you have an AJA Kona 2 or Kona 3, you simply create a 10-bit uncompressed 1080P HD timeline, drop your footage into it (might have to resize it, but that is easy enough)…then render, color correct and output.
WARNING…this takes up a LOT of hard drive space. 24 seconds takes 6.5GBs We are testing this process…taking our 720p24 23.98 footage and converting it to 1080p uncompressed HD 23.98 via the Kona codecs at Plastercity Post in Hollywood (www.plastercitypost.com)…and the results are fantastic. But, as I said, the hard drive space requirements are high. You’ll need a fibrechannel RAID array (they use Huge Systems arrays) to play this back.
They are showing us what they can do with Final Touch too.
Shane
Alokut Productions
http://www.lfhd.net -
Shane,
Gary makes a very good point though as some broadcasters actually contractually specify terranex conversion for 720P sources. So a test tape, using your method of QT conversion, might need to be submitted to the broadcaster first.
Terranex uses a specific hardware and software based algorythm in real time. With the multitude of real and imagined HD formats out there Broadcasters are protecting the content they purchase with these types of obligations so some very specifically state it has to be Terranex.
David
Peace and Love 🙂
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Good point. But I’d like to see those broadcasters tell the difference. Ours didn’t specify how they wanted it upconverted from 720p24 DVCPRO HD to 10-bit uncompressed HD on D5 (or HDCAM SR), just that they wanted it.
[David Battistella] “With the multitude of real and imagined HD formats out there”
Now THAT’S funny. Imagined HD formats. There are just too many formats.
WE NEED STANDARDIZATION! Now.
Shane
Alokut Productions
http://www.lfhd.net -
I’ve done direct comparisons of conversions using Teranex, versus Kona, versus scaling/rendering in FCP and Avid DS. The Teranex route was visibly better at play speed and definitely better when still frames were compared. This difference is more pronounced with upconversion of SD to HD and with interlaced or mixed cadence footage than cross-conversion, but there is still a difference.
The last comparison I did was from a 1200A VTR into Kona2. I tested 720P to 1080i using a Teranex Mini versus the deck’s internal upconvertor. The difference was extremely close, but you could actually see compression artifacts in the deck upconversion, which were cleaned up when the Teranex Mini was used. You need the higher end Teranex to do 720P to 1080P.
BTW, if you are going 720P to 1080P using FCP to scale, why do you need a Kona 2 or 3? The card does nothing in this process other than capture. The uncompressed codecs are the Apple codecs.
Sincerely,
OliverOliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com
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