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Opinions on upconvert SD to HD, please.
I have a documentary coming in that has a real mixed bag of footage. Commissioned as an SD delivery, somehow the producers talked themselves into a HD delivery without any extra $$. This is a Canadian doc, so we are not mandated to HD.
The show has as original footage:
-a very small amount of HD SR
-a small amount of DVC Pro HD
-half the show is HDV
-the rest is stocks coming on SD Betacam, and other SD formats.I quoted the producers on an SD conform and they budgeted for that. The quotes on an HD conform are around double the price.
The suggestion has been made that we conform SD 10 bit uncompressed 16×9 anamorphic and transfer it into the Sony HD SR deck via SDI for the conversion to HD.
How well does this work?
Does anyone have another opinion on this, in terms of workflow and conversion/quality issues?
I currently am using an AJAio, as there is still not really much HD work here in Canada. I would get a KONA2 for the job, but my clients really didn’t budget for an HD conform, and from the sounds of things a very high end SD to HD transfer would work just as well for their purposes.
Thanks for any and all suggestions/thoughts!
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6 Replies
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Cut the entire thing on SD. Then find a production house with a Terranex converter and have them do the SD to HD conversion via that into the HDCAM deck.
Keep it simple on your end by just cutting the show in SD as normal. The Terranex does a beautiful job of the convert. Will probably run you somewhere around $600/hour for the use of the converter, HDCAM deck and engineer.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.comNow editing “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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Thanks Walter,
Terranex seems to be the way to go.
If my only reason to buy the Kona2 over the LH is the upconvert, it sounds like I should buy the LH, and recommend to my documentary clients that all SD material be conformed as SD 10Bit uncumpressed, sent out for a Terranex conversion, and then reinserted into the HD show.
It seems from all I’ve read on the forum that the Kona2 upconvert is clearly not as good and may be perhaps unacceptable to a highly critical QC by a broadcaster?
Would a render of the upconvert in software (and which software is best to use?) compare favourably to the Kona2 real-time upconvert? I don’t mind hitting render overnight and would like to offer a “cheap” solution.
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Thanks again…
So, if I have an io already, the only reason to get the LH is access to the HD camera/deck output of HDV originals, and the lower price?
If I want to maintain future Dual Link potential, and hope that the upconvert stands the test, I should keep my io and get the Kona2?
Is there a quality issue when comparing the final master output of HDV captured via firewire and rendered through the internal FCP process into the best quality 1080i or 1080p codec, vs the HD Analog captured output of the camera to same?
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[tPIX] “It seems from all I’ve read on the forum that the Kona2 upconvert is clearly not as good and may be perhaps unacceptable to a highly critical QC by a broadcaster?”
Just depends on what the shot is. I’ve upconverted some stuff from a DVX-100A that’s looks perfect. I’ve upconverted some other stuff from the same camera that just doesn’t look good at all. I send all the footage out of my 1200A in SD and let the Kona 2 do the upconvert.
You just really don’t know how good/bad footage is going to look until you try it.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.comNow editing “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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[tPIX] “It seems from all I’ve read on the forum that the Kona2 upconvert is clearly not as good and may be perhaps unacceptable to a highly critical QC by a broadcaster?”
Not just for the Kona 2, but for literally all non teranex up-converts, I have heard of rejects from Sony,Panasonic and BMD products when people try to pass off their footage as HD.
On a good scope the difference is amazing between the Universal upconvert chip that most all of the 3rd party’s use for this and what the teranex can produce.
This is not just a Kona 2 problem, it is an industry wide issue.
Gary Adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation
Chicago, IL USA -
Hey Walter. Have you ever taken a look at the 1200A’s upconvert? In a side by side, I found the 1200A did a cleaner upconvert than the Kona2. It’ll upconvert to 720 or 1080. You need the mini dv adapter to play the small tapes.
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