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Converting HDV to AIC or DVCPRO-HD via AJA Card
I have two new Sony Z1U cameras and my post production is in FCP 5.1. The cameras are really wonderful for the work I do; however, I am gravely disappointed in the final product (mp2) as it has lots and lots of jaggy lines which I’m told is Long GOP Artefacting. Okay, I understand the Long GOP issue and I wish I knew this before my purchase but I have $10k invested so I need a fix for the jaggy’s. I’ve been investigating the AJA LHe Card to import/ingest the HDV footage as AIC or DVCPRO-HD. I have the hard drive capability and I’m okay with the cost. I just need a finished product that is sellable. Any experiences, ideas, or direction would be greatly appreciated.
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7 Replies
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Jaggies are not a typical by-product of long GOPs
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[Rosie’s World] “Okay, I understand the Long GOP issue and I wish I knew this before my purchase but I have $10k invested so I need a fix for the jaggy’s. I’ve been investigating the AJA LHe Card to import/ingest the HDV footage as AIC or DVCPRO-HD. I have the hard drive capability and I’m okay with the cost. I just need a finished product that is sellable. Any experiences, ideas, or direction would be greatly appreciated.”
We’re editing an entire series right now using the HDV to DVCPro HD workflow via a Kona 3 and the results are pristine. Simply connect your deck to the Kona LHe and select DVCPro HD as your capture codec. You’ll need to change the Machine Control over to DV to operate the camera or deck.
Be sure to set up the DVCPro HD exactly the same as your footage. In our case it’s 1080i/50 HDV so I’m capturing to 1080i/50 DVCPro HD.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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[walter biscardi] “We’re editing an entire series right now using the HDV to DVCPro HD workflow via a Kona 3 and the results are pristine. Simply connect your deck to the Kona LHe and select DVCPro HD as your capture codec. You’ll need to change the Machine Control over to DV to operate the camera or deck.”
I second that workflow with Walter.
I’ve been doing this for the past year with a Kona 2 with an AJA HD10A. Now we’ve upgraded to a MacPro with a Kona 3 (cross convert capabilities) and the AJA HD10AVA boxes for component conversion.
I high suggest that you use AJA products for just such a workflow – but that’s my opinion.
Let me give a refresher course in HDV and this came striaght from Sony’s engineers. HDV is nothing more than a data transport stream. It was never intended to be an edit stream. The only reason that you see som much HDV support in products is purely from a marketing stand point. In order to sucessfully use HDV, you need to transcode it into a codec that is an edit stream such as DVCPro HD. Only at that point do you really gain true I-Frame editing and ease of use on the computer’s processors.
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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com -
Hi Uli,
Thanx for the input, it’s very, very helpful. I’m currently using the de-interlacing feature on Compressor. Works some but not enough. Tell me more about the product you recommend (like where to get it, the cost, etc).
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Thanks! This is very helpful to me. I just don’t want to throw bad money after good and I need to know that whatever I purchase, it’s going to give me a saleable finished product.
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First of all: Are you seeing the jaggies in HD or in SD? I might be on a false track not knowing this.
There are two de-interlacers in Compressor. One is adaptive and can be found under “Frame Controls”, and that’s a pretty good one, albeit slow. Don’t use the one under “Filters”. The one I’m recommending is FieldsKit from http://www.revisionfx.com. You can download a watermarked demo from there and try for yourself. But it’s just a tad faster and better than Compressor, not worlds apart.
I get perfect images with a very complex workflow:
I de-interlace (adaptive) to 50 fps (60 in the US) with FieldsKit in After Effects, scale to SD and re-interlace to ordinary video. This is very time-consuming, though.Give the freeware MPEG Streamclip a try, it’s doing very good scaling as well. And, after all, the scaling has been improved a lot in the current version of FCP. You can set it to “Best” under the sequence settings.
Definitely don’t go the AIC route, DVCProHD as recommended by Walter is better.
BTW, I hope you don’t use the frame mode in a Sony, right? That one will give you jaggies from the start!
Hope this helps,
Uli
Author of “DVDs gestalten und produzieren”, a book on professional DVD-authoring in German.
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All the info helps. Thank you!
I will try to Frame Controls in Compressor. I’ve tried the DeInterlace filter and it works – to a degree – but I can’t say I’m totally thrilled with the results.
I’m not sure what the frame mode in Sony is. Is it in the camera or in Sony Vegas or in the FCP settings? Could you please elaborate on that for me?
If all else (that doesn’t cost a fortune) fails, I’ll probably have to go the AJA/DVCProHD route. I’m trying to elevate getting involved with AE right now, but that may hold some answers as well.
Thanks again for all your input.
Rosie
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