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Editing XDCam HD and downconverting to SD!
Hi!
We will be buying a XDCam HD-camera, although most of our material still will be delivered in SD. We have tested the camera and I have made some test editing and it looks good.
When I try to either change settings on the timeline to uncompressed SD and render or export to SD from the FCP timeline the result is not good with some kind of strange progressive feeling although it’s not progressive.
The only way I get an acceptable result is to export a FCP file with the current settings, open it in Quicktime and from there export to uncompressed SD.
Is that the way to go? Anyone that has been working with XDCam HD and have other suggestions? How do you work with graphics? In the HD timeline or the downconverted timeline? I tried to put text in the HD timeline and then the same text in the downconverted SD timeline and I think the SD text looked better! Any suggestions?
I work in FCP 5.1.2 an in PAL.
Thanks!
/Per
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6 Replies
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Do you not have an F70 deck?
If so, it will downconvert for you properly. If not, your best bet is to use Compressor to properly convert it for you BUT at the cost of added time for the conversion.
Here’s another question… What video capture card do you have? They will downconvert your video on the fly, too.
What are your timeline settings when editing in XDCAM HD? Are you using the XDCAM HD settings that Sony has written for us?
[Per W. R
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Thanks, Wayne! No, we haven’t ordered the F70 deck, since we thought we wouldn’t need it. Yet we have no HD card either, just an AJA IO.
I guess I will have a better result if I edit in HD and then downconvert!
To start with we will mostly deliver commercials as SD Quicktime-files (JPEG-B) to our local tv station so then I have to convert through Compressor! Right?
And when I have to deliver on Digital Betacam I will need the HD-card!
No, it’s not a field order problem. I can recognize that and Uncompressed SD uses upper field, DV lower field. I rendered it to uncompressed 8-bit Sd to be able to compare it to the BetacamSP-material we usally edit.
Thanks!
/Per
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Get the AJA LHe card and it will down-convert for you on the way out to the Digibeta deck through component.
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[Dave Jenkins] “Get the AJA LHe card and it will down-convert for you on the way out to the Digibeta deck through component.”
Dave is right, Per. Personally I would suggest yo purchase an AJA LHe card or get a F70 deck. With the F70 deck you can down-convert on the fly with it, so you can digitize your footage thru your IO just fine. BUT, if you are shooting in HD already, pretty soon, someone is going to want an HD master. With that, you’ll have to use something like the AJA LHe to output your timelines.
Its amazing how many post houses or dub houses do not have XDCAM HD even though it is really taking off as an accepted format. I have my XDHD masters but no way to output them to HDCAM or DVCProHD yet. But I do know people who have these decks and I can take my F70 deck to them and make my dubs. Another advantage of having a deck.
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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com -
Thanks, Wayne!
We will probably record only HD even if the output should be in SD to be future proof and because DVCam has never been my favorite format 🙂
I understand that the fastest way to output to Digital Betacam is through a HD card, also for monitoring on a HD monitor, but is the result better than using compressor? I will probably wait to get a HD card until I really have to. Buying a card for my G5 that is useless when/if I upgrade to Mac Pro isn’t too clever I think.
You talk about the AJA card. Is that to be prefered over a Blackmagic Design card?
My initial problem was to down convert the timeline from HD to SD, but I think I have to deal with it some more to get it to work.
Thanks again!
/Per
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[Per W. R
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