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Hi-Def Conversions in FCP
I have experience capturing and outputting HD footage with FCP (via D5, HD-Cam, HD-Cam SR decks). Whenever I have a request to convert the footage to a different “flavor” of HD I usually recommend doing that on the machine side (via a Teranex, etc.).
Does anyone know if it’s possible to get good results doing this in FCP? For example, capturing footage 1080i/psf/23.98 and converting it to 720p or even another frame rate at 1080?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
John
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11 Replies
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As long as you have a capture card that that can do this, like the Kona 3. We use it to cross convert 720p 23.98 to 1080p 23.98 and get great results.
Shane
Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net -
Thanks, Shane.
The system I’m using has a Black Magic HD card that’s about a year and a half old.
Sorry if this sounds rookie – – Do you convert the footage once you’ve captured it at its native specs, exporting it at the new specs using Quicktime conversion from FCP? Do you do it another way?
John
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We converted thru the card. Captured and edited 720p 23.98 DVCPRO HD. Then exported out to an HDCAM deck at 1080p 23.98.
Shane
Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net -
[john_xyz] “Sorry if this sounds rookie – – Do you convert the footage once you’ve captured it at its native specs, exporting it at the new specs using Quicktime conversion from FCP”
no John
we use Kona cards that supports cross conversion in the hardware. This is NOT a QT conversion, those are far less quality than the hardware for a conversion.gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows -
Thanks guys…I don’t think the Black Magic HD card we use is robust enough to do the conversions you guys are doing with Kona/Aja. I’m going to run some tests though.
Our card is great for capturing/outputting the native format. Maybe not making conversions, though.
Hopefully, we can upgrade to the Kona/Aja cards at some point. I’ve been hearing they are now the way to go.
Cheers,
John
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[john_xyz] “Hopefully, we can upgrade to the Kona/Aja cards at some point. I’ve been hearing they are now the way to go.”
Absolutely positively. We’re cutting the 5th of a 5 part HD environmental series with a combination of DV, BetaSP, HDV, BetaSX, DVCPro HD and some PAL thrown into the mix. Everything but the PAL, our AJA Kona boards handle just fine. You pay a little more for the AJA gear, but you’re getting high quality broadcast equipment, not to mention the best tech support in the business.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi
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[walter biscardi] “Everything but the PAL, our AJA Kona boards handle just fine.”
I should clarify, AJA boards handle PAL just fine. They can’t CONVERT the PAL to NTSC which is what we need so I use Nattress’ Standards Converter for this.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi
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Hey Gary,
I know you’re tight with the AJA guys. Please tell them it’d be a great feature if we can use the card’s hardware to up/down/cross convert from digital files to digital files, which no decks involved. I have projects where people deliver me a drive full of one flavor and we need to convert it to another flavor. If somehow we can harness the Kona card’s hardware to do the conversion in RT within the computer without having to rent decks or output to tape and then recapture again, that would be fantastic!
And NTSC/PAL standards conversions conversion would be great as well! I work on lots of nature docs and we get lots of PAL footage to mix with NTSC and our current workflow is either time consuming via software conversion or expensive via hardware conversion.
-CHL
Chi-Ho Lee
Film & Video Editor
Apple Certified Final Cut Pro Trainer
http://www.chiholee.com -
[Chi-Ho Lee] “And NTSC/PAL standards conversions conversion would be great as well! I work on lots of nature docs and we get lots of PAL footage to mix with NTSC and our current workflow is either time consuming via software conversion or expensive via hardware conversion.”
I’ve already talked to them about that. There is a reason why those hardware conversions are so expensive and at the time I talked to AJA, that was not a market they were looking to get in to. I would love to see AJA introduce a converter as well, but it is a very costly proposition when it comes to a hardware NTSC to PAL converter. I use Graeme Nattress’ Standards Converter here and it works really really well.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi
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Yeah, bummer for us. I use the Nattress conversion as well, but when I get a tape/drive from the BBC or ZDF and we need the whole shebang, I just leave it rendering over night since there’s no way it’ll be done during the day. Or send it to the transfer house which as you’d know is $$$ over the course of a natural history show and you end up with a dozen or so PAL tapes.
-CHL
Chi-Ho Lee
Film & Video Editor
Apple Certified Final Cut Pro Trainer
http://www.chiholee.com
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