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Fields, Fields, Fields………
To start off with I work in pal land most the time (upper field first) Now I know apple have finally gone and fixed that fact that field selection on a clip makes a difference.
Problem 1. every clip that I import is upper field first and almost every thing I work on is progressive so I am having to change the field dominance every time I import a clip or clips. Not to mention that all the renders that I get from the graphics department are premultiplied and I have to change that too. Feel like I am spending more time change clip properties than editing.
Problem 2. after cutting and edit and getting all the fields set to none if I make a new seqence with field set to none and copy and paste all the clips from the last sequence into the new sequence all the clips return to being upper field first again. NOT GOOD!!!!
Cheers, Chris
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8 Replies
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you worry about something you don’t need to worry about 🙂
a. when working progressive both fields are the same and which ever way you play it back the result is the same.
b. field order is only an issue when you transcode from a field 1 first codec to a field 2 first codec (eg PAL uncompressed to PAL DV) or vice versa. When you stay in one codec it doesn’t matter and you can safely leave the clips as they are imported. FCP will process clips according to the default field order. Unless you get clips which have non standard field order you don’t need to change anything.
c. if you want to change a setting for a bunch of shots, select them all in the browser and control click on the value of the coresponding column of the parameter you want to change. you’ll see that FCP will change them all at once.
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Sorry but that is not correct. Fields have alot more to do that just transcoding. If you drop a upper field first clip say a graphic that sould be none into asequence that is set to none then it will be deinterlaced (Which is not good) If I render out of a third party app as progressive then I have to change it on import into FCP to none as my timeline is none. So once I have 3 or 4 different timelines as none and I would like to put them all into the one timeline aka copy and paste then all the clip default back to upper first and any clip that sould be progressing gets every second field droped. Does that make sence?
This is a big problem!! and after spending only one week after upgrading all the suites we are spending alot of time pressing apple 9 and change the clip to none.
Cheers, Chris
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ok I might be wrong but as far as i understand tv is always transmitted as an interlace signal.
so it always has 2 fields. first the odd lines are transmitted and then the even ones. this is definitely the case in pal sd format. I’m not sure it is the same in hd but i guess it is.now you can shoot progressive which means that both fields are the same.
same for graphics. if you create a progressive animation you still have 2 fields, but both are the same.your saying that one field is being dropped. if so your resolution would be halfed and you would see a noticable picture degradation. Is this the case?
the reason that you have a none/one/two field dominance option is only of concern when you have interlaced originated material as there can be then a motion difference between the 2 fields. if you reverse the field order you get a jerky motion because within a frame you show first the 2nd motion relative to the recording time (hope that makes sense)
so unless you see your picture loosing resolution after you drop it in the seq, it doesn’t matter if you only work progressive.
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dumb thing to mention, but just in case…
I assume you are referring to the quality of the picture as seen in a legit TV monitor, NOT according to the Canvas window, which will only display one field no matter what.
steve covello
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Chris is right. It does make a difference, at least in FCP6.
If FCP5.1.4 didn’t deinterlace an Upper Field First clip in a progressive sequence then I’d say that was a bug and sometimes bugs can be helpful 🙂
For your workflow, there is no option but to change the clips after you’ve imported them. I’m not seeing the issue with copy/paste in 6.0.1, the field dominance stays just the same as in the original sequence.
Martin
Digital Heaven, London UK
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cofe wrote:
>now you can shoot progressive which means that both fields are the same.Not really. Progressive does not equal deinterlaced. Progressive scans the whole frame at the same instant, but the two fields are not identical.
Deinterlacing can mimic progressive frames by interpolation or replication. The two fields end up identical only if you deinterlace an interlaced source by replication . -
Hi David
I completely agree with everything you are saying with the exception of blaming FCP. If you now put a clip that is progressive and has been interpreted as upper into a progressive timeline it will play fine. BUT if it needs to be rendered due to a basic motion, speed change ,etc the FCP drops one of the field (and btw I never look on anything but a broadcast monitor in all my suites!) This is a big problem because I am now spending half of my day switching clips from upper to none. It is almost as painful as pressing the arrow key back one frame every time I need to mark an out point in the timeline. Don’t get me wrong I have based my whole company on FCP because for comercial work I found it one of the fastest editing packages around. It just seems to me they keep adding things that are slowing the basic thing down.Cheers, Chris
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Hi David
That unfortunatly doesn’t change the way a clip is imported nor does it change that fact that it is losing is state after copying and pasting. Hope they fix this soon.Cheers, Chris
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