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HDV to PRORES and levels
Hi,
I have HDV material that I have edited on an HDV timeline. I use the color correction filter and make sure that everything is within range. I have my rendering set to PRO-RES. When I am finished I create a new PRORES sequence, and copy/paste the material from the original HDV timeline. Now a lot of my levels go above the broadcast safe threshold. Any ideas here?
I did a search but didn’t see anything related to this happening.
Sterling
Sterling Noren
Owner/Writer/Producer/Editor
WideWorld HD Productions
Seattle, WA -
8 Replies
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Sterling,
Why do you copy and paste into a new ProRes Timeline? If you have the render set to ProRes in the HDV timeline then all of your renders are ProRes. You should be able to export your finished sequence into what ever flavor of delivery format.Lee
Lee Berger
http://www.leebergermedia.com -
From my understanding, when the sequence settings are HDV (even with it set to render as PRORES) then the EXPORT TO QUICKTIME will create an HDV file. I want to create a PRORES file as the end result. I want to render everything once, in PRORES (to get the best quality possible) and export as a PRORES quicktime. Everything I have read on the forum indicates that this is the way to do it, but nobody indicated the problem I speak of.
Sterling Noren
Owner/Writer/Producer/Editor
WideWorld HD Productions
Seattle, WA -
[WideWorld HD] “From my understanding, when the sequence settings are HDV (even with it set to render as PRORES) then the EXPORT TO QUICKTIME will create an HDV file”
That’s true if you choose “Current Settings” but you can select any other QuickTime codec and transcode. I ran a test exporting from an HDV sequence to ProRes422 HQ 60i, 1920×1080. I applied color correction and rendered prior to export. I then imported the file back into FCP and it was identical in levels to the clips on the HDV timeline.
It seems to me that if you paste all of the clips into another timeline that doesn’t match the HDV codec then you have to render everything. The same result can be achieved by simply exporting from your HDV sequence to ProRes 422.
Lee Berger
http://www.leebergermedia.com -
This sounds good in principle – so if I’ve edited on a DVcam NTSC seq timeline, I can simply export that timeline and choose uncompressed 8-bit NTSC 48KHz codec in the QT mov export settings box and I’ve got a better (re: text and graphics only) looking video for export than had I chosen “current settings”?
So how would one do this scenario for export to Compressor? Wouldn’t we have to copy/paste HDV (or DV) timeline to an uncompressed 8-bit timeline? (I’m using FCP 5.1.4.)
Thank you
K -
[kent beeson] “export that timeline and choose uncompressed 8-bit NTSC 48KHz codec in the QT mov export settings box and I’ve got a better (re: text and graphics only) looking video for export than had I chosen “current settings”?”
I suspect that in exporting a DV sequence FCP renders in the Sequence Codec during the export. If this is true you would not gain any quality in graphics.
It works with HDV or XDCamHD sequences because you can select “Render in ProRes” in the sequence settings (FCP 6.x only). All of the render files therefore are ProRes. The “Render in ProRes” option is not available for any other sequence codecs such as DV. That’s too bad!
[kent beeson] “Wouldn’t we have to copy/paste HDV (or DV) timeline to an uncompressed 8-bit timeline? (I’m using FCP 5.1.4.)”
In this scenario you would see improved graphics, but you would have to render every DV or HDV clip in the sequence as well. On HDV sequences I find it best to export first (“By Reference” is not an option for HDV) and then encode in Compressor.FCP 2 is a worthwhile upgrade just for the ProRes codec and mixed resolution Sequence, not to mention the Smooth Cam Filter and Motion 3.
Lee Berger
http://www.leebergermedia.com -
Thanks Lee – very helpful…so in a nutshell, one could/should export an HDV seq using ProRes 422 HQ 60i, 1920×1080, then take that QT file and import that into Compressor – good results – correct?
K
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Yes that should work. The last full HDV project I exported was in FCP 5.x and I exported using “current settings.” Then went to compressor to scale and letterbox. I haven’t taken a ProRes export past the test I did for this post.
Test a couple of minutes of your project and let us know how it looks.
By the way if you’re going to SD I have found that Compressor’s letterbox filter does a better job then FCP in scaling. There is a letterbox filter in Compressor’s Filter Tab (within the codec inspector).
See this post https://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showpost.php?p=789649&postcount=6
Lee Berger
http://www.leebergermedia.com -
Thanks again – very useful info
K
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