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Editing HD for SD broadcast
HI,
I’m just about to edit a series of multicam concerts shooting on EX-1s which I beleive will give me XDCAM 1080i 25 footage. I am planning on editing and grading in native sequences, rendering there and then nesting into uncompressed 10-bit sequence to layoff to PAL digibeta for delivery.
I tend to edit using alot of repos and zooms, and I’m assuming that having 1080 footage will give me alot of latitude to do this without loosing quality. My question is: Is the above workflow the best way to maintain maximum picture quality? Will any softening of images caused by zooming in my 1080 sequence carry though to my SD sequence, or can I get FCP go back to the orginal media files when rendering the SD sequence?
Or is there a better workflow altogether?
Cheers
s.
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7 Replies
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[simon bryant] “I am planning on editing and grading in native sequences, rendering there and then nesting into uncompressed 10-bit sequence to layoff to PAL digibeta for delivery. “
Ugh! Get away from native XDCAM and import as ProRes. XDCAM is a terrible format for manipulating at all because of the heavy compression and low data rate of the original media.
Final Cut does not do the best scaling in the world. I would edit in an HD timeline and then position the video where you need it for the 4:3 center punch output, then use an AJA Kona board for the downconver to your SD master.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
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I second the idea of using hardware to do the downconvert to SD. Dropping a sequence into a 10 bit SD timeline and rendering takes a long time to produce an image that is softer than a hardware convert.
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The problem with hardware is pan and scan. If you want a full-screen 4:3, hardware conversion center-cut is often going to be a problem unless the footage was shot with 4:3 in mind.
FCP software conversion can work really well or really poorly depending on what you’re doing. Down-scaling works much better than up-scaling. And you don’t want it to convert frame-rates, interlace, or deinterlace. So going from 1080i to 480i is fine. You can also change scaling quality to “best” in the sequence settings.
As for XDcam, it is usually better to capture at ProRes. There are some situations where capturing native is better, but in those cases you’d still want to render on a ProRes sequence.
Sean
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Hi, and thanks for all your responses. downconverting using hardware sounds like the way to go. We’ll deliver 16.9 anamorphic so there shouldn’t be any problems, right?
The problem i have with editing using ProRes is that this project has a VERY fast turnaround. We’ll be using cards and capturing using log and transfer. I simply don’t have time to media manage before i offline, but i could media manage my cut sequences overnight to ProRes before grading. Is this the best option available to me given my time constraints?
Cheers
Simon -
These days PAL delivery is always 16:9 anamorphic (or full height as the broadcasters normally spec it.)
You have the option of setting the renders to be ProRes in you XDCam sequence, which is an excellent option. I do it all the time with HDV and I have done it that way with XDCam onlines and it is a good workflow.
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Hi,
I’m going through this work flow right now.
What I’ve been doing is editing the XDcam natively, including scaling and coloring and so on. I then render in a Prores HD timeline and export the sequence as a self contained quicktime movie.
I then take this movie to compressor and convert it to 10-bit uncompressed Pal. I put this movie into a new timeline, add titles and creits then lay off to digi-beta.
So far, the results are great.
I have a Blackmagic Multibridge extreme, but the downconverts with it are softer than using compressor, and in any case, I don’t like adding titles until I reach my final sequence.
regards
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Brilliant. Thanks everyone for your responses. I now know exactly what i’ll be doing. I’m using a kona setup so i’ll run a test to see whether hardware or software downconvert is crisper.
Cheers
S
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