-
curious interlacing lines or just poor quality in 24p (dvx100)
Okay, I’m pretty sure I’m losing my mind on this one…
I’m shooting 24p (normal, not advanced) on a Panasonic DVX100b. I use scene file 5 as originally programmed, capture into final cut using all “normal” settings (NTSC 29.97, sequence settings the same). That’s always been fine and dandy, as far as I could tell/can remember.
All of a sudden, I am trying to capture and I run into a couple of problems:
sometimes the footage looks okay when static, but as soon as the camera or subject moves there are serious interlacing lines (horizontal) happening on that part of the image.
otherwise it is just really cruddy. I want to say “pixelated” but I don’t think that’s really accurate. Everything is stepped and blurry and there are no smooth edges.
I tried all sorts of combinations with capture and sequence settings just in case, but nothing made it any better.
I can’t IMAGINE why this would matter, but I am in Europe and using an NTSC camera… problems remained when shooting in totally natural sunlight, but hey, putting everything out there.
One last thing – when I bring it into cinema tools, captured all normally (as below), and then use cinema tools reverse telecine to 23.98, it looks lovely, but takes forever, SHOULD be totally unnecessary, and then I have video in 23.98, which is fine, but again, unnecessary.
I tried cleaning the heads (with a head cleaning tape, that is) to no avail. My camera is pretty old (3 years) but I really don’t use it very much. It lives in a nice bag in nice temperatures. I can’t imagine it is a camera problem, but then again, I can’t find what’s wrong with the editing side either. Someone else tried with a different copy of fcp and also no luck. So confusing. I’m sure there is a very very simple idiotic solution to this situation, and I hope all you brilliant minds can see what I can’t?
Panasonic DVX100b (purchaced may 2006, hour meter at 00191H)
Final Cut Pro 5.0
on a MacBook Pro running OS X (10.4.11)sequence preset: DV NTSC 48 kHz
capture preset: DV NTSC 48 kHz
device control preset: Firewire NTSCmy face: tears!
next gig: tonight!
🙁 -
2 Replies
-
Do realize that 24p mode (F5) lays off to tape with 3 progressive and 2 combined (interlaced) frames for every 5. It’s all part of the cadence (simple cadence 3.2) of combining the 24 progressive frames into something usable to tape and adding 6 more frames to make 30.
SO… yes, if your canvas window is set to 100% and you step thru the video frame by frame you will indeed see 3 progressive and 2 interlaced every 5 frames.
Now, you said you brought into CT to reverse telecine. Good. That removes the cadence by re-ordering the fields of the combined frames and taking away the 6 extra. It shouldn’t take THAT long. There are two ways to do it in CT one gives you a completely new file and the other just jacks with the one you are using. I like to use the completely new file one just because I’m always afraid of doing it wrong. But it never takes THAT long. I mean, long enough, but never do I say, “man, that took LONG!”
Does this answer your question?
I guess for what it is worth, I NEVER shoot 24p anymore. If I wasn’t going to edit any of it I’d think about it. But really, if you want 29.97 shoot 30p or the 60i mode. If you want 23.98 shoot 24pA and have FCP remove that cadence. 24p just gets in the way and forces another step. Also, if you WANT the 3.2 cadence just go ahead and edit the 23.98 stuff and dump to tape with FCP adding the 3.2 cadence on its own. That way you have a steady cadence of 3 progressive and 2 combined (pleasing to the eye) rather than the possibility of mixed cadences over cuts which (though not to everyone) looks awkward at best.
Ok?
Good luck,
Mike
-
I’m having a similar problem as the original post.
I’m shooting with a Panasonic AGVX100B in 24P Advanced. My FCP capture preset is Advanced 2:3:3:2 and my sequence settings are 23.98 fps.
The problem is that when I view the footage (of anything moving- a person, a fence, a bird, whatever), whether its in the log and capture, the timeline, or I output to quicktime, I’m getting bad horizontal interlacing.
If I change the capture preset to normal NTSC and the sequence settings to 23.98 it’s not as bad but I’m losing quality.
I’m at a loss here and don’t know how to fix this. Any ideas?
Any ideas would be appreciated.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up