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best way to get 720p to SD?
all my footage is in xdcam 720p and I need to export to beta sp deck via a matrox mxo2. normally i would just keep everything in a 720p timeline and let the matrox do the downres. however, i want to scale some of the clips up.
right now i have my 720p clips pasted in a 8bit uncompressed timeline and i am seeing some weird interlacing artifacts. should I set my SD timeline’s interlacing to “none”?
does it matter if I just paste my 720p clips into an SD timeline or should I nest the sequence? does it matter?
sorry about all the questions just want to make sure i am doing everything right.
I’m using FCP 6
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13 Replies
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Have you rendered the HD clips? HD clips in an SD timeline always look terrible unless they are fully rendered.
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yeah sorry i should have gone over that. yes i did render everything in 8bit uncompressed SD and matrox playback is to 8bit uncompressed.
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When you edit HD clips into an SD sequence FCP should automatically add a “Shift Fields” filter.
Do your clips have this filter? -
[AnDy Nitchman] “however, i want to scale some of the clips up. “
What do you mean by that? Your cleanest downconvert will be through the Matrox, not by rendering in an 8bit SD timeline. If you are center punching and want to reposition some of the 720p material, then you create a new HD timeline and reposition the video as needed for the downconvert. Then let your Matrox do the downconvert.
We do this weekly with a series that’s cut in HD but delivered on BetaSP. Sometimes we have to reposition the video to make sure it’s shown properly in 4:3.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
Credits include multiple Emmy, Telly, Aurora and Peabody Awards.
Owner, Biscardi Creative Media featuring HD Post
Biscardi Creative MediaCreative Cow Forum Host:
Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, Apple Color, AJA Kona, Business & Marketing, Maxx Digital. -
We do a show that is shot in 720p but the commercials come to us on betasp. How would you handle that one?
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[Joe Bryan] “We do a show that is shot in 720p but the commercials come to us on betasp. How would you handle that one?
“That’s easy. Convert the BetaSP to 720 during ingest. We use the AJA Kona 3’s here but the MXO2 does the same thing.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
Credits include multiple Emmy, Telly, Aurora and Peabody Awards.
Owner, Biscardi Creative Media featuring HD Post
Biscardi Creative MediaCreative Cow Forum Host:
Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, Apple Color, AJA Kona, Business & Marketing, Maxx Digital. -
Thanks. We have Kona2 cards here. No Joy.
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[Joe Bryan] “Thanks. We have Kona2 cards here. No Joy.”
The Kona 2 can upconvert to 720p. Joy lives.
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What do I mean by scale a clip up? I mean I want to use 100% of the res of my 720p clip inside the SD timeline. I want to be able to set the scale up to “100”on my 720p footage inside the motion tab. think of it as a digital zoom. don’t know how else to describe it.
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Why can’t you do the down convert through the Matrox as you normally would?
Example: You’re in the 720p timeline. You want to “zoom in” on a person’s face. So, scale up the shot to crop as needed. I guess the maximum scale would be 178%–the ratio of 1280 to 720.
This frame size chart shows you how much of a 720p frame is covered by an SD frame:
When you down convert, most of your shots will be scaled down so that 1280 pixels have been crunched down to 720. In the case of the “zoomed in” shot, you’ll be putting 720 pixels into 720. The result is the same as if you did it the other way around as you are suggesting. But the Matrox hardware down convert should be better than what you’ll get rendering in an SD timeline.
Check my logic on that. I have not tested this premise.
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