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FCP and InstantHD
I purchased InstantHD v1.1 from Red Giant Software and am using it with FCP 7. I’ve gone through the video tutorial and documentation and am still having problems, so I thought I’d ask here to see if anyone has experience with this product.
Basically, I have some SD footage I shot back in 2005 that I want to convert to 1080i. According to the documentation and tutorials this can be accomplished, yet every test I make looks terrible. Now, I understand that converting to SD to HD isn’t going to look like true HD but I did expect the footage to look a little better than it does.
I think the problem is that no matter my setting it not only is increasing the picture to 1080i but it is also zooming into frame further so a quarter to a third of the footage cropped. And I can’t figure out how to reverse this.
Does anyone have a suggestions for converting SD 29.97 footage to 1080i HD footage using FCP and InstantHD?
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8 Replies
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I really have no experience with InstantHD. All I can tell you is that upconverting is best handled with hardware like the AJA Kona cards
Rob Grauert, Jr.
http://www.robgrauert.com
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Well, yes, it is zooming in. It needs to zoom in far enough that the 4:3 image now fills the 16:9 frame. This will blow up the image another 33% on top of the blow up it is getting to go to 1080.
Does Instant HD allow blow up to pillarbox? Meaning black on the sides. But then you have black in the sides that won’t match the rest of the footage.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
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Or does it have a panoramic option? Panoramic will leave the center of the screen intact, while stretching out the left and right. So it takes on a look more like a wide angle lens, instead of a completely distorted image. Someone should write a panoramic filter for FCP if there isn’t one. One that would allow the tracking of the focal point, so it remains undistorted while the rest of the image gets the stretch.
I notice a lot of TV shows that were shot 4:3 film originally like Friends and Seinfeld and being made HD on TBS and such by stretching them a little horizontally, and zooming in a little. Splitting the difference between the stretch and zoom methods. It’s an option, but an annoying one. I see those shows on TV and I think I’ve got the zoom setting wrong on the TV.
If I have a few shots to uprez to HD, I’ve had immaculate results using AE if you have it. It’s scaling engine is pretty much as good as it gets. I have Matrox hardware, but that would require a deck. Everything comes to me digitally for the most part.
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Actually, the DV footage is 16:9 and there is a checkbox for that but it still zooms in.
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@Bret: I don’t have AE currently. I have pre-ordered CS5 but that’s not being shipped until next month. Do I just use a resize option there or is there a specific filter/plugin you’d recommend trying?
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[Bret Williams] “I notice a lot of TV shows that were shot 4:3 film originally like Friends and Seinfeld and being made HD on TBS and such by stretching them a little horizontally, and zooming in a little.”
Just an fyi, Seinfeld was rescanned and conformed in HD last year. The episodes now air in HD and look great.
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Here is how I have used it in the past. Make an HD sequence and add your SD clip(s). Call this your source ftg. In the motion tab, make sure the the setting for the clip is 100%. it will look small in the record window.
Edit the SD ftg from the Source Sequence into your HD sequence. Add your Instant HD filter to that and check the fit to fill setting in the INstant HD setting. Also make sure the input size in the settings is set your original SD setting.FCP 6.06, OS 10.5.8 2x3GHZ Quad-Core Intel Xeon, Kona LHe, Dulce Duo-eSATA 8 Drive, 4TB Raid.
John Knapich
Creative Director/Partner
Assembypix.tv -
You would just put your sd clips in an HD composirion, scale them up and render. AE has scaling more akin to Photoshop. Does a really great job. I haven’t had a chance to try upscaling with my Matrox mxo2 box.
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