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Editing HD and SD in SD timeline for SD DVD
I’m trying to figure out the best workflow to mix EX-1 HD footage (1080p, square PAR, 29.97) with SD (lower, NTSC-CCIR 601, 29.97) footage for output to an SD DVD. I researched the forums and found that I should convert the HD footage to SD in Compressor before importing to FCP but not sure what settings to use. I tried converting to the EX1 footage to ProRes422, 720×480, 16×9, lower, CCIR 601. When I imported to FCP I noticed that the field dominance was not retained and actually defaulted back to none. When I change the field dominance again in compressor, it defaults back to none as soon as I close the settings window. Is this a problem compressor or a conflict in my settings? Did I choose the right work flow and compressor settings in the first place? Any advice would be helpful. Thanks in advance to the COW community.
Eric
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6 Replies
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The XDCam footage was shot p so none is correct. It can go into an interlaced sequence however. Set your sequence to ProRes and you should be fine.
Don’t go near DV codec please or it will further transcode the footage.
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Hi Eric,
You don’t need to make Interlaced your Progressive EX footage.
Progressive footage works as Progressive and as interlaced.
Drop your 1080p footage in the SD sequence and forget about fields order.
That’s the magic of Progressive.
rafael -
Thanks. This information was helpful but didn’t seem to resolve the problem. My initial attempt was to edit the EX-1 HD footage (1080p, square PAR, 29.97) in a sequence set to match the SD footage (lower, NTSC-CCIR 601, 29.97). The result was a DVD with great looking SD footage and pixelated HD footage.
The DVD was encoded from FCP send to Compressor with best 150min settings because the show is over 2 hours.Previously, I’ve edited P2 footage (imported with log and transfer) with SD footage and the resulting DVD was much better.
Any explanation for this?
Thanks again.
Eric
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[Eric Pedicelli] “My initial attempt was to edit the EX-1 HD footage (1080p, square PAR, 29.97) in a sequence set to match the SD footage (lower, NTSC-CCIR 601, 29.97). “
As I said, this is unnecessary being the HD footage progressive.
Downscale the HD footage in Compressor KEEPING it Progressive.
Or put the HD footage in the SD sequence and render set the codec to Prores, Render in High Precision and Render Motion Effects: BEST.
rafael -
Here’s a good conclusion to this thread:
https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/ex1_sd_output_young.html
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Rick Young’s tutorial is good, but I wasn’t satisfied with the MPEG2 encodes I got. I now get better looking HD to SD MPEG2 encodes using AviSynth and HC Encoder in Windows; both are free apps.
Basically, I transcode my Apple XDCAM EX 720p60 to ProRes 422 @ 720p29.97. I then put the ProRes MOV file on my Windows PC (make sure the Windows QuickTime ProRes codec is installed). I then make an AVS script file to feed the MOV into HC Encoder. I tweak some of the HC Encoder’s settings, click Encode, and out pops my MPEG2, which looks much cleaner than my XDCAM HD->SD DV->Compressor MPEG2.
Let me know if you want specifics on this workflow, and I’ll type something up that’s more in-depth. It’s worth a try.
Adam Carrier
Digital Media Technician
acarrier{at}marinersmuseum{dot}org
The Mariners’ Museum
http://www.MarinersMuseum.org
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