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capture old, OLLLLDDDDD 24p footage
So- I’m trying to find the best settings to log/capture 24p footage into FCP6. No, I’m not a time traveler from 2007, thanks. I like my old FCP6 just fine but despite it’s age I can’t find a solid answer about this. I’ve tried a couple capture presets I thought would work but the footage just doesn’t look “right”- the background is kinda jittery and the people look oddly pixelated. The footage I’m trying to capture is from 2009 and I honestly can’t remember what kind of DV video camera was used. The reason I’m obsessing over getting this to look as good as possible is because the footage is of a dear friend who recently passed away and I’d like to edit something together for my other friends to have of her. No, not some gauche best-of clip reel, just something sweet that most importantly looks as nice as possible. So to recap, how can I definitively get 24p DV footage to look as amazing as possible? Thanks!
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16 Replies
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“Kinda jittery” sounds like reversed field order. You might check your pre-sets and sequence settings to see if that’s set wrong.
Also, see if “pull-down” was applied or not.
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Ah, thanks- What would the “wrong” settings be, i.e., jittery=field order is reversed or field order needs to be reversed to get rid of the jitters? And these would be capture presets, correct? Also how do I make sure the “pull-down” was applied? Thanks again!
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Thanks! Here are your questions and my details-
That could be tough to do. How are you currently capturing the video? Using a camera to capture? A deck? The capture presets already tried? Details, please.
– I’m capturing the video through a little Panasonic PVGS500 via firewire to an ext. hard drive which is connected via firewire 800 to a Macbook Pro. So it’s camera-external hard drive-computer. I tried capturing with the settings on DV NTSC, DV NTSC with the just the frame rate changed to 24p, and then DV NTSC with the “pull down removal”
And you may want to wrack your memory to recall how this video was shot: 24p, 24PA, and whether these tapes have continuous time code.
– It was definitely shot on a Panasonic DVX, most likely it’s 24p, no idea about the timecode.
I have a feeling you’ll end up doing a log & capture of individual shots to make life easier on yourself.
-Well most of what I want to capture is longer segments, like multiple takes, outtakes etc. It’s not that much, not like hours, so batch capturing is fine.
And DV is DV. It’s tough to polish a turd.
-It’s just needs to be free of any major glitches.
Thanks again!
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I’m working in 7 here, not sure if 6 was the same but first open up your sequence; click on the picon in your bin labeled “Sequence”, then go to the top menu and pull down the menu for Sequence> Settings. Tell us what all the info there says. Now, drop a clip into the timeline, highlight it and right-click to reveal “item properties”. We need all that info.
If you’re familiar with using the free Grab tool in Apple’s utilities, take snapshots of these screen readouts, then use the COW image posting controls at the top of your comment box to post those screen captures. Maybe something obvious will stand out when we see it.
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Here are the screenshots of my presets, as well as one of the footage in question. I just opened it with Quicktime and shift/command/4’ed, I didn’t export as image from sequence because I thought that might not be as accurate. I think you can see what I mean- the door frame in the lower right hand corner of the frame is doing the squiggle vision thing really bad, as is the box she’s holding, and there’s generally just an unusual amount of pixellation over their faces too.
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So in terms of logging “individual shots”, by shots you mean segments on the tape separated by the starting and stopping of recording, correct? So if I have for instance, a five minute clip of an actor doing multiple takes, the same pulldown removal can be applied to that whole segment as long as the camera didn’t stop and start recording again, yeah?
I agree that this makes more sense, as the camera used was a rental, so who knows what settings might have been fiddled with when we weren’t using it and which we then missed re-adjusting when it came back into our possession.
Now how do I go about properly removing pulldown from these individual shots? Also do I need to set in and out points? All the shots/clips have generous amounts of stuff (highly technical term) at both the beginning and end of when recording started/stopped, so if the timecode is a wreck (it most likely is) wouldn’t it be just as easy to do the old press PLAY and then click CAPTURE NOW/ESC at the beginning and end of the clips I want?
Thanks!
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Dave noticed the same thing I did. Do you have Cinema Tools? Would you try bringing that shot into Cinema Tools and seeing if you can eliminate the 3:2 pulldown? There should be a button for it or something there. If you don’t have Cinema tools (it used to come free with the suite), you could try using Apple Compressor to transcode and remove pulldown.
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The footage in question could very well be 24PA! I just don’t remember. Could I, in theory, try to recapture some clips at optimal 24PA settings, whatever they would be, and see if that helps?
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They are indeed moving around and that’s where the worst of the jagged edge stuff is happening, even in the less contrasty part of the frame. I know some of what I’m describing is indeed just DV noise and grain but there’s something else going on as well that’s more “abnormal” looking.
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I do have Cinema Tools, I’ll try that. So you think it’s something I should worry about fixing once I have the clips captured? Or should I recapture with specific settings before trying to fix the problem in Cinema Tools/Compressor?
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