• Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

  HD and SD in same timeline

  Posted by Andrew Wilson on April 22, 2009 at 7:44 am

  Hello Gentlemen,

  I haven’t worked with HD before, and I’m doing a project that includes both HD and SD.

  I shot on a Sony HDR camera in what I thought was HDV 1080i60, and then captured it as the same – I think (16:9, the footage looks nice). I have been editing off and on for a few weeks now, and when I checked the source media in the capture scratch, it says the footage is DV 720×480. When I play the source media in quicktime, it looks pixelated. However, in Final Cut, playing that same footage full screen from my sequence looks fine. The sequence settings are DV 720×480 (anamorphic 16×9 is checked).

  Is it possible that I started out with HDV footage?

  Is it fine for me to have my sequence as DV 720×480 even if I did actually start out with HDV footage, or should I start over with an HDV sequence?

  I don’t have the HDV camera available anymore, so is there a way to convert this footage to HDV and not have to borrow an HDV camera to recapture?

  Thanks,

  Andrew

  Dennis Leppell replied 17 years, 4 months ago 2 Members · 3 Replies
• 3 Replies

• 

  Dennis Leppell

  April 22, 2009 at 2:52 pm

  My guess is you captured the media via the camera, and didn’t realize the ilink downconvert was turned on, meaning that the footage WAS HDV, but the camera automatically downconverted to SD during capture. Try this…if you have the source footage tapes, pop one of them into a standard def deck or camera….If it in fact is HDV, you shouldn’t be able to view the footage or even get timecode. If this is the case, change your sequence settings to DV NTSC and carry on. You may have to readjust the scale on the individual clips already on the timeline, but at least your cuts are still in place.
• 

  Andrew Wilson

  April 22, 2009 at 10:00 pm

  Hello Dennis,

  Thanks for the help. On a DV deck I was able to get timecode but not an image. Seems like I should recapture and make sure it doesn’t downconvert.

  Is there a way for me to do this and effectively just replace the downconverted footage? Is it as simple as Reconnecting the media?

  I have the downconverted HDV combined with other SD footage (that was originally SD) in my SD timeline. If and once I reconnect the media, can I then just change my sequence settings to match the HDV footage?

  Thanks,
  Andrew
• 

  Dennis Leppell

  April 23, 2009 at 4:25 pm

  You should be able to…though you may need to double check the scale on the SD material once done. I’d also recommend Magic Bullet’s Instant HD to make the SD footage look a lil better next to the HD stuff.

  There may be some issues recapturing/reconnecting the source material….I’ve never tried what you’re about to do, but I do know there were concerns about the process when HDV first came available. Perhaps Tom or Dave will know better.

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