1080i or 720p?

[Max Huggett]

And just to add, if i was to purchase the Fields kit from RevisionFX rather than using compressor to downconvert to 720P, would this be better?

Thanks

[Max Huggett]

I have just read a few older posts, suggesting to take the 1080i footage into a 720P timeline, edit as normal and apply a deinterlace filter. If thats the case, great as this would have the added advantage of letting me reframe some shots.

Could I apply the Natress deinterlace filter and do the standards convert at the same time to NTSC 23.98 and to NTSC 720P?

I think my heads ready to explode.
Thanks again.

[Steve Eisen]

Keep your project as simple and organized as possible. If it was shot in 1080, then edit in 1080. Edit in sequences. When you are completely finished with your sequences, color correct. When your project is ready for DVD, convert it to NTSC.

Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Board of Directors
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group

[Walter Biscardi]

If you ingested everything at 1080i, edit at 1080i. There’s absolutely nothing to be gained by converting everything to 720p for the edit.

Either way, you’re going to need to run a Standards Conversions from PAL to NTSC and quite honestly, for an entire show, hardware conversion is much better than software conversion. We have Nattress’ Standards Converter here and only use it on a few shots within a show. If I have an entire project that requires conversion, I send it off to a production facility with a terranex box to make the conversion.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
Credits include multiple Emmy, Telly, Aurora and Peabody Awards.
Biscardi Creative Media

Creative Cow Forum Host:
Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, Apple Color, AJA Kona, Business & Marketing, Maxx Digital.

Read my Blog!

[Alex Elkins]

Hi Max,

I agree with Steve and Walter about editing as 1080i.

Regarding the graphics, I’d suggest scaling them up in Photoshop (or whatever you used to create them) into full raster 1080 graphics (1920 x 1080). It’s a fairly quick thing to do to keep FCP from scaling/distorting the graphics to 1440×1080. Keep them progressive.

Just one point about the standards conversion – I’ve not used the Nattress plugin but I must say I’ve had excellent results using Compressor to go from PAL (1080i) to an NTSC DVD. As long as you turn on frame controls and set rate conversion to ‘Best’ the results will be spot on. The advantage of using Compressor is you can set it up to use all 8 cores on the Mac to render it, making it MUCH quicker to convert.

All the best,
Alex Elkins

[Kellie Crowe]

I have a question regarding your advice here. My timeline in Final Cut Pro is 1440 X 1080i. Are you suggesting that my Motion project (titles and animations) be set to 1080p instead? Will this result in less pixelation and distortion?

K. Crowe

[David Roth weiss]

[Kellie Crowe] “Are you suggesting that my Motion project (titles and animations) be set to 1080p instead? Will this result in less pixelation and distortion? “

Kellie,

As a rule of thumb, you should always create graphics at dimensions that require no scaling. If there is no change to any pixels you avoid the addition of artifacts.

The HDV signal is recorded at 1080i utilizes 1440×1080 frame with a 1.33 pixel aspect ratio, however it displays at 1920×1080 with square pixels — so, you want to create graphics at the full raster display resolution of 1920×1080 square pixels, otherwise you will be either adding or stretching pixels, both of which can create pesky artifacts.

Got it?

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.