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1080i to NTSC insanity
This is the most crazy-making thing I’ve ever run into, and of course it’s due in 8 hours. Any clues would be fantastic.
Trying to make a DVD of a show originally shot (and cut) at 1080i. No matter what I do, the NTSC version ends out looking terrible. Specifically, regardless of how I do it, at any step along the pipeline, the minute I reverse the field order (upper to lower), the standard-def picture has its resolution cut in half again… and I have an ugly, half-res picture.
It doesn’t matter if I use FCP or Compressor. It doesn’t matter if I render a clean 1080i clip and drag it into an NTSC timeline (720×480 or 720×486)… or just send the 1080i clip straight to compressor and scale it there. It doesn’t matter if I swap the field order using the ‘shift fields’ filter, or by changing the center point of the clip. And astonishingly, it doesn’t even matter if I shift the fields while it’s at 1080i, render that as a new 1080i clip, and then bring that back into FCP in an NTSC timeline. The minute this thing becomes lower-field first in NTSC, it goes to half res.
I feel like I’m going mad. Anyone have any ideas how I can get this show out?
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9 Replies
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Are you exporting Letterboxed 4:3 or 16:9?
If 4:3 letterbox here is a work flow that has worked for me. I hope it is helpful to you.
https://www.dvinfo.net/conf/789649-post6.html
droplet here:
Lee Berger
http://www.leebergermedia.com -
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[Mike Jackson] “, the minute I reverse the field order (upper to lower), t”
Why do you need to change your field oder?
Just drop your HD footage (Upper) in a SD Upper sequence with the codec of your choice.
In Compressor set:
– Video Format: NTSC.
– Field Order: Top First.
Then in “Frame Control” set “Outpt Fields: Same as Source”.
Your MPG2 will be Upper First and will play great.
rafael -
1080i HD is Upper Field First, your show needs to be converted to Lower Field SD for NTSC playback.
The Easiest way to do this for DVD is just to allow Compressor to do this for you. Simply drag your movie into Compressor, select your DVD setting of choice and ensure that Compressor is set to Upper for field order. Yes, that’s correct, Upper because this is the setting for the incoming video.
When you’re done you should have a clean video.
The second way to do this, and we do this all the time too, is use an AJA Kona to downconvert the footage to an SD format for you and recapture that back in, then make your DVD.
We work with this both ways here.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
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[walter biscardi] “1080i HD is Upper Field First, your show needs to be converted to Lower Field SD for NTSC playback. “
Walter, you can keep all the way Upper First. Here in PAL land we make Upper or Lower First MPG2 depending of your source material. You can even have in the same DVD Upper and Lower tracks.
rafael -
[Rafael Amador] “Walter, you can keep all the way Upper First. “
Not with NTSC SD. That is lower field first. If you make an upper field first NTSC SD file, you will have bad interlacing issues that will translate to the DVD. This thread question deals with NTSC.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
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[walter biscardi] “Not with NTSC SD. That is lower field first.”
Walter if you send an HDV sequence to Compressor to make an NTSC MPG2, you will get an Upper-first MPG2. There is no shift-fields nowhere.
Once your NTSC is in your computer you just need shift fields to have an NTSC Upper file. You can do whatever you want with it even a MPG2. The only thing you can’t do is Printing to Video. In tapes for obvious reasons must be a fix field order.
I just can invite you to make a test.[walter biscardi] “This thread question deals with NTSC.”
???
rafael -
Thanks guys. Bypassing FCP entirely seems to have done the trick, though it didn’t the first time I tried… mind you, that was at 2:30AM, so I probably just made a bleary-eyed mistake on that attempt.
What I’d love to know is what’s really going on. Is this a recent bug? Or is it something I’ve never encountered before because most HD shows I cut are 24P? I just about had conniptions though, adding and removing the shift-fields filter in the timeline, and watching harsh aliasing appear any time it became lower first.
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[Dave LaRonde] “However, there’s only one problem with your statement above: ALL NTSC video for AUTHORED standard-definition DVDs is MPEG2, LOWER-field first. All of it. No exceptions. It’s the technical standard. “
Can you point me to some documentation that state so?[Dave LaRonde] “Obviously, Compressor knows this and treats the fields accordingly.
“
So is to you to tell to Compressor that THIS NTSC DV MOVIE IS UPPER FIRST AND MUST TREAT IT AS UPPER FIRST.
Dave, I tell you the same. Spend 5 minutes and make a little test.
Rafael
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