5 Issues I want to solve

[Rafael Amador]

[Francis Robertson] “Sequence Settings
1920×1080 interlaced HDTV 16:9
Field dominance – upper (odd)
Pixel – square “
if you go to SD, why do you edit in HD.
What do you intend, to blow-up the SD footage and them downscale it again?
No, no.
Go directly to SD.

[Francis Robertson] “Firstly, when I apply reverse motion to a 1080i clip by changing 100 to -100 it judders in playback, even when I render. Should I be able to resolve this in the render setting”
This is an old FC bug when playing backward interlaced material. The footage should be read with the field order shifted.
Nattess have a free plugin (Reverse) to get this done properly. Otherwise you can use the Shift-field filter.

[Francis Robertson] “Secondly, what is the best codec to capture SD footage from Digibeta? I did it @ 10bit but the files are huge, someone told me to try prores 422 but I couldn’t see it in the list, only prores 422(hq). Is there a difference? “
Proress SQ or HQ will work great. SQ is more compressed but you hardly will see any difference.

[Francis Robertson] ” My SD footage is 16:9 FHA, “
You need to check it a Anamorphic in the Browser.

[Francis Robertson] “When I try to do a full render it says ‘conforming MPEG- 2 video’ and seems to take ages rendering a sequence with very few effects. Why is this? “
Well I don’t know your Sequence setting.
I would make a Prores 720×486 (guess you are in NTSC-land) NTSC-Anamorphic-NONE (progressive)
sequence I would dump everything on top.
Before rendering, drop a de-interlacing filter in the interlaced material. Use a good one, no the FC default deinterlacer. Nattress may be the best for FC.
Before rendering you should set “Render in High Precision YUV” and “Render Motion Effects: BEST”. This in the Sequence Setting.
cheers,
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Francis Robertson]

Thats great, thanks Rafael.

I hadn’t thought about working on an SD sequence, I guess I just thought that because my footage is HD i needed to work on an HD sequence. Will changing the sequence settings to SD now cause any problems further down the line if we do decide to make an HD master?

Just to clarify; SQ stands for standard quality? It’s not in my list of codecs, should it be?

Thanks again.

[Rafael Amador]

[Francis Robertson] “Will changing the sequence settings to SD now cause any problems further down the line if we do decide to make an HD master? “
You will have three different kind of footage to downscale.

[Francis Robertson] “Just to clarify; SQ stands for standard quality? It’s not in my list of codecs, should it be? “
I’m still in FC6, so I only have Prores HQ, and Prores. There is no SQ.
In FC7 I guess you have Prores Proxy, LT, HQ, 444 and another one. That one is.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Walter Biscardi]

[Francis Robertson] “Just to clarify; SQ stands for standard quality? It’s not in my list of codecs, should it be? “

There is no SQ. There is ProRes, ProRes HQ (which should only be used for formats larger than 1080) and now we have LT and 4:4:4.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media

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[Walter Biscardi]

[Francis Robertson] “Firstly, when I apply reverse motion to a 1080i clip by changing 100 to -100 it judders in playback, even when I render. Should I be able to resolve this in the render settings? “

If you’re editing in an XDCAM timeline, this is a highly compressed format and you will see some judders and such due to the compression. I would recommend taking the reverse speed into Motion and applying the Optical Flow filter for better results.

[Francis Robertson] “Secondly, what is the best codec to capture SD footage from Digibeta? I did it @ 10bit but the files are huge, someone told me to try prores 422 but I couldn’t see it in the list, only prores 422(hq). Is there a difference?
“

If you have something like the AJA Kona boards (like we run here) you simply convert the DigiBeta to HD during ingest. We convert the footage to HD ProRes to match the rest of the footage we’re cutting with, either 1080 or 720.

HQ should really only be used for footage larger than 1080 as it can have some issues with digitizing and rendering with 1080 or smaller footage.

[Francis Robertson] “Does FCP have a dedicated aspect-ratio converter? I couldn’t see one in the video filters list. My SD footage is 16:9 FHA, and I want to stretch it out to fill the screen (at the moment it is squeezed into a 4:3 size box with black bars down both sides). If not what is the best tool to stretch it?
“

If your SD footage is anamorphic, FCP will automatically stretch it out when it is placed into the timeline, but you would have to scale it up to HD. Again, we convert the footage to HD during ingest using our Kona boards because this is full broadcast quality and does a much better job than FCP with scaling.

[Francis Robertson] “When I try to do a full render it says ‘conforming MPEG- 2 video’ and seems to take ages rendering a sequence with very few effects. Why is this? “

Because you’re editing in the XDCAM format. A highly compressed, very lossy MPEG-2 format. So FCP has to conform the Long GOP nature of that format before it can start rendering. Best to set up at least for rendering in ProRes if you can.

[Francis Robertson] “What is the best way to do this on FCP? “

Boris has some nice filters and you can get some very nice film looks using Color.

Now as for your DigiBeta layback at the end of the project, again, this is where something like the AJA Kona board shines. You edit your entire project in HD (which is what I would highly recommend since so much of your footage is HD to begin with) and when you’re ready for DigiBeta layback, you simply have the Kona downconvert during Edit to Tape. You can select Crop, Letterbox or Anamorphic for the downconvert. Then you can also lay off your HDCAM master as well.

One timeline, two laybacks. That’s the easiest way to do this. I would never recommend taking HD footage and simply editing it in an SD timeline. FCP does a very poor job of the scaling and in most cases you need your interlacing reversed. What you end up with is a much softer image than if you allow a hardware based converter, like the Konas, to the job for you. Sounds like this job would easily cover the cost of a Kona LHi.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media

“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” now in Post.

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

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[Francis Robertson]

Thanks for the advise Walter.

Now as for your DigiBeta layback at the end of the project, again, this is where something like the AJA Kona board shines. You edit your entire project in HD (which is what I would highly recommend since so much of your footage is HD to begin with) and when you’re ready for DigiBeta layback, you simply have the Kona downconvert during Edit to Tape. You can select Crop, Letterbox or Anamorphic for the downconvert. Then you can also lay off your HDCAM master as well

I have a Black Magic Board, can it downconvert during edit-to-tape as well? I was recommended Black Magic by a friend who works at an edit facility, maybe I should have gone with AJA Kona.

[Walter Biscardi]

[Francis Robertson] “I have a Black Magic Board, can it downconvert during edit-to-tape as well? I was recommended Black Magic by a friend who works at an edit facility, maybe I should have gone with AJA Kona.
“

I don’t honestly know the features of those products as we don’t use them here. I would suggest you ask over on the Blackmagic Forum here on the Cow about your particular product.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media

“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” now in Post.

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

Blog!

Twitter!

[Francis Robertson]

Okay I’ll do that thanks for your help.

[Francis Robertson]

Hi walter, from what I can gather on the blackmagic forum my decklink HD extreme board can down convert as well.

Thanks again.