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720p23.98 SD downconvert — stuttery 2:3 pulldown?
I’ve talked to BM about this, and although their explanation made plenty of sense I just wanted to post this out there and make sure I’m not getting it wrong…
I’m looking at footage that is 720p DVCPRO HD @ 23.98fps and I’m downconverting it to SD with Blackmagic’s Software Downconvert feature (located in the System Preferences) and it looks like the 2:3 pulldown that’s getting put on it (I’m downconverting to NTSC, obviously) is kinda off. The motion is stuttery and is general not very fluid. It’s not a HUGE in your face kind of badness, but it is BAD. The motion looks bad, particularly on pans and tilts.
As a comparison, I looked at the same footage at 1080i60 @ 23.98 downconverted to SD and it looked great. The motion was totally fluid and there was no stutter.
I called BM support and the BM people told me that YES their 720p60 downconversion is not as good as their 1080i60 downconversion and the reason for this is that they’re converting twice… once from 720p23.98 to 720p59.94 and then once again to SD. Somewhere in this double conversion the motion gets kinda wonked.
Soooo, I just wanted to confirm that YES, this is the case, that getting a good 720p23.98 – SD downconvert requires a deck or some software downconvert. If this IS the case, I’d like to petition BM to fix this issue. I know that 720p23.98 is, in itself, not a viable finishing format (all 720p is 59.94 apparently), BUT getting a good downconvert from 720p23.98 would be very helpful, and it kinda sucks that BM hasn’t figured this out, yet. Clients tend not to have the ability to evaluate rough cuts in HD so the only way to get them anything from a 720p23.98 timeline is through the software downconvert feature. Not having good quality motion (not to mention super jaggedy edges on letterbox downconversion) kinda makes having a downconversion kinda pointless, no?
Better downconversion, please, BM! Your 1080 downconversion rocks! Why is 720 so hard?
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2 Replies
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Are you converting to lettterbox or Anamorphic? I recently worked on a music vid at 720/23.98 and the anamophic to NTSC looked fairly decent. The letterbox looked terrible – aliased and jaggy.
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True, letterbox looks MUCH WORSE than anamorphic, but BOTH have stuttery motion. Letterbox would be ideal for us, but if anyone can figure out a way to get good motion with Anamorphic, I’d be down, as well.
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