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Best way to import SD to an HD Timeline?
My apologies if this has already been covered. I am working on wedding video with 95% HDV and am wanting to add some SD footage (4:3 and 16:9) into the HD sequence (SD 4:3 *.DV footage burned from DVD using streamclip and the 16:9 captured straight from the miniDV tape). I have two rather simple questions.
(1) What is the absolute *best* way (prime focus on quality) to upscale the SD footage to HD (timeout… isn’t there an upscale feature?)… or is resizing within the canvas and re-rendering the best way?
(2) Is it a bad idea to give the SD 4:3 footage a 16:9 look by cropping it, or would it be far too pixelated due to the stretch (?)… Note: i’d really like to keep the 16:9 look.
Thanks in advance!
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Erik Andre -
6 Replies
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[ErikAndre] “(1) What is the absolute *best* way (prime focus on quality) to upscale the SD footage to HD (timeout… isn’t there an upscale feature?)… or is resizing within the canvas and re-rendering the best way?”
First of all, you’re original footage is coming from a DVD through stream clip. It will never look great. You’re best option it to only get it to look good enough.
Easiest way, just drop the SD footage on the timeline and scale it up. Make sure your Sequence settings – Video Processing – Motion Filtering Quality is set to High.
Another option is to use compressor to convert the footage to HD using some presets that are in there.
You could also try Instant HD by Red Giant.
Try to find something that will give you acceptable results. It will never look as good as your HD footage most likely, so keep that in mind when you’re trying to decide what is acceptable.
[ErikAndre] “2) Is it a bad idea to give the SD 4:3 footage a 16:9 look by cropping it, or would it be far too pixelated due to the stretch (?)… Note: i’d really like to keep the 16:9 look.”
It means you’re going to scale footage that doesn’t look that great to start with. Try it and see if it is acceptable. I’ve never had any SD footage look as good as footage that was shot on HD.
-Russ
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Basically,
You import it as 4×3 and then scale it up to 135% to fill the frame and place it up and down to where you want it cropped.
note that if you change your setting to motion quality best, then it affects ALL of your sequence renders. (this will significantly increase render times.
David
Peace and Love 🙂
Read my Blog
https://blogs.creativecow.net/DavidBattistella -
That’s a good start. The SD video is basically home video donated by the family to include in the wedding video, so I’m not looking for perfect (the footage, tho not the best quality, is priceless footage to the family).
I just don’t want to overlook one method of bringing the footage in if there’s another way that’s better.
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Erik Andre -
I wouldn’t be afraid of keeping the video 4×3 in a 16×9 frame if it is old family movie footage. Seeing it 4×3 is kind of nostalgic and nice if it’s old footage. You could also do a cool treatment on the sides of the video instead of just leaving it black.
-Russ
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Just to add Erik, when you export from MPGStreamclip, do it to 8b Unc. SD DVDs MPG2 are 420, but different than the PALDV 420. Think that when you are applying MPGStreamclip, you are converting that 420 video in a 444 one, and them recompresing it to the cocec that you chose. So if you export to 8b unc at least you keep a 422. Probably the best that you can extract from the MPG2.
Rafael -
Thanks… that does help. I honestly just let it do the default settings in streamclip (it was a bit intimidating), but i will recapture in the way you told me.
Thanks for following up. 🙂
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Erik Andre
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