Converting 1080 60i to 1080 50i

[Walter Biscardi]

You really want to do this in hardware. And actually a Terranex is not always up to snuff as we recently found out. Alchemist is apparently the way to go if you want a perfect conversion.

We’ve been sending our 1080i/60 masters to PostWorks New York for conversion to 1080i/50 for our European shows. They’re really good and really reasonable.

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

“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” Winner, Best Documentary, LA Reel Film Festival.

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[Andy Mees]

Terranex is great but you need to be certain that the facility you use has one with all the bells and whistles … Alchemist Ph.C is the dogs bollocks tho.

[Ian Liuzzi-fedun]

This is very interesting to hear that Teranex is not necessarily the best. My question is still not fully answered. Is there some intermediate board/device/method between something awfully expensive and Compressor that is “possible” to purchase that one could get or use for this?

[Eric Pautsch]

You can do this with AviSnyth and Virtual dub and match the quality of a hardware converter – but its PC only

[Walter Soyka]

[walter biscardi] “Terranex is not always up to snuff as we recently found out. Alchemist is apparently the way to go if you want a perfect conversion.”

Alchemist Ph.C. uses motion compensation in its frame rate conversion, and Teranex does not. That’s why Alchemist conversions have looked better than Teranex conversions for the last several years.

That said, Teranex announced a motion-compensated frame rate converter at last year’s IBC. I don’t know if they’ve shipped yet, but I’d be curious how the new models compare.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Andy Mees]

Is there some intermediate board/device/method between something awfully expensive and Compressor that is “possible” to purchase that one could get or use for this?

You don’t actually have to buy an awfully expensive Teranex (or Alchemist or whatever) to get your video converted … as Walter alludes, you just need to send it to a facility that does have the right equipment ie you pay someone who has already made that bigger investment to convert your footage for you.

If you want to avoid even the cost of having someone else convert it for you then Compressor’s higher quality settings provide excellent results albeit at the cost of taking a long time to work … or if you have an aversion to Compressor perhaps you could have a look at the Standards Conversion plugin pack from Graeme Nattress, also highly regarded: https://www.nattress.com/Products/standardsconversion/standardsconversion.htm

As Eric notes, there are some excellent PC based software tools for handling the conversion, if that’s something you’re equipped for.

As far as I know there is no “cheap” yet high quality HD standards conversion / frame rate conversion hardware out there. Teranex make an affordable “Teranex Mini” but as far as standards conversions go, thats SD only. Blackmagic Design also recently released their super affrodable UpDownCross Mini Convertor but I believe that also handles standards conversions as SD only.

Hope it helps
Andy

[Ian Liuzzi-fedun]

Can someone else comment on this. Can this software really do this and make it look close to an Alchamist – better than Compressor?

[Ian Liuzzi-fedun]

I understand that I can just take my video to a facility but I always like doing things myself and to top it all off I might have to do this again and again so investing in something that I can use myself over again would appear to be best. I do have access to PCs but is this software really that good….better than Compressor?

[Walter Soyka]

[eric pautsch] “You can do this with AviSnyth and Virtual dub and match the quality of a hardware converter – but its PC only”

Eric, I’d love to test this sometime. Is there a particular script you’re using, or have you developed your own?

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Ian Liuzzi-Fedun] “I understand that I can just take my video to a facility but I always like doing things myself”

What are your delivery requirements? What do the delivery specs say about format conversions? Do you have to output to tape? If so, do you have the deck?

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events