Converting 720p + Beta timeline to ALL SD

[Shane Ross]

[Phil Smith] “What is the best way to convert the sequence(s) so that the SD content is at full resolution, and the HD content now “scales down” to a size that can be shown in the right aspect on SD?”

Well, using COMPRESSOR would be the best way. But then it would still be 16:9. Not sure how to make it CENTER CUT SD.

[Phil Smith] “changing from HD to SD seems to make things very grainy and nasty.”

Did you render the footage? Look at it on an external SD monitor? Never ever judge the quality on the computer monitor.

Compressor seems to want to encode the ENTIRE image, no way to center cut. And from what I understand, SD is lower field first when it comes to interlacing, and HD is upper…but I might be wrong. Great help, huh?

We are having to do that here, mix Uncompressed SD with XDCAM…output to be Digibeta. Still testing and working on the details.

Shane

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[John Fishback]

You don’t mention if you have a Kona or similar I/O device. The Kona can downconvert to SD cropping the sides (or letterbox) as it does, so you can play out to your DigiBeta. Would that work?

John

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[Phil Smith]

Oh, I SO wish… unfortunately, given the spec that the client has given me, they will not accept any form of anamorphic (so no bars, even small ones), so I can’t really get away with shooting it through my Kona 3 and just down-converting on the fly. Would definitely be easier though.

[Shane Ross]

Uh, in the AJA CONTROL PANEL you can either downconvert and output Anamorphic, Letterbox or CROP, meaning center crop. The Kona 3 can do this.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
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[Phil Smith]

Given that this footage was shot on the fly by their ENG guys, part of the issue that I’m dealing with is the noise in the blacks from the not completely well-lit area combined with the JVC/Apple codec. It only amplifies when converting this footage in the timeline.

However, as an update for everyone, I may have found a workable solution.

1) I created a new Sequence with the following settings:
DV 3:2 aspect
Progressive Frame
No field dominance
Apple ProRes 422HQ codec

2) I then copied and pasted the footage from the HD sequence into the SD/DV timeline.

3) I went back to the media, and Scaled to Sequence for everything (all 720p and Beta footage)

4) On the 720p clips, I used “Noise Dissolve” on the footage, it got rid of a surprising amount of garbage. Then scaled them to ~70%

5) Since the interviews that had noise were roughly all shot the same way, I then created a garbage matte over blank text as a transition layer and placed it over the area in the footage that was the problem.

6) I added a gaussian blur at .25 pixels to the matted area. then adjusted the edge feather so that it created a pseudo-depth effect.

It doesn’t look too bad after all that. Still wondering if anyone has the magic bullet though.. 😉

-PJ

[Phil Smith]

Yes, I’m sorry… I should have mentioned. My client is a micro-managing “@$#%#$”… He looked at the crop, said no dice. The long process that I outlined gives almost the same result… loves it.

(head-slap)

Sigh… it’s not my money…