Down Convert HD to SD

[Alex Elkins]

Hi Stephen,

Compressor does a really good job of frame rate conversions as long as you turn on your frame controls and set your Rate Conversion to ‘Best (High quality motion compensated)’.
Your Resize filter set to ‘Better (Linear filter)’ should be enough.

Last night I ran a 50 minute conversion from 25fps PAL to NTSC (for DVD) and it worked excellently. It took about 5 hours on our 8-core Mac using Compressor’s cluster capabilities.

Or you could try rendering out the uncompressed file as a self-contained Quicktime, then feed THAT through the Kona card, rather than playing out via the source files on your timeline.

Good luck,
Alex

[Shane Ross]

[Stephen Smith] “The hardware downconversion works but adds occasional frames that have to be manually removed.”

Well…you are editing 24p, at 23.98, right? And then downconverting to SD, at 29.97, right? So you need to add 6 frames when you do this…so the Kona will smartly add 6 frames. You say you have to manually remove them? How do you do this? WHY do you do this? SD doesn’t run at 23.98. And the Kona does this downconvert when you output to tape, so I don’t see how you can remove these frames. That comment really has me puzzled.

[Stephen Smith] “If possible, It would be nice to avoid using the AJA Kona card technique.”

Why? This is far and away the best option from the computer. FCP doesn’t do it well. Compressor CAN do a good job, but it takes time. And the hardware convert of the Kona is second only to outputting HD, and then using a Terranex to downconvert…dubbing at a post house so equipped.

Shane

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

Hey – just wanted to chime in here since this is almost the same workflow we have. I posted on another forum about this: when I do the downconvert through the Kona I can’t get the tape to start recording at the right frame.. and audio/video go out of sync. So, I’m reduced to going through Compressor or After Effects to manually downconvert the frame, add 3:2 pulldown and then edit to tape. Has anyone here encountered this? Should I not post in this thread? Lemme know.

Steve

[Daniel Robertson]

hey alex, on that note just a quick question.

what sequences settings are you using when down converting HD to SD before exporting to compressor?

I’ve been told to change the render setting on the SD timeline to “render all material to YUV in high precision..” before exporting to compressor, does this sound right to you?

cheers
D

[Alex Elkins]

Hi Daniel,

Don’t do the down-conversion using FCP. Just export your sequence in HD as either ProRes or Uncompressed, as a self-contained Quicktime. (File>Export Quicktime Movie).
Then you import that file into Compressor. I would again suggest setting the codec in Compressor to either ProRes or Uncompressed, then adjust the Frame Controls settings as I mentioned above.

A quick note also about ProRes – this is a 10bit codec whereas XDCam is 8bit, so remember you can set your video processing to “render all material to YUV in high precision”, as you mentioned. It’ll take longer to render, but you’ll get better quality if you’ve added any effects to your shots.

All the best,
Alex Elkins

[Stephen Smith]

Shane, there is nothing occasional about an additional 6 frames every second. I’m not talking about cutting out 180 frames for a 30 second spot.

Alex, thanks for answering my question. I should have tried that first off the bat. Every-time I convert an HD video to an SD DVD in compressor it does a fantastic job.

– Stephen Smith
Lone Peak Productions

[Ed Sharp]

Hey guys,

Sorry I am still having some troubles with my compressor downconversion/standards conversion.

I am working with material digitised at 1080i 24 fps – from this I have 2 purposes, one edit finishing on Bluray and the other as SD tv spots.

So I just lay off to HDCAM at native 24fps, then usually go through alchemist to finish off the job. However, the cost of this for the tv spots are not really warranted… therefore I am looking for a way to convert these 1080i 24fps to 25PAL whilst retaining the 10seconds that they need to be (no duration change…)

I think it is the time shift that is really messing with my head – the results from compressor have been quite ordinary so far.

Help would be appreciated.

Regards,
Tom.

[Frank Terribile]

Hey guys . . .

Let’s start by saying that I’m not that savy when it comes to all this technical crap. I’m an editor who sits down at his machine, where ever that might be, and I start editing. Yes, I should sit down with some technical journals and learn more about my craft, but I’m just too busy editing 10-12 hours a day 6-7 days a week.

Here is my problem. I was sent HD footage to edit into a SD TV spot. I’m guessing it was shot at 24p because no matter what I do to convert it to SD DV, the footage studders. I realise the FPS is the problem.

Question . . . in english, how do I convert this HD footage to SD without the flickering?

I have Final Cut and After Effects.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Guys.

Frank T.

[Stephen Smith]

Frank, I would use Compressor. Drop your clip into compressor and choose your SD codec. If you need to change the frame rate then take a look at this article: https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/converting_frame_rates_compressor.html
It works great. Best of luck.

Stephen Smith
Utah Video Productions

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[Shane Ross]

Edit in HD until you are done and need to output SD. SD Tape? let the capture card handle the downconvert and frame rate thing…they all do well. DVD? Just using the presets works fine.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def