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Downconvert options?
So I’ve had all of my new HD gear set up in my studio for a little over 6 months and I’m pretty happy with the overall workflow I’ve got going. One thing that is turning out to be more cumbersome/time-consuming then I’d like is getting a clean downconvert to SD from HD (typically Uncompressed 8-bit for both).
When I first ordered the Panasonic 1400 deck it was on back order. Before I had it delivered, I was using the Kona card to downconvert my HD timeline from FCP:
Kona Downconvert-> SDSDI -> Router -> Blackmagic converter to component video -> D9 deck
Then I would simply re-digitize from the D9 deck (similar to DigiBeta) as SD and that was that.
Once my Panasonic 1400 came in, I changed my downconvert path to this: Kona -> HDSDI -> Router -> HDSDI input on Pan. 1400
Then I used the Pan. 1400 downconvert option to re-digitize in FCP. I found I had to use the Anamorphic option on the deck (Fit H_V) in order to get the fields to line up right in FCP.
Yesterday (to get to the point) I went through the same steps but ran into an issue with a graphic looking like it had the wrong field settings (like if you Interpret it wrong in After Effects). Being pressed for time and needing a quick fix, I ran a superless version of the spot out to the Pan. 1400 and then went back to After Effects to recreate the graphics at D1 size and rendered out with fields. Combining the superless-downconverted video on track 1 and the SD re-rendered graphics on track 2 in FCP gave me the correct look on an NTSC monitor.
Even though I always deliver SD, I
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4 Replies
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Forgot to add that these commercials get delivered via FastChannel as MPEG-2 files, so that is why I need to re-digitize them. If I were doing beta dub masters, I would just use the Kona downconvert output to the Beta deck.
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Why not do they downconvert via the Kona card and not the deck. This might provide cleaner graphics.
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“Why not do they downconvert via the Kona card and not the deck.”
That was what I was doing originally. I switched to take advantage of the SDI signal path going to the HD deck (which only records HD signals AFAIK) rather than out through a converter and then to a different deck via component.
Now that I’ve got some time to dissect what happened, it might have just been a particularly problematic logo. The client recently redesigned it and it has 3 very thin lines outlining an oval. I was going from 720p to 525i. When I re-rendered with fields, it looked much cleaner.
I’ve decided to edit with an SD monitor on at all times now so I can catch these things earlier, instead of when I need to get something out in 15 minutes!
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No, why not downconvert via the Kona card and go out SD SDI to the deck. Timeline HD Kona downconvert to SD Anamorphic to Deck’s SD recorded.
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