-
DVCPro HD down conversion to digibeta
Cut my first HD project on a Kona 3 in FCP. DVCPro HD footage, 720/60 in a timeline of the same. Client decides to run the program 3 months ahead of schedule and the station in question isn’t broadcasting HD for 2 more months.
Can I down convert the 720/60 wide screen timeline to 4:3 SD on digibeta? Can I do it on the fly using my Kona 3 or do I need to drop it into an SD timeline in FCP?
I’m a newbie with this board and don’t have time for experimentation right now, so detailed help is much appreciated.
-
7 Replies
-
All Konas do realtime downconversion of HD to SD. Here’s a FAQ I developed for the Final Cut Pro Forum that describes how to do this.
https://forums.creativecow.net/faq/applefinalcutpro#42
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
-
Thank you Walter. I’ll give that a try this morning. And thanks for pointing out the FAQ section. This is the fist of seen of it.
-
You will probably have to rebuild your graphics as the field difference between HD & SD make for some serious ugly text, especially if it’s moving horizontally.
Walter-Do you guys do separate SD masters? We have ALWAYS had to do SD graphics. We have never gotten HD graphics to downconvert to SD and look crisp. We have 3 Kona systems…all the same.
-
Kevin –
When you use Kona to down convert, you’re doing it on the fly as you output to tape, no?
If you reformat graphics to SD, wouldn’t you have to edit those into and SD timeline? They would then still suffer from the down conversion, no?
I have a feeling I’m missing something here and would appreciate your clarification.
-
[Kevin Wild] “Walter-Do you guys do separate SD masters? We have ALWAYS had to do SD graphics. We have never gotten HD graphics to downconvert to SD and look crisp. We have 3 Kona systems…all the same.”
Rarely anymore. As long as the graphics are protected for 4:3 we don’t see any issues with the graphics looking crisp to our Beta machines and DVCAM machines. The big issue comes if there are thin lines in the graphics, then we have to re-do them.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
-
[marco bella] “If you reformat graphics to SD, wouldn’t you have to edit those into and SD timeline? They would then still suffer from the down conversion, no? “
as long as they are protected for 4:3 (provided you need to crop the 16:9 output) your graphics should be fine. We see no issues with graphic downconversion unless there are very thin lines or thin fonts. Those just have to be thickened up for SD
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
-
Walter, I don’t get this at all. Nearly every thing we do has to be redone, due to the inherent field differences between HD’s upper and SD’s lower. We have rendered “no fields” and brought graphics in and they didn’t look good, either.
You don’t get jagged edge’s on your text when downconverting? We do and again, it’s on 3 different systems. It’s obvious and ugly, especially on text moving horizontally.
I’d love to know any secrets you can share…
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up