DVCProHD 1080i60 to 720×486 NOT letterbox must pan & scan

[Walter Biscardi]

[Graham Jones] “We are frantic, and must find a solution fast. At this point the only workaround I can think of is to continue to work in DVCProHD with a mask to show the 4:3 safe areas, and do my pan & scan on the 16×9 sequence, then use the KonaLH’s downconverter. It’s workable but not ideal. “

This is precisely what I do. Stay in the HD timeline and frame (when necessary) for the 4:3 crop. This way you stay in HD to maintain clean quality and the Kona downconverts.

Honestly not sure if there is an automated way to do this. Generally when we’re going down to SD we always protect graphics for 4:3 anyway so it’s just second nature here to protect for that.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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[John Pale]

[Graham Jones] “We are frantic, and must find a solution fast. At this point the only workaround I can think of is to continue to work in DVCProHD with a mask to show the 4:3 safe areas, and do my pan & scan on the 16×9 sequence, then use the KonaLH’s downconverter. It’s workable but not ideal.
“

The best thing you can do would be to get a monitor that can display the 4:3 safe area on a 16:9 frame. A post house that I do a lot of work for has some nice TV Logic monitors that do this, and it makes framing for 4:3 easy (they are primarily an Avid shop, but the principle is the same). Just do all your work in 16:9 and adjust accordingly, then run through your Kona downconvert.

[Graham Jones]

Hi,

Thanks Walter and John. Actually I solved it in a different way, with some very important notes.

I used my initial method of changing the sequence settings from DVCProHD 1080i60 to the KonaLH 10 bit uncompressed SD preset (720×486 non-anamorphic). Then:

1. Motion Filtering Quality for the sequence (in sequence settings) MUST NOT BE SET TO “BEST”. This creates field issues. Using “Normal” solves this for most footage, if note #2 is applied.
2. Must use the “Shift Fields” filter, set to “-1” — this is applied automatically by FCP to new footage that is edited into the sequence, but an existing sequence must have it manually applied to each clip.
3. Because of the order in which FCP processes its effects, any clips that have speed changes must be nested first before the “Shift Fields” filter is applied. If the “Shift Fields” filter is applied to a clip with a speed change, it will have field issues.

This lets me pan-scan each clip in an SD sequence, and monitor on my SD monitor, rendering out 10-bit uncompressed exactly as it will be seen. To my eye, the quality this way is superior to the hardware downconversion on the KonaLH.

I hope this helps other people with similar issues.

Thanks,
Graham.

[Walter Biscardi]

[Graham Jones] “This lets me pan-scan each clip in an SD sequence, and monitor on my SD monitor, rendering out 10-bit uncompressed exactly as it will be seen. To my eye, the quality this way is superior to the hardware downconversion on the KonaLH. “

You’re the first person I’ve ever heard say this.

Quite honestly your method is way too many steps and I would never recommend anyone to do it that way. We’ve been doing HD including downconverts going on four years now and if you have a Kona, it’s much easier and better staying in HD.

Simply duplicate your HD Sequence.

Set up the Kona to downconvert to your SD monitor.

Pan and scan shots as you need to for the 4:3 crop.

Output to Tape.

No nesting, no shift fields, nothing. And quite honestly, what FCP does in rendering will never be as clean as the Kona hardware conversion.

Glad it worked for you, but I would never recommend your method as a way to downconvert HD to SD for 4:3 center punch.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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[Graham Jones]

Hi,

it’s possible that my LH is not working correctly or set up correctly, as I wasn’t able to get it to downconvert a non-letterboxed format to my SD monitor, no matter what I did in the AJA control panel. Plus, even the letterboxed downconversion was giving major jitters.

I am under the gun for delivery and can’t spend any time trying to diagnose the issue with the LH card at the moment. Your method does sound easier, but I’ll have to wait until I get a break to do any further R&D.

Thanks,
Graham.

[Walter Biscardi]

[Graham Jones] “I first copied my 1080i60 sequence, and then changed the sequence settings to 720×486 40:27 (using the KonaLH 10 bit preset). I use motion settings to scale the clips to the right size and aspect ratio. “

Ok, I just re-read this. Here’s where you went wrong.

You leave Final Cut Pro in DVCPro HD 1080i/60. You do NOT change anything in FCP.

You then change the AJA Kona Control Panel to perform the Down-Convert and in your case you select Crop.

You can then pan your shots in the HD timeline to make sure they output correctly.

I outline how to do this in an FCP FAQ right here in the forum.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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[Walter Biscardi]

[Graham Jones] “it’s possible that my LH is not working correctly or set up correctly, as I wasn’t able to get it to downconvert a non-letterboxed format to my SD monitor, no matter what I did in the AJA control panel. Plus, even the letterboxed downconversion was giving major jitters. “

I just re-read your original post and FCP was set up incorrectly.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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[Graham Jones]

Hi,

sorry if I was not more clear… I did try exactly what you suggest, and the KonaLH control panel was not responding to my indication to “Crop” — whether FCP was open or not. It would always letterbox no matter what the Crop/Letterbox popup said. Also, from the HD sequence the downconversion to letterboxed SD was jittery.

I do not have the machine in front of me right now… at some point tomorrow I will go over your FAQ item, comparing with my test sequence and KonaLH control panel, to see if there’s anything I missed.

Thanks,
Graham.

[Graham Jones]

An important distinction I forgot to mention — because of luma shift issues upon render, we were forced to render our 1080i60 sequence as ProRes HQ (there was a noticeable and reproducible luma boost upon render when keeping the sequence settings at DVCProHD 1080i60).

Most of my 4:3 downconvert testing was done with ProRes-rendered sequence. However, I did do a test with DVCProHD 1080i60 as the sequence preset and it did not seem to fix the downconverting issue.

Just thought this was worth mentioning.

Thanks,
Graham.

[Walter Biscardi]

[Graham Jones] “However, I did do a test with DVCProHD 1080i60 as the sequence preset and it did not seem to fix the downconverting issue.
“

Sequence Preset or Easy Setup? Your Easy Setup in FCP should be AJA Kona DVCPro HD 1080i/29.97.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

Read my Blog!

STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!