EX-3 HD to SD best methods?

[Noah Kadner]

Kinda depends- what platform, NLE and destination i.e. DVD or what have you?

-Noah

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[Don Greening]

I want back in the poster’s history and it looks like Frank’s using Vegas, which means a PC platform. I don’t think there’s a Mac version, is there? That’s why I never answered the post because I don’t have a clue about Vegas.

– Don

[Frank Manno]

Oh ok.

Well, I’m using Sony Vegas.

But what I need to do is hand over some clients SD files .AVI or a DVCAM tape with the footage shot from an EX-3.

So bascially I’m trying to work out the best way to down convert. I’m assuming now that it’s probably SDI out of the camera into a deck?

I don’t have an SDI deck and I heard that the S Video out of the camera tyo a DVCAM deck is not that great.

So to summerize, S-Video doesn’t look to good (I heard),
I don’ thave SDI.

What other options / best methods do I have left to downconvert my HD files and give someone the .AVI’s or tape in SD. ?

-Frankie

[Perrone Ford]

Well,

I can tell you what I do, and you can go from there.

1. Re-Wrap footage from BPAV folder to .MXF File

2. Bring MXF file into editor

3. Render to lossless .avi codec of your choice. I use uncompressed or huffyuv.

4. Here you need a GOOD resize function. There are many. I tend to use the resize function inside Virtualdub which is a free download. This resize function has a variety of methods, but the Lanczos is the one you want. This produces the absolute best results for downsizing or upsizing videos. Don’t let the free status fool you. This is about as good as it gets at any price. So use this tool to resize the video to your desired size.

5. Save the video with the desired lossless codec.

6. Bring the newly resized file into your NLE and edit.

Because of how Vegas works, I’d suggest you resize the video first before working with it, OR, edit in 32bit float, and STAY in that color space from beginning to end. If you work in 8 bit in Vegas for speed, as soon as you leave that color space (like jumping out to Virtualdub or other program with an uncompressed file or similar) you’ll lose your corrections. I just accept the pain of working in 32bit float in Vegas so I can jump out any time without these issues. Since I generally work with Proxies, it’s not too bad.

Resizing video footage cleanly isn’t a black art. You just need a good tool. Far too many programs cheap out and use the ‘nearest neighbor” method which produces garbage results. Some of the better ones use linear (decent) or bicubic (better) interpolation. The best use Lanczos interpolation and it shows. I can’t point you to some examples if you want to see some results.

[Derek Hader]

On this topic, what issues am i encountering if i bring Sony HD MXF files into a 16:9 SD NTSC project, place the file on the timeline and scale to fit the frame?

ie, I have 1440×1080 (1.333) 30P footage, scaled to 45% (which pretty much fits perfectly

If this is a bad method, what would be the ideal way for me to mix a variety of formats in Premier?

btw.. using PPro CS3 on PC

Thanks!