Ex1 and Decklink Extreme with FCP downconversion??

[Jerry Hofmann]

Don’t think that your card will downconvert HD to SD. FCP will handle the HDV that the camera shoots, but you’ll have to down convert it to see it externally and record it to SD tape. So you need to be looking at a card… Kona 3 would be my choice, but a Kona LH series card would also down convert the HD to SD.

Jerry

Apple Certified Trainer

Author: “Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4” Click here

8-Core 3.0 Intel Mac Pro, Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D, AJA Io HD, 17″ MBP, Matrox MXO, CD’s

[Stephan Walfridsson]

Hi Johnny,

I can confirm that the Decklink Extreme (non HD) will downconvert EX1 footage in realtime for you to monitor. It’s just a matter of having the correct output settings in FCP, depending on the actual format you’ve shot on. It looks OK if you find the correct setting, really bad (or no realtime) if you have the wrong setting.

I have also downconverted footage from EX1 to SD but I haven’t done it for anything broadcast related yet. However I can say that dropping your HD sequence into an SD sequence and rendering that produces pretty good results. You will obviously loose reolution and quality but to my eyes it looks ok. I’ve done that from other HD sources for broadcast and to me it looks as good as any other commercial when it’s aired. ( I might get bashed by some technical experts for saying that…)

/Stephan

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Johny,
I don’t see the need to downconvert on capturing. The EX-1 footage you can even cut it directly in a SD time-line with RT.

[Stephan Walfridsson] “However I can say that dropping your HD sequence into an SD sequence and rendering that produces pretty good results. You will obviously loose reolution and quality but to my eyes it looks ok.”
I think that FC can make such a good downsizing that makes unnecessary to go to Compressor or any other application. Set your sequence in Proress HQ or 10b Unc, “Render all YUV in High Precision” and Motion Render: BEST.
Rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Jonathan White]

Thanks guys for the advice. Bought the camera, lovely!! getting sd monitoring from decklink and have done some render tests which seem nice..

Just another thought, how good is the sd downconvert from the camera itself? would it make any sense to make a master xdcam clip of a programme, copy to camera and record via sdi the sd squeeze output from the camera????

Johnny

[Sam Tollitt]

using the camera might be one of you best choices if you don’t want too spend loads of extra cash.. or compressor… ahem…

I have been doing experiments as I am trying to find the best quality DVD, the images have been shot on RED cam with a finished cut in Pro Res HQ 1080. (not the same as you i know)
Encoding and burning this file to DVD looks terrible when encoded with either cinema craft plugin for compressor or just the apple standard encoder, both with top notch settings.

I have experimented with different methods of down converting the video too SD first, I am getting much better results, yet I do still feel the quality can taken to a higher grade

I have been doing my down converts with Kona 3 and Kona LHe cards (which I suspect are identical)
now this morning I did a test in compressor – re encoding the HD QT 2 uncompressed 10bit SD using frame controls in compressor with settings set too max, what I saw appeared to look better than the uncompressed SD files I had been making from the Kona card… I carried on to encode my test file as a MPEG2 for dvd using Cinema Craft encoder (compressor one looks good too) and as expected they looked better than the files I had originally been playing with that had been down-converted using the kona card.

Of corse this process in compressor is very lenghtly and is not really for a ‘quick’ viewing copy yet a cheap way to get as higher quality DVD out of your FCP system.

Hope this helps