FCP Workflow with HDV / HD / DV footage

[Kent Stipp]

Stephen,
As we all know HDV footage is long GOP and well difficult at best to edit. I would suggest choosing a suitable ProRes 422 Format like Pro Res 1280×720 60p or something like that and that way it will also be more editable for you. you can do the same basic thing with your DV footage by upconverting it on ingest.
Hope this helps

Kent Stipp
Life Begins at 155mph
Ki PRO Lens to Post
3am Studios llc.
3amstudios.org
Sharedsummitsfever.com

[Stephen Vilas]

thanks Kent for the reply.

why 1280×720 though? wouldn’t it be better to have all the footage on the same frame size of 1920×1080 (as the rest of the XDCAM EX1 footage) or is that not recommendable at all?

[Kent Stipp]

i was just using that Pro Res codec as an example, it was the first one off the top of my head. the best of course is match as close as possible to the other footage ( if and when possible)

Kent Stipp
Life Begins at 155mph
Ki PRO Lens to Post
3am Studios llc.
3amstudios.org
Sharedsummitsfever.com

[Michael Gissing]

Stephen, the best approach is to use one codec but the decision to do that should be made in pre production. ProRes is probably the best to chose. At this stage with most of the footage in XDCam, your sequence is probably better left as XDCam that matches exactly your clips and convert the other footage to ProRes 1920 x 1080 so you pixel aspect is common.

To do that open a new sequence, drag one XDCam clip into the sequence and it will ask to alter the settings to match the clip. Say yes and make note of the settings. Adjust your Easy Setup to those settings and you will have minimal rendering/ RT issues. As an XDCam sequence you can set your renders to be ProRes which is a good way to go

I note with alarm that your audio setting is 44.1 which is wrong and a disaster waiting to happen as all your audio is 48Khz.

The important thing though is what are you delivering? If it is broadcast you will need to deliver 1080 50i on HDCam (or SR).

[Stephen Vilas]

[Michael Gissing] “Stephen, the best approach is to use one codec but the decision to do that should be made in pre production. ProRes is probably the best to chose. At this stage with most of the footage in XDCam, your sequence is probably better left as XDCam that matches exactly your clips and convert the other footage to ProRes 1920 x 1080 so you pixel aspect is common.

thanks, Michael, this seems to be the best approach. Will compressor be the best app for converting the HDV footage to 1920 x 1080 ProRes? I assume there will be some loss of quality by converting this footage, but I assume this is not too much of a problem?

I note with alarm that your audio setting is 44.1 which is wrong and a disaster waiting to happen as all your audio is 48Khz.

Yes, thank you for pointing that out. I checked and most of the sub sequences I am working with had the 48Khz setting, but the main sequence had other audio settings for some reason. thanks very much. by focusing on the codec and frame size issues I didn’t pay attention the audio settings!

The important thing though is what are you delivering? If it is broadcast you will need to deliver 1080 50i on HDCam (or SR).”

There will be different versions.
One delivery format will be for broadcast, but since most of the channels here in Europe don’t broadcast in HD yet, a DigiBeta copy will be enough. I aim to have an HD Master of my current settings (1920×1080 ProRes HQ) which I will then send to a duplication facility to make the necessary copies to HDCam tape and DigiBeta. Can I keep my current settings if I want to render out my digital master file or should I adjust the field dominance? (I know 1080p25 is not available as aspect ratio setting in FCP, so I assume the HDTV 1080i aspect ratio is the one i want to keep for the master as well)

[Nick Price]

HI stephen,
i have found much better results using compressor to upscale footage, DV/HDV to Prores, making sure you turn on ‘Frame Controls’ in your compressor setting. This gives a much better version that FCP doing the rendering, but it will take a LONG TIME!! I would finish off the project, media manage to just the clips you want and uprez that in compressor. There should be a way to replace the clips automatically if you are clever with your file naming.

As you say hardware conversion at a posthouse or with the kona for example would be preferable, but again as you say, not to everyones budgetary tastes…

good luck
nick

[Stephen Vilas]

thanks, Nick. there’s some great advice. I had done some tests already without frame controls and considering the amount of footage I have for this film, it might indeed be a good thing to use Media Manager when the final cut is ready and only convert the HDV/DV footage I will use. I was already going to add a couple 1TB disks more to the Mac Pro but even then it would be a tight fit, considering the size of ProRes footage.

do you have any suggestions regarding frame control?
Should I by default set the anti-alias and detail sliders to the maximum?
I want to have a 1080p25 master at the end, so I’m assuming I should always set output fields to progressive, but not sure what the best approach is for de-interlacing. Reverse telecine for HDV and DV footage or is that not necessary?

thanks for your help anyways!