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FCP X – poor render and export quality – pixelated edges
So I’ve been getting used to FCP X and trying to give it a go. Sure there’s quirks and bugs and it snags, but overall it’s getting the job done well.
I’m running into a problem when I export a project in which it loses significant quality in the details.
I’m importing HDV footage from a Camera Archive into a 1080p30 project. The HDV source file looks fine in Quicktime 7.
HDV Source (cropped at 100%)When I export the clip from a project into any flavor of ProRes or even 10 Bit Uncompressed, it pixelates the image.
ProRes 422 HQ Export (cropped at 100%) Look at the diagonals up top and the black cable
I’m on Lion 10.7.2 with FCP X 10.0.1. I’ve already trashed the preferences, tried it in a new project, changed the resolution from 1440×1080 to 1920×1080. I’ve played it back in QT X and QT 7.
Does anyone have any ideas? Or is this just something I need to get “used to”? 😀
Thanks!
Matt -
10 Replies
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Maybe you can verify your playback settings in FCPX preferences. I have read that if it’s not set on “high quality”, export doesn’t override it.
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Looks like an interlace problem to me – as HDV is interlaced – have you de-interlaced on export?
Jon
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good point, I’ll check the settings on that. There aren’t any deinterlace options in the export choices. But it may be the project settings I need to look at.
I wonder if it’s how FCP is seeing HDV progressive footage in an interlaced wrapper.
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Have you look that clip on broadcast monitor, from another editing software FCP7 6 or PP or Avid.
Is there the same problem when you watching that on broadcast monitor?
If is the same on broadcast monitor that is the how the FCPX processing the picture.
Apple didn’t make broadcast out for FCPX so I am thinking did they check it at all.MacPro octocore 2.8
macbook pro -
Is this from the FCP Viewer? Setting it to 100% is not enough. You have to set it to show both fields as well.
Why are you editing in a 1080p project? What HDV camera did you use that shoots 1440x1080p30?
All the best,
Tom
Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP7,” “Basic Training for FCS” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Coming in 2011 “Complete Training for FCPX” from Class on Demand
“Final Cut Pro X for iMovie and Final Cut Express Users” from Focal Press -
What camera shot this media?
All the best,
Tom
Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP7,” “Basic Training for FCS” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Coming in 2011 “Complete Training for FCPX” from Class on Demand
“Final Cut Pro X for iMovie and Final Cut Express Users” from Focal Press -
Thanks everybody, so I figured out the problem after some of your suggestions.
(btw, the screenshots are from QuickTime 7, though QTX was having the same problem.)
It appears that when you shoot footage from a Canon HV40 camera in 30p, FCPX wants you to create an “interlaced” project even though it’s a progressive image from the camera. Back in FCP7 you would choose the 1080p30 sequence preset and it would work. Now it’s 1080i60. But when you’re done, even though it says it’s interlaced, it isn’t visually. Though, I still have no idea what Canon does to get their “24F” and “30F” laid down on the HDV tape properly. That’s a mind bender!
I was manually setting the project settings to 1080p thinking FCP was getting it wrong. Turns out that if you change the “Video Properties” back to auto when starting a new project, it will detect the 1080i60 wrapper correctly from the camera source media. The settings FCPX ends up using are:
1080i HD
1440×1080
29.97i (drop frame)And yes, it does shoot in 1440×1080. QuickTime and FCP play it back as 1920×1080 by stretching the width out using the Pixel Aspect Ratio that’s embedded in the file. Here’s the HDV spec, if anyone’s curious.
So now the only difference between the export and the original is that QT has it’s presentation set to “clean” which crops off 10px around the whole edge of things. But that’s pretty normal.
Hurray! and thanks!
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[Matt Stevenson] “And yes, it does shoot in 1440×1080. QuickTime and FCP play it back as 1920×1080 by stretching the width out using the Pixel Aspect Ratio that’s embedded in the file.”
That’s common. Some HDV and the vast majority of AVCHD cameras shoot 1440×1080. This is the square pixel equivalent to the rectangular pixel 1920×1080… same thing.
Mitch Ives
Insight Productions Corp.
mitch@insightproductions.com
http://www.insightproductions.com“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.” – Winston Churchill
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Hi Mitch,
Actually it’s the other way around in HD. 1920×1080 is square pixels; 1440×1080 uses a squeezed pixel aspect ratio.
All the best,
Tom
Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP7,” “Basic Training for FCS” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Coming in 2011 “Complete Training for FCPX” from Class on Demand
“Final Cut Pro X for iMovie and Final Cut Express Users” from Focal Press -
[Tom Wolsky] “Actually it’s the other way around in HD. 1920×1080 is square pixels; 1440×1080 uses a squeezed pixel aspect ratio.”
Hi Tom… thanks for correcting that… not sure what I was thinking when I was typing that… I probably wasn’t, hence the mistake…
Mitch Ives
Insight Productions Corp.
mitch@insightproductions.com
http://www.insightproductions.com“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.” – Winston Churchill
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