FCP7, DV/DVCPRO setting – experiencing major render problems

[Jessica Jones]

I recently started working on a short documentary film that was mainly shot in SD and had been previously edited in Final Cut 7 with the following specs:

Compressor Settings:
29.97 fps
720×480
DV/DVCPRO – NTSC
3.6 MB/sec
NTSC – CCIR601
Field Dominance – Lower (even)

Sequence Settings:
29.95 fps
720×480
DV/DVCPRO – NTSC
NTSC – CCIR601
Field Dominance – Lower (even)
2 outputs
48.0 kHz
32-bit floating point

I essentially picked up where the former editor stopped working years ago. The main problem that I’m running into is that now, we are adding HD footage to the sequence (mainly stock footage, though also some footage shot on the 7D), and I’m wondering what the best compression settings is for HD footage that will be used in an SD sequence.

I know this isn’t the most ideal situation, but we’re almost through the film at this point, and I assume there isn’t a smooth way to change the project from SD to HD?

So back to my original workflow question – I’m trying to somewhat decrease the amount of rendering that I have to do; I know there will be a little, but is there a compression setting for HD footage that is most compatible with the previously mentioned settings? I’ve been using AppleProRes 422 and Apple – DV/DVCPRO – NTSC trying to see if one works better than the other and I’m not having much luck.

Maybe there is no work around for this issue? I’m just rendering all the time…

Any input or suggestions for a better workflow without having to completely re-do the project is much appreciated.

Thanks!

[Eric Strand]

Are you getting a green render bar or a red render bar? Is the stock footage H.264? FCP doesn’t play well with H.264, but you say you’re using ProRes so you should be getting a green render bar if you drop a HD ProRes clip into the SD timeline.

[John Fishback]

FCP doesn’t scale well so it might make sense to use Compressor to move the HD to SD (using the same SD settings and be sure to turn on Frame Controls in Compressor and set Re-size to Best). Then you should have no renders. Although, Compressor may take a while to transcode the footage.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz, 16 GB RAM, OS 10.8.4, QT10.1, Kona 3, Dual Cinema 23, ATI Radeon HD 5870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 3 (FCP 7.0.3, Motion 4.0.3, Comp 3.5.3, DVDSP 4.2.2, Color 1.5.3)
FCP-X 10.0.9, Motion 5.0.7, Compressor 4.0.7

Pro Tools HD 10 w SYNC IO & 192 Digital I/O, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec DSP Monitors, Prima CDQ120 ISDN

[Shane Ross]

John is on the nose. I onlined a show that was mainly shot DV, but then later shot on the 5D…and they wanted an HD release. So I used the Media Manager to trim down the DV footage to all that was used in the cut (I separated it first from everything else), then used Compressor to blow it up to HD…custom frame size…1440×1080 square pixel. This maintains the 4:3 aspect ratio. I then scaled up and pan and scanned each shot manually….so I could frame the region of interest better.

Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Mark Suszko]

And the two different fps setting are not an issue?