Frustrated! Poor quality of SD footage in FCP 10.4

[Doug Metz]

Looks like interlacing artifacts to me.

Assuming you want / need progressive output, there are a couple of things you can do when using interlaced source material:

1) Make sure your project is set to progressive.

To do this, select the project in the browser. The upper portion of the inspector’s Information pane will show your frame size and frame rate, audio configuration, and color space settings. You’ll also see a “Modify” button – that’s what we’re after. You can change frame size, codec, starting timecode, audio configuration, and switch between interlaced and progressive. Keep in mind that you can’t change frame rate once you have media on the timeline.

2) Make sure your media is set to deinterlace.

Select the clips you want (in the browser or timeline), and in the inspector’s Information pane, select ‘Settings’ from the pop-up menu at the bottom of the pane. Once there, you’ll find the ‘Deinterlace’ checkbox.

Ideally, you’d set this prior to edit so that you only have to do it once in the browser. Any clips edited into the timeline prior to making this change will also need to be changed.

Doug Metz

Anode

[Rob Postroz]

Doug, thanks so much for the prompt response and help!! I tried what you suggested (changing to ‘p’ and checking the ‘de-interlace’ box), and though it helped reduce the size of the line artifacts, they’re still there unfortunately. Attached below is a screenshot of my settings in the Inspector window.
Also, not sure if this affects anything, but the camera that shot the footage wasn’t a progressive camera, it had a ‘movie mode’ which was still about 30 fps, but made it look similar to 24 p.
Please let me know if there’s anything else I’m missing here.
Thanks!
Rob

[Doug Metz]

I think what’s happened here, based on your screenshot, is that the footage was captured as progressive (29.97p), so the interlacing has been baked in. I have an HV20, and used to shoot quite a bit with it in Cinema mode. This writes to tape as a combination of progressive and interlaced frames – P, P, P, I, I, P, P, P, I, I, etc.

There are tools to remove the interlaced frames (reverse telecine) and retime the footage to 24p (23.98), but if the interlaced frames have been captured as progressive, these tools can’t work properly due to incorrect frame / field information.

In order to really fix it, you will likely need to ingest from tape as interlaced.

Doug Metz

Anode

[Bret Williams]

If it’s interlaced, and you’re editing SD, why not edit in it’s native interlaced format? Output to mp4 will de interlace for the web.

But you can also just make it look better in the viewer by choosing the show both fields selection in the viewer. And make sure you’re viewing 100% size for QC check.

If you’re mixing with progressive HD, I’d do the de interlace thing, but it definitely softens the footage a bit.

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[Doug Metz]

[Bret Williams] “If it’s interlaced, and you’re editing SD, why not edit in it’s native interlaced format? Output to mp4 will de interlace for the web.

But you can also just make it look better in the viewer by choosing the show both fields selection in the viewer. And make sure you’re viewing 100% size for QC check.”

There’s the rub… his clip info panel is showing 29.97p, so the interlacing has been baked into progressive frames.

[Edit] One other thing to try on one of these clips, just to see what you see, is Uncheck the Deinterlace box, and set the Field Dominance Override to Progressive.

Doug Metz

Anode

[Rob Postroz]

Hi Doug,
Thanks again for the response. When I look at the info for the clips before I drop them in the timeline, the inspector shows them set at 29.97i – the screenshot I posted was after I made your suggested changes to the clips.
Re: interlacing backed in at capture of footage — how could this be the case if when I view the raw captured footage in Quicktime there are no interlacing issues at all? (the footage is perfect when viewed there) This suggests to me that it doesn’t have the interlacing backed in, but is a settings issue in FCP.
Thanks again for your help.
Best,
Rob

[Rob Postroz]

Hi Bret,
Thanks for the post. Very helpful – I kept the footage in interlace and then in the viewer I selected ‘show both fields’ and it took off most of the interlacing issue. There still is a very subtle interlace effect on it unfortunately that’s still there (when comparing w/ the raw footage in Quicktime) but for the most part it’s gone.
Re: your point that outputting to mp4 will deinterlace, will the interlace still be taken off when outputting to the highest quality possible? This footage will eventually be seen on larger screens, so I want to make sure the interlace artifacts are resolved.
Thanks so much for the help!
Best,
Rob

[Gary Huff]

First of all, Rob, forget everything that has been suggested. To start with, what is the camera these clips were recorded with?

[Rob Postroz]

Hi Gary,
Thanks for the help. The camera I shot the footage on was a canon xl1.
Thanks again,
Rob

[Joe Marler]

[Rob Postroz] “The camera I shot the footage on was a canon xl1.”

Your above FCPX dialog says Canon Vixia HV40. So it is actually XL1 material?

Just to verify the file characteristics, could you use MediaInfo or Invisor on your media file and state the following parameters, or just cut and paste. Note for MediaInfo you need to do View>Text to see these clearly. Invisor allows drag/drop of multiple files for a spreadsheet-like comparison, but we only need to see the parameters of this one file.

MediaInfo: https://itunes.apple.com/app/mediainfo/id510620098
Invisor: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/invisor-media-file-inspector/id442947586?mt=12

Format
Codec ID
Overall Bit Rate Mode
Overall Bit Rate
Format Profile
Format Settings
Format Settings, CABAC
Format Settings, GOP
Format Settings, ReFrames
Width
Height
Pixel Aspect Ratio
Scan Type
Scan Order
Scan Type, Store Method