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HD to DVD – Hardware Downconvert Workflow
Hello all,
I wanted to post an HD to DVD workflow that I’ve found to work well in case others out there have been frustrated by what FCP and Compressor are capable of delivering. This walkthrough is specific to my hardware. I have a Decklink HD Extreme capture card and a BetaSP UVW1800 deck. Still the workflow below should be fine for any analog SD deck with a composite (god forbid), component or SDI input.
For about three weeks now I have been absolutely frustrated by the results I’ve been getting burning my HD material (XDCam HD422) to DVD. No matter what I did within FCP or Compressor – tweaking settings and burning test DVDs – the results were subpar. Keep in mind that I added CinemaCraft Encoder MP to the mix (higher end software encoder). Where the images really fell apart were in the graphics. Titles have an incredible amount of aliasing and moire patterns pop up in peoples hair and in tight patterned clothing. None of these issues exist in the HD timeline. After showing a client a beautiful quicktime copy of the project at full HD resolution I have been unwilling to give them a DVD burn because the difference in quality is night and day.
So I’ve scoured the web and was unable to find a software workflow that achieved acceptable results. I found one thread on Creative Cow that suggested that hardware down converts were the best.
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/1058806
So I decided to give it a try using my Blackmagic Decklink HD Extreme card and my old BetaSP UVW-1800 deck. I’m happy to say that the results are very, very good. I thought many of you could benefit from what I found so I’m posting the workflow below:
1. Edit your material in it’s native codec timeline with FCP set-up for your HD Codec.
2. Select HD to SD Downconvert (Letterbox) as Output within the Decklink System Preference (Video Processing Tab).
3. Press Play/Record (Crash Record) on your Analog SD Deck.
4. Play your Timeline.
5. When the your timeline ends stop your analog deck.
6. Within FCP change the Easy Set-Up to Blackmagic NTSC 10 Bit (or Uncompressed 10-Bit NTSC if you’re not using the Blackmagic card).
7. Don’t forget to change the Decklink System Preference downconvert option to “OFF” so you can see your timeline again on your external monitor.
8. Capture the recorded material on your analog deck into FCP with Log and Capture.
9 Throw the captured clip into a timeline with it’s native codec.
10. If you have bars and tone at the head of your clip open up the waveform monitor tool, add a 3-way color correction to the clip and adjust the bars accordingly. I’ve found that black levels can become pretty wacky bouncing between FCP and an analog deck. My sense is that the center Pluge Bar on the waveform should be at 0 IRE and it should have crushed the the left pluge bar so it is equal with the center one.
11. Throw up FCP’s vectorscope and make sure your colors are within their targets.
12. Render out the color corrected timeline
13. Send the timeline to compressor and encode to Mpeg-2 as you would with any SD footage. Two notes – I Edge Sharpen to “15” as the image becomes noticeably softer with the preceding steps of this workflow. “15” does a good job of bringing back edge detail without introducing aliasing or moire. Secondly, make sure you encode in 4:3 aspect ratio in compressor as the SD analog capture was a 4:3 letterbox image.
14. Burn using DVDSP.
I really like the results. The images are clean, no aliasing but sharp for an SD encode. I did notice a very slight loss of saturation but that could be adjusted in the SD color correct.
All you veterans out there please let me know what you think of this workflow. If there’s anything that could be done to improve the results even more I’d love to know.
Finally, anyone out there know if I’m correct with how I’ve been handling the set-up levels? HD timeline is set-up at 0 IRE for blacks and then I bring it out to the analog deck with blacks at 7.5 IRE (External waveform) and then bring it back in (Log and Capture) using FCP’s waveform at 0 IRE. . . . The end result is that the left hand Pluge bar is crushed to 0 IRE but that seems to be expected. I’m a bit confused by what I’ve read about this but at the end of the day, the results look good on my old 20″ CRT Sony so I’m not too worried but I’d love to know if that’s technically correct.
Hope it helps guys.
Tim
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21 Replies
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[Tim Gibbons] “All you veterans out there please let me know what you think of this workflow. If there’s anything that could be done to improve the results even more I’d love to know.”
Hi Tim,
I do this as well, but a little differently.
I have 2 edit machines so I play out from my kona in one room
and capture into the other room over SDI. Keeping it digital from room to room.I also don’t use letterbox, I use anamorphic as this will yield some better
picture quality with the higher resolution. The DVD player will letterbox
it on playback. -
I think the reason that you are seeing less aliasing and moire’ is that by going back to analog you have greatly lowered the resolution of the material.
If that is what you really want to do, it would be easier to just add a 1% Gaussian blur (or other blurs-experiment) to the timeline. It doesn’t take much, and is usually not noticeable to anyone but another editor once you get down to SD DVD. This trick works the same way as your Beta solution, but gives you the option of controlling the change of resolution, is a lot less work, is reversible and probably doesn’t degrade the picture as much as your solution. However I would only use it as a last resort. My guess is there is something in your workflow causing this that can be fixed without degrading the image. -
Scott,
It seems to me it’s much more fundamental than just adding a blur filter to the mix. It’s not just about the aliasing and the moire. The whole image looks better doing the hardware down convert. Check out the thread I mentioned:
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/1058806
The thread does a good job of describing how some very knowldgeale people are frustrated by FCP and Compressor’s inability to do a good down convert. . . .
Tim
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Thanks Chris,
I’ll try the anamorphic. Unfortunately I don’t own an analog SDI deck so I’m stuck going component in and out of the Beta Deck.
Tim
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Hi Tim, you did set the “resize” filter in compressor to BEST
quality right?reason I ask is, I always do 1080i down converts with compressor
when going to DVD.I only use the hardware down convert with my Kona for 720P
since it clearly does a better job with aliasing on angles (house roof lines for example)1080i in software through compressor looks nearly identical on my setup.
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Tim,
I’m glad and surprised that you’re happy with your Blackmagic downconvert. It seems you’ve never seen a hardware downconversion by AJA Kona or Teranex.
Blackmagic downconverts are horrible! I’ve seen better downconverts using Compressor than Blackmagic’s hardware.chad
TeleVersions Broadcast Video -
Very Funny Dave,
I would have been tempted to take offense if you hadn’t followed that up with some interesting advice. I’ll try the conversion in AE over the weekend and tell you how it goes.
In regards to waiving a dead chicken, that’s a no-go. My wife is a vegan.
😉
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Yeah Scott,
I tried quite a few permutations. The “Best” setting was pretty much my standard. I’m running the most current version of FCS and I tried exporting as a self-contained ProsRes 422, as well as trying the native codec to see if that made a difference. I probably tried 12-14 different variations to improve the look without much success. I even bought Cinema Craft Encoder MP for $800 and it still looks like crappola. Maybe it has something to do with the XDCam HD422 codec. . . . or maybe it is due to my Blackmagic card. . . I’m not sure what it is but the text on the encodes I did through FCP and Compressor looked like video game title screens from the 80s. Any curved letter or number is stair-stepped. Throwing it up on a Samsung 36″ HDTV played through a PS3 made me cringe. It’s been a frustrating process.
Tim
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Hi Tim,
If you are seeking the “perfect DVD”, denoise your footage before compression.[Tim Gibbons] “any analog SD deck with a composite (god forbid),”
Don’t look down on the COMPOSITE video.
The video composite that you get out of your BetaCam is really crappy (Down Color: Betacam SP never have been Broadcast) but what you get out of a camera or a 1″C desk is a different story.
Even going to digital, you don’t gonna get in a DigiBeta the quality that you get in a 1’C or B” machine recording Composite analog.
The big advantage of Component over Composite is only that you don’t need to separate the components for post-production. This doesn’t means more quality.
Rafael -
[Rafael Amador] “Don’t look down on the COMPOSITE video.
The video composite that you get out of your BetaCam is really crappy (Down Color: Betacam SP never have been Broadcast) but what you get out of a camera or a 1″C desk is a different story.
Even going to digital, you don’t gonna get in a DigiBeta the quality that you get in a 1’C or B” machine recording Composite analog.
The big advantage of Component over Composite is only that you don’t need to separate the components for post-production. This doesn’t means more quality.”What? “Betacam SP never been broadcast?” Still is every day in the United States. Component video’s only superiority over composite video is in post-production? The separation of of the video’s luminance and chrominance information in component video doesn’t mean more quality, even on output? Shall I do a side by side? Am I time traveling backwards? I guess I’m going to pull the 10 miles of SDI and component cables out of my facility to make more room for more existing composite cables.
chad
TeleVersions Broadcast Video
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