HDV and AE (i searched and read past posts – still confused)

[Straight A]

My experience exporting HDV footage (from FX-1 / Z1 and HV10) using FCP (set up as either HDV 1080i codec or HDV intermediate 1080i codec) to use in After Effects:

After Effects seems to interpret FCP HDV footage incorrectly. When AE stretchs the FCP HDV footage from 1440*1080 to its correct aspect ratio of 16:9 – 1920*1080i, the horizontal interpolation is terrible, it is almost as if you are loosing half the horizontal resolution. The very same files played back in Quicktime player or VLC or FCP or MPEG Steamclip looks as it should, with smooth horizontal interpolation from 1440 to 1920.

I have tried this route (HDV >> FCP >> AE 7) on a few systems and it is a consistent problem. (ie: it is not my machine only)

No combination of comp + footage setting will solve the problem (believe me when I say I have exhaustively investigated this!!)

Their are two ways around this problem if you are troubled with it.

1) Capture in iMovie and not FCP – the quality is the same and files import into AE as 1440*1080 and not 1920*1080, thus allowing the footage to be interpolated to 1920 within AE using AEs very good interpolation algorithms.

2) If you insist on capturing in FCP, open the files – you wish to later import into AE – with Quicktime Pro and change the video header information from 1920*1080 to 1440*1080 and hit save – (even massive files will save in a second or two as all you are doing is altering the header and not actually changing any data).

Both these routes result in footage that interprets correctly in AE.

[Straight A]

P.S.

Set your comp setting up as 1920*1080 with square pixels.

Interpret your footage as sqaure pixels.

When you put a new piece of footage onto the time line hit Command+Option+F (Mac) to fit the footage to the comp.

[Frank Pledge]

thank you thank you. gonna try that.

do you ever find playback in FCP on your AE movies are dropping frames like crazy? my render settings SEEM correct as they match the timeline in FCP aka – they do not need a render to playback – but then don’t playback…

thanks again, gonna give it a go
fp

[Straight A]

Hmmm…
sounds strange ?

In theory if the render bar does not appear you should be good to go and FCP should play back just fine ?

[Frank Pledge]

tell me about it. the media also sits on a sata raid array. very very strange. thanks
fp

[Straight A]

I tried your exact workflow:

input-HDV into FCP >> output-HDV >> input-HDV into AFTER EFFECTS >> output-HDV >> input-HDV from AFTER EFFECTS into FCP.

I suspect your problem is not outputting the right codec from AE. (? possibly ?)

Double check what your FCP project was set up with – HDV / HDV Basic or HDV intermediate etc – and make sure you output the same codec from AE – and that your AE frame size is identical (if using the HDV codec that should be 1920*1080).

I output using the HDV codec and FCP did not like that, so I tried the Apple Intermediate Codec (A HDV codec) and it worked fine in FCP, no need to render and playback was fine.

[Frank Pledge]

will try intermediate codec. i think you may have nailed it as i have read about using this codec, but thought that it was ‘old’ info. meaning that FCP had become more HDV native.thanks so so so much!
fp

[Straight A]

will try intermediate codec.

This will only work if your FCP project is set up as ‘Apple Intermediate codec.’, which it may be as it is a HDV codec.

i think you may have nailed it as i have read about using this codec, but thought that it was ‘old’ info. meaning that FCP had become more HDV native.

As far as I know the Apple intermediate codec is pretty much the same as the HDV codec, except that it gets around the editing problems of HDVs GOP (group of pictures) compression protocol, (HDV records one perfect-ish frame and then renders only the changes from this ‘perfect’ frame over the next 15 frames) – the intermediate codec ‘freezes’ these 15 ‘interframe’ images that reference the ‘perfect’ frame, so they no longer reference the ‘perfect’ frame but are self contained frames ‘real’ frames.

Or something like that !!

Whatever your FCP project is set up as, be it HDV / HDV intermediate / DV / DVCPro / HDV Basic etc etc, you will need to export from AE in exactly the same codec and at the exact same frame size, your only choice is over audio output (as far as I can see, although I have not tested many options) and these options are either exactly the same as the settings for the HDV footage you import into AE or no audio.

[Straight A]

will try intermediate codec.

This will only work if your FCP project is set up as ‘Apple Intermediate codec.’, which it may be as it is a HDV codec.

i think you may have nailed it as i have read about using this codec, but thought that it was ‘old’ info. meaning that FCP had become more HDV native.

As far as I know the Apple intermediate codec is pretty much the same as the HDV codec, except that it gets around the editing problems of HDVs GOP (group of pictures) compression protocol, (HDV records one perfect-ish frame and then renders only the changes from this ‘perfect’ frame over the next 15 frames) – the intermediate codec ‘freezes’ these 15 ‘interframe’ images that reference the ‘perfect’ frame, so they no longer reference the ‘perfect’ frame but are self contained frames ‘real’ frames.

Or something like that !!

Whatever your FCP project is set up as, be it HDV / HDV intermediate / DV / DVCPro / HDV Basic etc etc, you will need to export from AE in exactly the same codec and at the exact same frame size, your only choice is over audio output (as far as I can see, although I have not tested many options) and these options are either exactly the same as the settings for the HDV footage you import into AE or no audio.