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HDV clips in DV timeline – Doesn’t scale properly?
I have a DV timeline that I inherited from another editor. I have attached this screenshot and need some advice.
The DV timeline has some HDV clips inside of it, they do not appear to scale perfectly to the timeline. Somehow the aspect ratio’s are not the same and the editor had to not only scale the clip down to match the sequence but also adjusted the aspect ratio.
This results in the footage looking almost interlaced (badly). The shift fields filter is applied to this clip in the screenshot and has a value of +1 although many of the clips have had that filter removed. I can’t tell a difference when the shift fields filter is on or off anyways, even when going from Firewireout>XL2>Component Video>TV (not monitor).
Either way, this scaling and aspect ratio is really bugging me and looks absolutly horrible. If I scale back to 100% everything looks fine.
Is it normal for HDV clips to not conform to a DV timeline? Is their normally cropping involved?
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6 Replies
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[Elijah Lynn] “Is it normal for HDV clips to not conform to a DV timeline? Is their normally cropping involved?”
yes.
it uses an odd pixel ratio (at least 1080 hdv does)
You’ll just have to make lemonade with what you have. 🙂
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I’ve had this same problem. See my post at DV Info Net.
https://www.dvinfo.net/conf/789649-post6.htmlLee Berger
http://www.leebergermedia.com -
Thanks Lee and Chris,
The threa dyou posted Lee was helpful. It confirmed I was not too crazy after all.
What is odd is that when importing a clip into the timeline that FCP automatically scales it to 50% and adjusts it’s aspect ratio to -12.5. But even more odd is that when I import a HDV clip to the DV timeline it adds those settings in the motion tab but does NOT add the shift field filter.
Some of the clips have the shift field (+1) filter and some don’t. I can’t tell a difference when previewing on my monitor though.
This sequence is a multicam and I have not had much experience in editing these so I am stuck for now. Your screenshot was very clearly representative of my exact problem.
Should the Shift Field filter for HDV clips in a lower field sequence (DV NTSC) have any visible difference on playback? Even from Firewire>XL2>Composite>TV?
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Hi Elijah,
Obviously something a little strange going on here.Firstly the shift fields: DV is lower field, HDV is upper, so an HDV clip in a DV timeline must have the filter on. If FCP isnt putting the filter on, for whatever reason, then you must. You might not see a difference on very shot, it is more noticeable with images with movement in, and it must be on an external monitor. Viewing through your camera onto a TV should show the difference, but as it is HDV not sure how the camera would handle it.
I agree with Lee that exporting an HDV film and using compressor is a better option than using FCP to downscale, but with a mixed media timeline that might become awkward, but it still could still could be achieved. Or you can go onto render settings on your timeline (apple+0) and change render to ProRes. That will be the best quality. Export that (it will be a big file) and then use compressor to convert to DV.
I would also open a brand new DV sequence, import an HDV clip into and see what FCP is doing to it. It might be that your current sequence has some glitches and is applying the wrong settings. That way when you know what each clip ‘should’ be you can copy and paste those onto the rest of your HDV clips.
For what its worth, here in the UK when I drag an HDV clip (1440×1080, PAL) onto a DV timeline (720×576) the changes are:
Filters: Shift Fields (+1)
Motion Tab/Scale: 53.33
Distort/Aspect Ratio: 6.67
But these might not apply to you. I would try and get one clip working fine and apply that to all the others, although check in the browser that they have been captured the same way!Also check:
that you are viewing the image the correct size in the canvas, press Shift+z to fit to window
that what you are looking is rendered, light blue line above the timeline, not green/red/orangehope you can fix it
best wishes
Nick Price -
Hey Nick,
I just made a new sequence and applied an DV NTSC Anamorphic easy setup to it. I dragged a HDV clip from the other open project into the timeline. It automatically applie a scale to 50% and a aspect ratio correction to 12.5 BUT left out the shift fields filter. So, I undid that and imported one of the clips to the bin. I dragged it into the timeline and it did all of the above PLUS a shift fields filter.
So I am guessing something happened with the since there were mixed sequences in the same project. I will manually go through the DV sequence and reapply the shift fields filter but don’t know what to do about the scaling issue.
It sure would be much nicer if Apple lived up to the hype of it’s marketing department.
ps. Thanks for the shift+z tip on fitting canvas/viewer to window!
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[Elijah Lynn] “It sure would be much nicer if Apple lived up to the hype of it’s marketing department.”
Elijah,
I couldn’t agree more. From Apple’s website: “Mix and match a wide range of formats and even frame rates in the open format Timeline.” Yes of course you can do it, but you won’t be satisfied with the scaling quality.Lee Berger
http://www.leebergermedia.com
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