HDV to DV using compressor

[Daniel Low]

[Brendan Pyatt] “Encoder tab:
Video Settings: Apple ProRes 422, Interlaced but Top or Bottom field first? Leave chroma filtering unticked?”

Why are you going to ProRes? – You’ll be colour subsampling from 4:2:0 to 4:2:2 and finally 4:1:1 – best avoided.

As soon as you drop it into the DV sequence, it’ll need rendering, are you doing some complex compositing or something?

Otherwise you’ll want the field order to be bottom field first.

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[Brendan Pyatt]

Thanks. Nothing complicated but the sequence is a mix of HDV and SD clips.

What codec do you recommend? I thought Prores was a good codec to be working in.

[Daniel Low]

Why not just go straight to the DV codec?

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[Brendan Pyatt]

Well I am not sure! I have most success sending clips to and from Color in Prores I have tended to work in Prores whenever I can.

I have tried many different codecs / settings in compressor to convert HDV60i to DV NTSC but always the results appears worse that allowing FCP to do the re-scale in the timeline. Everything I have read says that I should be able to get better results in Compressor and indeed I have been able to convert with compressor to DV NTSC (prores codec) and get something that looks excellent in Quicktime but rubbish when imported into FCP (jagged edges on man made objects).

[Daniel Low]

[Brendan Pyatt] “Well I am not sure! I have most success sending clips to and from Color in Prores I have tended to work in Prores whenever I can”

Yes, I’d agree, if you are working in color then stick with ProRes

[Brendan Pyatt] “I have tried many different codecs / settings in compressor to convert HDV60i to DV NTSC but always the results appears worse that allowing FCP to do the re-scale in the timeline”

[Brendan Pyatt] “Everything I have read says that I should be able to get better results in Compressor and indeed I have been able to convert with compressor to DV NTSC (prores codec) and get something that looks excellent in Quicktime but rubbish when imported into FCP (jagged edges on man made objects).”

Using FCP to downconvert is certainly a tried and trusted workflow.

You seem to be confused about DV NTSC however. DV is a format and a codec that has nothing to do with ProRes. ProRes can be at the same frame size as DV but that’s all they have in common in this instance, so saying “DV NTSC (prores codec)” simple does not make sense. You can say DV NTSC or SD ProRes

If it looks great in Quicktime and rubbish in FCP then you have got some settings incorrect in FCP. FCP is Quicktime and is based entirley on it. So check your sequence and preview settings.

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Two years from now, spam will be solved. – Bill Gates, World Economic Forum 2004

[Brendan Pyatt]

Thanks for your patience.

I will stick with Prores and downconvert in FCP timeline.

‘You seem to be confused about DV NTSC however.’ Thanks for the clarification I meant SD Prores but expressed it incorrectly.

I thought FCP was based on Quicktime and that is why i was checking the output from Compressor in quicktime. I have checked my FCP setup and I do appear to be producing a clip from Compressor that looks fine in QT but bad in FCP – even if I let the clip over-ride the sequence settings…

[Ryan Spanger]

Try exporting direct from the FCP sequence and set your sequence to uncompressed. This should yield a higher quality result.

Ryan Spanger
Web Video Melbourne