-
How to convert an SD sequence to HD!
Alright, I thought I’d post this, because I’m sure it’s a pretty commonly sought-after feature. I’ve figured out how you can convert an existing SD sequence to HD and maintain all non-copyable data such as audio mixer plugins. I must preface this, however, that this is NOT endorsed by Adobe, and has not been rigorously tested. Continue at your own risk, and back up any project files first! But if a few people test this out, maybe we can work out any kinks and come up with a fool-proof solution.
These particular specs are ONLY for changing 720i60 DV sequences to 1080i60, XDCAM EX HQ sequences. Specs for AVCHD and canon formats are similar (slightly different), but you’ll need to do slight bit of detective work to make sure you nail the right render codec code.
As you may or may not know, a Premiere project file is simply an XML text file. You can open it in any plain text editor, such as Notepad, Wordpad, or other Unicode editor. We’re going to need to edit that file just slightly, to change the sequence settings. Even a completely clean, unedited prproj file with one sequence has over 2000 lines of XML script. No one should even try to make sense of it all, and you don’t need to. Most of it appears to be settings and presets that define default operations.
There are two changes we’ll have to make: to the <Sequence> definition, which controls rendering settings, and the <VideoTrackGroup> definition, which seems to control the basic format of the sequence.
First, do a search for your sequence name, for instance “SDSequence”. You will find three occurrences of this title. The first two are in <MasterClip> and <ClipProjectItem> definitions, which you can ignore. The third is at the end of its <Sequence> block, which is what we’re interested in.
Scroll up and you’ll find a block full of “MZ.Sequence…” lines. For creating an XDCAM EX HQ sequence, you’ll need to replace all the MZ.Sequence lines with:
<MZ.Sequence.PreviewFrameSizeHeight>1080</MZ.Sequence.PreviewFrameSizeHeight>
<MZ.Sequence.PreviewFrameSizeWidth>1920</MZ.Sequence.PreviewFrameSizeWidth>
<MZ.Sequence.AudioTimeDisplayFormat>200</MZ.Sequence.AudioTimeDisplayFormat>
<MZ.Sequence.PreviewRenderingClassID>1297106761</MZ.Sequence.PreviewRenderingClassID>
<MZ.Sequence.PreviewRenderingPresetCodec>1297107278</MZ.Sequence.PreviewRenderingPresetCodec>
<MZ.Sequence.PreviewRenderingPresetPath>EncoderPresets\SequencePreview\94d6a94a-67ee-48e4-9254-6fa4ac8c66ea\I-Frame Only MPEG.epr</MZ.Sequence.PreviewRenderingPresetPath>
<MZ.Sequence.PreviewUseMaxRenderQuality>false</MZ.Sequence.PreviewUseMaxRenderQuality>
<MZ.Sequence.PreviewUseMaxBitDepth>false</MZ.Sequence.PreviewUseMaxBitDepth>
<MZ.Sequence.EditingModeGUID>94d6a94a-67ee-48e4-9254-6fa4ac8c66ea</MZ.Sequence.EditingModeGUID>All other MPEG-2 based 1080i60 sequences will have the same settings, except for the encoder preset code under the “PreviewRenderingPresetPath” and “EditingModeGUID” lines, which are the same.
XDCAM EX 1080i60 HQ – d10b5335-ce74-4031-bc7c-79e8b73582ee
AVCHD 1080i60 – 94d6a94a-67ee-48e4-9254-6fa4ac8c66ea
Other formats you’ll have to find out on your ownThe last step is to change the sequence’s frame settings in its VideoTrackGroup object. Scroll down the Sequence object until you find the “TrackGroups” block. Locate the block that ends with “Index=0″ (index=1 is the audio format), and find the “ObjectRef” number. Do a search for this value using the string “ObjectID=”##” ”, until you find the “VideoTrackGroup” block. Change the last 3 lines to:
<FieldType>1</FieldType>
<PixelAspectRatio>1,1</PixelAspectRatio>
<FrameRect>0,0,1920,1080</FrameRect>Save the file and you should now have a fully functional HD sequence from your SD one.
A final word of warning, I have NO idea how this will impact other circumstances like nested sequences, other formats, or even operating systems. I’m using a Windows 7 computer, so I have no clue whether the encoder paths are the same on MacOS X. Don’t use this on an important project without backing it up and testing it out thoroughly. I see this step as a work in progress, and am interested in the results of other users.
Television Producer
KTVF-11 Fairbanks, Alaska
video.ericbarker.com -
3 Replies
-
[Eric Barker] “These particular specs are ONLY for changing 720i60 DV sequences “
There’s one I’ve never heard of. 525i and 480 but never 720DV. Generally when you say something is 720 you’re referencing 1280x720p HD.
Your method seems like an awful lot of work for something that can be achieved very easily in software using “Instant HD” from Red Giant, or in our case, we use AJA Video Systems hardware to make the conversion to HD in realtime. The original timeline just remains in SD, but the final output for air is HD.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative MediaMTWD Entertainment – Developing original content for all media.
“This American Land” – our new PBS Series.
“Science Nation” – Three years and counting of Science for the People.
-
Ack! Forgive me, it was late, I was juggling lots of figures, I totally botched that spec. 480i60 is obviously what I meant, I’ll change it in the parent.
As for “instant HD”, excuse me if I’m extremely skeptical. I’m guessing that this is high-level up conversion? We, as most production houses, have switched over to HD cameras, high resolution graphics, etc. So it’s actually much more efficient to work in HD from the beginning, except that our old sequences are still SD. I can’t imagine that even the best up conversion rivals native HD.
This conversion is more a proof of concept than anything else. It’s meant to replace our previous method of just “make a new HD sequence, copy everything over”, simply because, due to Adobe’s inability make a decent audio mixer, we’re left manually tweaking audio insert effects. However, I’d much rather spend the few minutes tweaking VSTs than rely on some up conversion software when I have perfectly good native 1080i60 elements laying around.
Television Producer
KTVF-11 Fairbanks, Alaska
video.ericbarker.com -
Thank you so much for this brilliant solution! This saved my project. I had nestled sequences to the third level with multicam edits. It took around 90 minutes to fix all 60+ sequences, but that’s better than starting the project over. I converted DV to HDV on Windows 7 with Wordpad. This was a huge help. Thanks.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up