P2 1080 30i down-convert is UGLY

[Shane Ross]

Software downconverts of footage aren’t always good. Going from 720 to 480 might be fine, but 1080 to 480…that is a BIG distance. Having capture cards that do this via hardware is always best. AJA, MATROX, Decklink all do this.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
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[John-michael Trojan]

thanks – thought that and will do a test shortly using my Aja Kona 3 card. Still, this is unusually bad. I could send you a still to look at if that helps.

[Shane Ross]

NO need to send the still…I know what it looks like. I did that myself early on, when trying to output 1080i DVCPRO HD to DV. UGH! It faired much better via my Kona LH.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[John-michael Trojan]

As an update – the footage is actually 1080 30p (called pN I think?)

Also – I have looked at the aja down convert and it displays the same problem.

thanks!

[John-michael Trojan]

I also just noticed there is some pretty bad rolling shutter artifacting going on – has anyone seen this on the 30 p setting before? I have a man’s face distorting rather severely.

[Walter Biscardi]

[John-Michael Trojan] “My delivery is a standard NTSC d-beta and I’m trying to down-covert the two by setting up a standard NTSC timeline and rendering before output. “

As Shane says, use a capture card to do this, we use the AJA Kona 3’s here. If the footage truly is 720/30 then that is never going to interlace well since it’s missing half the information for each frame, but the Kona 3 does a really good job with it nonetheless.

And when you drop your material into an SD timeline, you’re reversing the fields, FCP does not handle this well.

Here’s how the Kona does the downcovert.

https://forums.creativecow.net/faq/applefinalcutpro#42

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
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[John-michael Trojan]

OK – I think I’ve got this straight.

Since it is really recording 59.94 at all times what I have is two matching fields creating a 1080 30p file that runs native at 29.97. (When brought into FCP it says its 1080p30 codec with a frame rate of 29.97).

Then – since it is 30p adding pull-down doesn’t work since it is already at 30 – so some other odd math is being applied and most likely losing frames somewhere along the line.

What has provided limited success is using a separate piece of software to convert the file to 23.98pN then adding pull-down. The footage ends up rather smeary, but doesn’t display the same ugly large interlaced looking artifacts.

[Shane Ross]

Rolling shutter? What camera was this shot with? The HPX-300? And what are you downconverting to? DV?

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[John-michael Trojan]

not sure what camera it was… wish I did as that would help the google searches! All I can say is the movement goes to jello…

I’m trying to go to uncompressed 8-bit.

[Shane Ross]

[John-Michael Trojan] “Since it is really recording 59.94 at all times what I have is two matching fields creating a 1080 30p file that runs native at 29.97. (When brought into FCP it says its 1080p30 codec with a frame rate of 29.97). “

1080 is 29.97. 720p is 59.94. What confuses a lot of people is the fact that 1080i is often referred to as 1080i59.94. That is NOT frames per second. Because of the “i” that means FIELDS per second…to 30 frames per second. Whoever thought to call it 1080i59.94 has a screw loose. 1080i29.97 is what it should be called.

[John-Michael Trojan] “Then – since it is 30p adding pull-down doesn’t work since it is already at 30 – so some other odd math is being applied and most likely losing frames somewhere along the line. “

Why are you adding pulldown? Where?

[John-Michael Trojan] “using a separate piece of software to convert the file to 23.98pN then adding pull-down. “

Wait…what? What are you trying to do? Take 1080i 29.97, convert it to 23.98, then back to 29.97? What on earth for?

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def