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P2 Footage looks a bit soft – ideas?
Hope someone can help – have successfully imported P2 footage into FCP under ‘Blackmagic HDTV 1080i 50 – DVCPRO HD’ Easy Setup. Pretty certain that this is the right setup as footage didn’t need rendering or anything. I am monitoring via the Decklink HD PRO Component Out to my JVC monitor (I am in UK, PAL). I am just noticing that the picture is rather soft. This is in comparison to playing footage using the BM DVPAL setting – this looks pin-sharp.
Is this a characteristic of the format or is something amiss?
Thanks, Martin.
G5 Dual 2G, FCStudio v. 5.0.4, BM Decklink HD Pro
Firmtek ext. RAID 1.2Tb -
6 Replies
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Post this in the Decklink forum… I’ll wager the answer might be forthcoming faster.
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer
Author: “Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4” Click here
Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D
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Is your JVC monitor an Hd monitor or are you using the software downconvert? I have heard that the software downconvert on BM cards is rather soft.
Jeremy
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I believe that Jeremy has it. I’ll wager you are viewing this on an SD monitor. To see the true image you need to view this on an HD monitor via your Decklink.
Shane
Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net -
Thanks for responses – yes, the JVC monitor is SD rather than HD. Just as an experiment I swapped to ‘Software HD to SD Letterbox 16:9’ on the HDTV up/downconverter and it definitely looks a bit sharper.
One thing that might have affected this maybe the fact that I originally imported the P2 files to the standard Apple 1080i50 Easy Setup. Then I got the Decklink Card and have been using the BM setup, so could there could be a slight issue there?
Thanks, Martin.
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The p2 files come in as 1080i DVCPRO HD no matter what your easy setup is.
What you are seeing is a bad down-convert. You need to monitor HD footage on an HD monitor to see the full image in it’s native form. Also, putting the footage through a software down-covert will not help. The higher end BM cards (I believe) have hardware down-convert, or there’s the AJA series of Kona cards that have hardware down-convert and look awesome.
Jeremy
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[JeremyG] “The p2 files come in as 1080i DVCPRO HD no matter what your easy setup is.”
I should clarify that p2 files will come in at whatever resolution you shot them in no matter what your easy setup is. If you shot 720p, they’ll com in as such, if you shot dv they’ll come in as such, etc.
Jeremy
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