Pixelation when Capturing HD footage

[Shane Ross]

#1 – you can’t shoot 24p when you choose 1080i50. That is a PAL format. You can shoot 1080i 25p. Is that what you meant?

[Natasha Paulson] “The only setting where our footage shows up in the preview window (in the log and capture window) was DVCPro HD 1080i50.”

If this is a P2 camera, why are you using Log and Capture? With P2 you use LOG AND TRANSFER. Here’s a tutorial:

P2 Workflow with FCP 6

[Natasha Paulson] “The footage looked fine as it was being captured, but once it was in FCP it looked incredibly pixelated. “

Are you judging on the computer monitor? That is not the place to judge. Only an external HD monitor connected via an HD capture card can show you what it really looks like.

[Natasha Paulson] “We have tried so many different settings combinations and we’re just confusing ourselves. We have Final Cut 6. “

Use the DVCPRO HD 1080i50 Easy Setup. When you drop your clip into the sequence it should ask if you want it to conform to the settings of the clip. Click YES.

Shane

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

[Natasha Paulson]

Well we didn’t use a hard drive to film, we used miniDV. Isn’t the transfer only if you record on a hard drive?

Thanks for all the advice. We finally were able to capture on the 1080i setting that you recommended. We’re thinking now that it’s just the film grain. The monitor might be part of the issue too, although we’ve never had HD footage look this bad in the past. Do you know anything about this particular camera? We’re wondering if we had it on the wrong setting and that caused the quality to be less?

[Shane Ross]

[Natasha Paulson] “Well we didn’t use a hard drive to film, we used miniDV. Isn’t the transfer only if you record on a hard drive? “

Ahhhh… Yes, it is. And if you used DV, then you shot 720×480. The tape drive isn’t HD…it is SD only. DV. So if you take that DV file and put it into a 1080i timeline, thus blowing it up over 5 times it’s size..yeah, it’ll be pixelated.

You need to use a…oh, PAL dimensions…720×576 DV PAL timeline.

Shane

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

[Roli Rivelino]

I have the same camera Natasha and the only time I use the tape part of it, is if I’m doing a job that the client absolutely needs the tape as soon as I’ve finished filming; otherwise stick with HD if you’re using an FS hard drive then set it to quicktime 720p for nice easy headache free editing.

aka Newbie Wan Kenewbie. “The young Newbie, is now a Padawon.”

System
Mac Pro 2.8Gb quad core
8Gb RAM
1x 320Gb 7200 hardrive
1x 1Tb 7200 hardrive
Nvidia Geforce 8800 512mb Graphics card
1x 1Tb external WD ‘My Book’ eSata

Equipment
Panasonic AG-HVX 200
Firestore FS-100

[Richard Cooper]

OUCH!!

Richard Cooper
FrostLine Productions, LLC
Anchorage, Alaska
http://www.frostlineproductions.com