Progressive/Interlaced: Blurred Photo

[Vicky Weeks]

Scott, it is never really going to look great on your canvas in FCP. A couple of questions: what is the majority of the material in the sequence? Are you exporting from FCP directly into Compressor or making a QT first?

[Scott Gray]

The majority of material is DV video shot and captured 29.97. We are using the video as background imagery for still photographs that are moving across the screen at a medium rate of speed. I’m exporting directly from FCP to Compressor. I’ve been down the export to QT testing on other projects with the results being virtually identicle.

The look on my canvas is identicle to the encoded image on my canvas in Studio Pro and also on a computer when playing the burned DVD disc.

Thanks for your response. I’ll be happy when interlaced video is no more!

[Rocco Rocco]

Given that the final DVD plays well on a TV set, it sounds like everything is doing its job as it should.

Try changing the sequence codec to Animaiton and exporting a Quicktime movie. Bing that Quicktime movie into DVDSP and encode. Play the DVD back and see how it looks on a computer screen.

[Scott Gray]

We viewed it on both. When viewed on an interlaced TV it looks just fine. When viewing on a computer, or when viewing on a flat screen display using a progressive scan set-top DVD player, the moving photo looks fuzzy. All of the video clips in the program look fine as well. Only this horizontal direction moving photo looks bad.

I can make the program look great for interlaced viewing, but not progressive viewing. Could it be possible that the refresh rate on the progressive monitors can not keep up with the moving photo?

[Vicky Weeks]

Scott

Try this:
In FCP, change your sequence setting to Field Dominance: None. Keep frame rate at 29.97, and everything else the same as in the easy setup for the DV NTSC.
Render the sequence. How does it look?

..It should look better than Lower(Even)

Next, export directly from FCP to Compressor. Try the canned preset for DVD Best Quality 90 minutes. Use as is. Do not make progressive.

I know you’ve probably been through a hundred iterations, but test this on at least a portion of your video.

Also, Instead of exporting directly from FCP to Compressor, you could make an QT w/ the Animation codec, highest quality, 29.97, millions of colors, auto keyframe,720×480, and do not check the “de interlace source material.” Then encode in compressor w/ the canned preset. See which one looks best, but I think the one from FCP may win out.

Also, what is the source format of your still images?

Good luck..

Vicky

[Scott Gray]

My source photo image is a TIFF file 1200×940.

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I’ll try some of the testing advice and let you know of the results.

[Rocco Rocco]

I’d resize that to the size of your sequence too.