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ProRes422 HD to SD DV files via softare
Hi,
So now that ProRes is available for HD capture, we’ve begun to consider this as a good way to make protection masters for HDCam or DVCProHD tapes. Basically, capture at the HQ quality and then back the captured tapes up to LTO3 tapes. We never thought that the DVCProHD codec was good enough for this, but now ProRes looks to be a cheaper and possibly better alternative than making actual tape dubs.
Anyway, that part seems to work okay for us so far, but we also would like to make SD files (DV codec) for some offline uses and to be able to make much of the library available on a raid for quick review, etc. The problem is we’ve done some tests of sending the ProRes files though compressor and using DV anamorphic setting, but the resulting files have way too much moire and ringing on small lines and detail. If we use the built in downconversion on the deck, or the downconversion on one of our Kona cards it looks fine, but we really don’t want to recapture. We’re hoping to just load all the HD files in a batch and have them convert overnight…
Any thoughts?
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2 Replies
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Okay, after a lot of testing, I found something that seems to give adequate results. Basically I drop the ProRes HD file it into a DV 4:3 sequence then shift the fields -1, then use compressor to output the sequence to a DV file. This is for letterboxed output which is best for our needs. Unfortunately it adds several steps doing it this way, including making sure the sequence timecode starts at the same timecode as the clip or the timecode no longer matches.
This will work for now, but if anyone has a simpler way to do this that doesn’t require making sequences, etc. it would be appreciated. Even just making anamorphic files instead of letterboxed would be okay.
Thanks,
Walter -
could it be that you need to change the resize setting in the frame control tab in compressor to something better then the default in the preset your using?
i noticed a few times that the Apple presets always use the default settings and therefor the basic quality for resizing or fps changes, which is not good enough.
the reason it might work from fcp is that this way the resize is using the fcp engine?
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