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Pulldown wrong in Final Cut
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I started a new thread, “Using Compressor on clips in sequence” with a question about the workflow for doing so.
Jeremy or anyone else?
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[Tony Silanskas] “Maybe the next version of Final Cut will finally resolve this pulldown issue.”
Final Cut Pro is “supposed” to handle multiple formats/framerates in the same sequence. We all have learned through experience the framerate part doesn’t work at all and generally do it the way Jeremy suggests or up-convert and frame change to a common rate so the sequence is all one single rate.
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I used to think it was an issue with ProRes (HQ) that FCP wouldn’t generate a proper 2:3 field cadence, since only 2:2:2:4 is offered, even in the RT settings. Using plain-vanilla ProRes brings back the options, but FCP still doesn’t change its ways and does not seem to be able to generate 2:3 at all. You can play back a 23.98 sequence through a Kona card, but it only generates 2997 2:3 field cadence on downconverts to SD, but not cross-convert to 1080i2997.
Neither Export Quicktime, not Quicktime Conversion do it correctly, either. The only method that I’ve been able to glean is a very time-consuming trip through Compressor, Fast conversion, top-field first. Trying to achieve A-, or B- field dominance is another trick.
Interestingly enough, the FCP/Compressor does seem to respect the SMPTE convention where it produces a C-frame at 10hours Drop Frame, which is somewhat ironic considering that it fails miserably at every other core task in a frame-conversion workflow.
AVID does this like falling out of bed, but it came out of a broadcast environment where editing pull-down media was a given. Until FCP becomes field-aware, and I doubt that it can be built into the architecture, we’re on our own, doing the math.
jPo
You mean “Old Ben”? Ben Kenobi?
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[Joseph Owens] “You can play back a 23.98 sequence through a Kona card, but it only generates 2997 2:3 field cadence on downconverts to SD, but not cross-convert to 1080i2997.”
I challenge that.
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[Joseph Owens] “You can play back a 23.98 sequence through a Kona card, but it only generates 2997 2:3 field cadence on downconverts to SD, but not cross-convert to 1080i2997.”
Joseph –
What kind of 23.98 sequence are trying to cross-convert to 1080i? You must mean a 720p 23.98 sequence because you say “cross-convert.” You couldn’t mean 1080 23.98 because the Kona control panel won’t ever allow that combination to be set.
It works here. I just tested it this way:
Put some 720p 23.98 footage into a 720p 23.98 Prores sequence.
Set FCP to 720p 59.94 easy setup, the correct way to force Kona to do 3:2 pulldown.
Set the Kona to cross convert 720p 59.94 to 1080i 29.97
Play the sequence and record the output onto an HD VTR set to record 1080i.
I inspected the results frame by frame and confirmed that the 3:2 pattern is just as it should be (3 frames with matched fields then 2 frames with mixed fields)
– Larry Asbell
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[Joseph Owens] “The only method that I’ve been able to glean is a very time-consuming trip through Compressor, Fast conversion, top-field first. Trying to achieve A-, or B- field dominance is another trick.”
If you have access to After Effects, try it in there. This is how I’ve been doing it for years and it’s pretty fast and looks fine. But having the option in Final Cut would be faster.
tony
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