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SD Video into HD Project
Well, I’m at that point where I’m about to begin my first HD project. I move into the murky waters of pixel aspect ratios, upconverts and frame scaling. I have a new certified Matrox LE system with Adobe CS3. Here is my question/problem.
We want to begin producing HD timeline masters but at least half of the footage being used is 4:3 SD footage. The footage is hundreds of hours of Beta SP footage that was transferred to XDCAM HD 50GB discs using the 25mb DVCAM codec. (The whole transfer issue is another story on another day so let’s just not go into the “why” we did that.)
My project settings are Matrox HD 1920×1080 60i using the MPEG-2I-frame codec. Now when I import my .mxf DVCAM files into the HD project, PPRO interpets them correctly to be 0.9 aspect ratio by default. However, the the video image is very small on the HD canvas of 1920×1080. I can fill the screen correctly by using the scale to frame size but is this the correct workflow for maintaining the best image quality for the DV footage? Does scale to frame size “blow up” the image and therefore reduce image quality? Do all the DVCAM .mxf files have to be upconverted before bringing them into the HD project? Does any 4:3 SD video have to be upconverted before bringing it into a HD project?
We will be outputting both HD masters and SD masters from the same timeline. The HD masters will be .mxf files for dubbing HDCAM and the SD masters will “print to tape” to Beta SP from the same timeline. Is it possible to output from Matrox Axio LE/PPro to tape a correctly cropped 4:3 SD master from the 1920×1080 HD timeline? I assumed this was possible using the “secondary output” in the Matrox project settings but I don’t know for sure it will work. Bottom line is I need to be able to produce both HD and SD from the same timeline and I’m assuming that is done by beginning with an HD timeline project setting.
Interestingly when the DVCAM files are imported into the project natively and then dragged to the timeline there is a “red render” bar but when I activate “scale to frame size” the render bar goes away.
One other quick question. Is there a way to output to the external video monitor the title/action safe areas? In *edit it was the “shift-t” to output a very nice safe title to the program monitor but I can only find safe title settings within the editing software screens only. I guess it would be possible to create one with the titler and put it on the timeline and get the safe references that way.
Thanks for reading such a long post.
Erik
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15 Replies
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I’d use Red Giant’s Instant HD to up-rez the SD stuff. I doubt simply scaling it up will give terribly satisfying results.
TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,CPO, Digieffects
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Thanks Tim for pointing me to Red Giant. I’ve downloaded the trial software and will do some experimenting soon. I was wondering if you still would recommend Red Giant upscaling for my HD project if you knew that I am also going to be outputing a SD master from the HD timeline. (Using Matrox Axio with PPro) I seem to be hearing that for me to upscale SD and then downscale from HD timeline to SD master would be a bad idea??
Thanks for taking time,
Erik
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So…why would you want to edit it in HD?
If you need to edit in HD, the SD will need to be up-rez’d so it maintains the best possible quality in HD as it will take another hit when you down-rez again…
Why wouldn’t you just edit in SD if this output to SD is the main concern? I’m not sure I understand why you’d edit in HD…
TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,CPO, Digieffects
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Tim,
I had mentioned that I have to produce a HD master and a SD master of the same program. This will be the standard workflow for me for sometime so I’m trying to get my brain wrapped around it. Maybe I should try to create the SD master first completely and then import into HD project. About 50% of the video clips will be 1080i XDCAM HD. Most of the rest will be 720×480 DV but coming from XDCAM discs not from DVCAM Tape.
Erik
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Well I guess I’m confused…
Up rez’ing SD for an HD timeline as opposed to what?
You said earlier that uprezing SD to HD and down rezing back to SD is something you heard was bad, but it certainly makes better sense than losing your HD definition completely by editing it all as SD and then uprezing it…
TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,CPO, Digieffects
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Tim,
I will try to make it more clear. These are possible workflow scenarios that I am trying to see if they are possible. All of this is based on theories running around in my head as I have never done any of the approaches listed below. Think of this as me thinking out loud to find problems with my workflows.
Workflow 1 for creating both HD and SD Masters
Create 1920×1080 59.97 HD Project
SD VIDEO used in program would need uprezing.
HD VIDEO used in program would be native.ALL COMPOSITES done in Combustion, AE, etc. would need to be rendered twice. Once with uprezed SD and once with native SD.
ALL TEXT TIMELINE GRAPHICS would need to be built twice. Once for HD graphics and once for SD.
HD MASTER
Directly from timeline.SD MASTER
Option A) Directly from timeline also using Axio BOB but realizing that SD uprezed video would suffer.Option B) Import (or nest?) the entire project/sequence (NOT A RENDERED FILE OUTPUT) into a new 720×480 project and rebuild/relink SD portions with original SD footage. (I could do this by keeping a muted video track within the HD timeline that would be soley for the purpose of matching the uprezed SD video used in the timeline with the original SD video)
Then print to tape from that timeline.
Workflow 2 for creating both HD and SD Masters
Create 720×480 29.97 SD Project
SD VIDEO used in program would need native.
HD VIDEO would be down-converted in real-time to timeline when imported. (This is my understanding of how PPro with Axio LE would handle this.)ALL COMPOSITES done in Combustion, AE, etc. would need to be rendered twice. Once for native SD (SD Master) and once for uprezed SD to go into HD master.
ALL TEXT TIMELINE GRAPHICS would need to be built twice. Once for SD graphics and once for HD graphics.SD MASTER
Directly from timeline.HD MASTER
Import entire project/sequence into a new 1920×1080 project (NOT A RENDERED FILE OUTPUT) and uprez SD video portions. HD video should import natively.Then output directly from timeline.
This is where my head is now and hopefully someone will tell me a much easier way to get this type of work done now that I have spelled things out a little more clearly as to what I hope to achieve. Is anyone out there in a similar boat?
Erik
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Do everything in HD…composites and all…uprez the SD…then downconvert the HD master clip to SD from the HD master…done.
Most of us in the world are doing it this way…works fine.
TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,CPO, Digieffects
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Hi Tim I am following this thread as a lurker ‘cause I know someday it will be relevant. Currently we (Nepalese) are mostly working in SD, it’s mostly a question of economics, so our studio is producing SD using FCP Studio 2 and the ProRes 422 codec. I am wondering what we should be doing in preparation of moving to HD shoots and post production someday. Got any tips for us here? Thanks!
BS in Nepal -
Tim,
The simplicity of your answer caused me to pause a bit and then I got sidetracked on a few other things so my apologies to you for the late response. Just to clarify, when you say downconvert the HD Master to SD, I take that as you meaning export a 720x SD clip of the entire timeline and then playback that clip on another timeline for printing to tape. Does that sound correct?
Just whenever you get the chance.
Erik
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Hi James…that question is a little wide in scope to answer with a forum post…can you be a bit more specific with where your concerns lie?
TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,CPO, Digieffects
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