Sequence with XDCAM HD 422 and DVCAM.. the right setting?

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Alessio,
Yes, Motion makes good slow-mow. It use a technology call “Optical-flow” that comes from SHAKE and that is used also in Compressor for re-timing (when you select BEST).
But if you want to get something better, TwixTor is the plugin. It use similar technique than Motion and so, but you have much more control over the interpolation.
Tell us if everything goes fine.
Cheers,
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Alessio Gemma]

Ok Rafael,
I’ll take a look to TwixTor plugin and I’ll let you know the results!
Anyway… speaking about the interlaced or progressive clips… I always shot interlaced videos (… they told me it results in better quality then progressive…) but you shot in progressive… s othe question is: which is the main difference? it’s a quality issue or not? Because if I have a lot of problems when I have to mix interlaced clips, I could deinterlace them all and do my work always using progressive sequence… but maybe this is not a good point, I’m sure!
You’re an expert and I’m sure you have a good answer for me!
Thanks in advance,
Alessio

[Rafael Amador]

[Alessio Gemma] “I’ll take a look to TwixTor plugin and I’ll let you know the results! “
If you intend to use it, here you have some very interesting tutorials:
https://leaders.creativecow.net/leaders/freitag_lori/
The one “Twixtor and the unwanted wrapping” is very important.
That is what mkes Twixtor different from Motion or Compressor.
You can tweak the filter depending of the picture.
In Motion or Compressor, the filter is applied lineally.

[Alessio Gemma] “Anyway… speaking about the interlaced or progressive clips… I always shot interlaced videos (… they told me it results in better quality then progressive…) but you shot in progressive… s othe question is: which is the main difference? it’s a quality issue or not”
No quality issues at all, just make sure use a good de-interlacer. NEVER use the one of FC.
I’ll recommends you the “Nattress”. Not expensive, and is the only one that works in FC in 10b.

[Alessio Gemma] “Because if I have a lot of problems when I have to mix interlaced clips, I could deinterlace them all and do my work always using progressive sequence… but maybe this is not a good point, I’m sure! “
Working in deinterlaced, you avoid many strange issues as the one you were having.
Don’t worry much about when editing, but before exporting set the sequence to NONE, and the de-interlacer to the footage that may need it.
Cheers,
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Alessio Gemma]

Hello Rafael,
I saw the video tutorials you linked here…. very interesting, I’ll try the plugins tomorrow when I come back.

In the sequence settings, in the render control options, I always render in 8-bit YUV… Apple ProRes is a 10-bit codec, so.. have I to change this settings according with the sequence codec or not?

Regards,
Alessio

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Alessio,
Yes, set “Render all YUV in High Precision”.
Rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Alessio Gemma]

Ok, I made some trials…
I used Motion to slow down some clips, using the Optical Flow method… if i speed down a lot (10%) I notice a better quality than setting the speed into final Cut directly… but with 50% or 40% I see the same quality…. to wotk better, the clip must be slowed-down and then deinterlaced (i used a progressive clip) or I’ll get the same results??

Speaking about the interlacing… I used a progressive ProRes timeline and I used the final cut deinterlacer for the DV clips (lower first) and XDCAM clips (upper first): I exported a self contained clip, than compressed in MPEG2 (using standard Apple settings) with the field dominance setted again to top first for a PAL SD-DVD. The final mpeg2 is good, very good… no artifacts! I really thank you for your support!!!

Then, I digitized some tapes from HDV camcorder: I setted the system to ProRes 1440×1020 and working and exporting using progressive sequence (with deinterlace filter applied to all clips), I finally got a good result! I made a stupid trial… I create a new ProRes sequence in 720×576 anamorphic, I copied the content of HDV 1440×1080 sequence into the SD 720×576 one, I rendered all and exported a self contained 720×576 movie… well, i compressed it in mpeg2 and the final result is better than the mpeg2 obtained from compressing the hd self-contained movie directly…. is it possible that the mpeg compresso suffers the frame resizing and it’s better to resize the clip in Final Cut??

Thanks,
Alessio

[Rafael Amador]

[Alessio Gemma] “I used Motion to slow down some clips, using the Optical Flow method… if i speed down a lot (10%) I notice a better quality than setting the speed into final Cut directly… but with 50% or 40% I see the same quality…. to wotk better, the clip must be slowed-down and then deinterlaced (i used a progressive clip) or I’ll get the same results?? “
make the de-interlacing once in the end.
You can make better slow-mow with a i50 clip than with a p25.
You have double of original pictures, even if they are just “fields” and not full frames.

[Alessio Gemma] ” I create a new ProRes sequence in 720×576 anamorphic, I copied the content of HDV 1440×1080 sequence into the SD 720×576 one, I rendered all and exported a self contained 720×576 movie… well, i compressed it in mpeg2 and the final result is better than the mpeg2 obtained from compressing the hd self-contained movie directly…. is it possible that the mpeg compresso suffers the frame resizing and it’s better to resize the clip in Final Cut?? “
I wouldn’t use FC to enlarge a picture, but I think that FC makes a good downscaling.

I don’t like the multi-process. I mean, if I have a HD movie that have to go to DVD or web, I don’t like to send the picture to Compressor and make the downsizing and compression (MPEG-2 or H262) at once.
What I do is from the HD QT master, export another High Quality QT movie with the proper final size.
For example for the web I export a 10b Unc or Prores movie with the final 640×360 Square pixels. Normally I do this in FC.
Once I’m happy with the QT movie, I just need to transcode.
If you do all at once and you are not happy of the results, you won’t be sure if the problem was because the downscaling or the compression.
Also, even if this process may look slower, in the end is much faster.
Think that when you make a Double-pass MPEG-2, the clip is processed twice, so is downscaled twice. With H264, Multi-pass, means at least three passes.
If you import to Compressor the clip already downscaled, de-interlaced and whatever, you will save a lot of time.
Cheers,
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Alessio Gemma]

Wow, I got very useful info from you, dear Rafael!
I agree with you: it’s better to work step-by-step (editing, exporting with downsize and then transcoding) than to make
the same in one step. I’m sure that I can control the process much better, understanding where the issue begins.

For the interlaced clips and the slow-motion, you’re terrible right: I’ll try the optical flow in Motion with an interlaced clips…
at the end, I’ll deinterlace all the sequence before exporting 🙂

Just a question… in the case of 90% of HD source and 10% of SD source, I’d like to work with an HD sequence: so, I’ve to
upscaling the SD clips to HD size… can you tell me a good workflow for this? I’ve to upscale the clips in FCP or it’s
better to use other software/plugin ??

Speaking about the Nattress plugin for the interlacing procedure… I saw in the web it’s a bit out of date, in FCP 6 or 7
I need a FXPlug version as plugin. Do you think it can work anyway?

Regards,
Alessio

[Rafael Amador]

[Alessio Gemma] “Just a question… in the case of 90% of HD source and 10% of SD source, I’d like to work with an HD sequence: so, I’ve to
upscaling the SD clips to HD size… can you tell me a good workflow for this? I’ve to upscale the clips in FCP or it’s better to use other software/plugin ?? “[Alessio Gemma] “Speaking about the Nattress plugin for the interlacing procedure… I saw in the web it’s a bit out of date, in FCP 6 or 7
I need a FXPlug version as plugin. Do you think it can work anyway? “
At least in FC 6 works great and I haven’t heard of problems in FC 7.
Nattress makes solid filters and good price. Compressor can do it very well but much slower.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Alessio Gemma]

Ok, I’ll decide in the next days about the Nattress! But if i wish to use Compressor… how can I deinterlace a sequence
using it? Have I to export the sequence and then launch Compressor using the exported clip? Which settings have I to use?

Sorry for my ignorance, but how can I use compressor to upscale a clip?? I’ve a MAtrox MXO2… but never used to upscaling! 🙁

Regards,
Alessio