should I / how would I change field dominance when capturing progressive footage?

[Jeremy Garchow]

Let me get this straight. You are capturing dv footage through firewire from an HVX 200. You shot it ‘progressive’ but in the browser the clips say field dominance lower (by the way this is correct). You then put those clips in a dv sequence where the sequence is set to a field dominance of none and then you have to render? Do your formats match?

[Dit Ben]

Yes, they match… Its the first time Im shooting progressive, so there might be something else that Im doing wrong. What do you need to change, other than lower to none in the sequence settings, when youre dealing with progressive footage?

[Jeremy Garchow]

You are changing JUST the sequence setting and not the clips themselves, correct?

[Dit Ben]

Correct. How could I change the clips anyway? I mean, how does FCP know that what I captured is progressive?

[Jeremy Garchow]

There’s a field dominance setting in the browser. Check and see what it is. Let’s start over. Choose the dv pal easy setup. Make a new sequence and put a captured clip in this new timeline. Now change the field dominance in the sequence by hitting apple-zero with your timeline window selected and changing the field dominance setting from lower to none.

FCP doesn’t know or care if your footage is progressive, all it sees is in this case is Pal and dv. “Progressive” video is still interlaced video except the two fields are now the same instead of different as in traditional interlaced video. FCP captures and plays this progressive video as interlaced, but the way the video is constructed gives it a progressive look and feel. (I hope I am not confusing you. If I am, please tell me as it is not my intent). All you have to do is to tell FCP not to RENDER in interlaced mode which is done by the steps outlined above.

Jeremy

[Michael Buday]

Paris,

You can change the FIELD DOMINANCE in the browser for all your captured clips:

– select all the desired clips
– find the FIELD DOMINANCE heading
– right-click against one of the selected clips on the field dominance
– select NONE

That’s it. This only changes the setting for the clips, not the SEQ. You’ll need to set the SEQ to NONE as well. Once they match, there should be no need to render these clips.

Michael Buday

[Dit Ben]

Thanks for your answer. I’m actually in the PAL world. Do you know if the same applies, or is progressive really progressive?