Stills look ugly in FCP 5 but were great in 4.5

[Dave Jenkins]

We have the problem on both our G5’s 1.8 and 2.0 but only if we use normal or best in the sequence settings.

Dajen Productions
Santa Barbara, CA
G5 Dual 2 Gig – AJA IO & LA
Huge 1.2 Raid
FCP 5-OS X 10.4.1-QT 7

[David Battistella]

For the record.

This is happening on both a G5 dual 1.8 and a Dual G4 1.25.

This is the Production Suite upgrade version of FCP 5.0 from regular Standalone FCP 4.5

Maybe it is possible that it part of the equation.

Daivd

[Michael Horton]

I haven’t figured out the common denominator yet but there is definitely a problem here. Just too many folks experiencing the same thing.

Michael Horton
lafcpug
https://www.lafcpug.org

[Dave Jenkins]

[Dave] “We have the problem on both our G5’s 1.8 and 2.0 but only if we use normal or best in the sequence settings.”

Forgot to mention we did a clean install on both of our computers. Wiped the drives and started from scratch.

Dajen Productions
Santa Barbara, CA
G5 Dual 2 Gig – AJA IO & LA
Huge 1.2 Raid
FCP 5-OS X 10.4.1-QT 7

[Duncan Craig]

Mines bad too…

Really old Dual 2GHz, latest OS, AJA Io latest drivers, 2.5GB RAM, Studio upgrade from 4.5.

The workaround for me is to force FCP to render the file, I set the item composite mode to screen or add for example and then the scaling looks really really good. I’ve got some large jpgs on the timeline now, scaled right down zooming around and the quality is great when I force it to render. I’m working in high precision uncompressed 10 bit.

Of course this only works if there’s nothing underneath it in the timeline, if there is you’ll see through the layer to whats below, and some transitions go crazy too. Also, you could add a non real time plugin to the item and turn the parameters down so it has no effect. Then render it.

Apple should add an option on a clip by clip basis as to how each item gets rendered.

[Greg Strange]

I spent a thousand dollars on an app that can’t move a still photo without it looking like hell? I’ve read this entire thread and tried the few suggestions and the only thing that’s come close to making my stills look better in FCP5 is setting field dominance to “none”. They still look terrible though. Even when I don’t apply a move some of my stills are noisy and have aliased edges. This is terrible Apple. Is there no work around for this?

[Greg Strange]

I’m having the same trouble. Even stills that I don’t apply any movement to look terrible–noisy, aliased–like a field dominance issue. I installed FCP Studio (FCP5) onto a freshly installed Tiger on a brand new Seagate Barracuda HD (2.5 dual G5). In FCP I’m using Apple’s easy set up for DV NTSC. Quicktime 7.01. It doesn’t seem to matter what RT quality setting I use, stills are ugly. I changed field dominance to “none” and that helped a little but they still look bad. Static stills are noisy (crawling edges). One post on this thread says, “motion or resizing on stills looks bad even after rendering, unless I use ‘fastest’ under Motion Quality Setings”. Using “fastest” does not work in my case. I created this file in FCP 4 and did not have any problem with stills. Can anyone offer a solution to this frustrating issue? This seems so basic.