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Uprez options for FCP?
Hi there,
I’m doing a project that is almost entirely shot on HVX-200s, and there will be many hundreds of hours of footage. Possibly a thousand.
We’ve made the choice to do everything as 720p, for very conscious reasons:
Space: This project would be incredibly heavy at 1080p compared to 720p, and the smaller size is a real and tangible benefit.
Quality: The HVX-200 basically doesn’t resolve to anything better than 720p anyway. We’ve done lots of tests, and absolutely noone can see the difference between 720p and 1080p. If the camera resolved these resolutions differently, I could never swallow going with the lower resolution, but they look the same to all of us, even in pure A/B tests. There may be a benefit when you put test cards in front of the camera, but at least for us, the quality difference is negligible. I personally can’t see it at all.
I’m wondering what the options are for uprez’ing the final output to 1080. I’m not merely interested in scaling, although certainly a better scaling algorithm is a good thing.
I’m instead wondering if anyone has had any luck with algorithms that attempt to recreate edge detail. My TV does this, for example, and even SD material can look remarkably sharp and well-rounded, even at close range. I’d like to do the same on the time-line or to the final output file, with the hope that a non-real-time process could do better than a real-time process is an off-the-shelf TV.
I would uprez if someone knows a super algorithm for doing fractal edge interpolation or something. I’d never to a mere scaling to get to 1080, then I’d rather just deliver as 720p and let the player/TV do it.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Best,
Per
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4 Replies
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There is a great uprez filter as a Boris Continuum unit:
https://www.borisfx.com/units/upRez.php– No Parking Production –
Finalcut Studio3, Dual G5 w. Kona 2, iMac i7 w. ioHD, X-Raid
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Yep, I actually know that. I had mentally discarded it because I want it to enhance resolution in-place, i.e. not uprez but just super-sample, which it doesn’t do. I’ll give it a test for the uprez, the demos look good.
I’m also playing with Topaz Enhance, which separates out the enhancement functions, so they can be used separately from the enlargement function, so simply super-sample 720p in place. I’m actually most attracted to simply making my 720p look as good as it can and output as that.
Thanks,
Per
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If you have to do it in house, consider doing your output through a Kona or Black Magic card. You can play it 1080, and no one will ever know the difference (in all but extreme cases). There is also the option of taking it somewhere and running it through a Teranex or some other Grass Valley computing solution. Those are the best option that I know of. And if you’re using DVC Pro HD, probably the best.
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Teranex will provide excellent quality, but a Kona card can perform very well too.
Jeremy
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