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using MXO2 instead of Compressor to change fps rate?
Wondering if there was a way I could avoid using Compressor to change the fps rate of some footage, since this would take ages, I decided on a whim to use my Matrox MXO2 and was very pleased with the results.
I had a bunch of WWII footage (originally shot 24p) copied by the National Archives for me onto mini-DV tapes (480i29.97). I took the 480i29.97 footage and upconverted via MXO2 to 720p23.98.
I was amazed to see how good the result was.
So my question: If you have footage originally shot at 24p but transferred to DV tapes at 29.97fps, why
use Compressor if you can make fps rate change from 29.97 to 24p with the MXO2 in real time?Or am I missing something?
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16 Replies
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Wait…the MXO 2 does a frame rate conversion as well as the upconvert?
Hmmm…this bears testing. Thanks for trying this and pointing it out.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Sounds more like it was removing pulldown.
Arnie
Post production is not an afterthought!
https://www.arniepix.com/ -
Even then, my tests with the Kona showed me bad results when I tried. The footage captured out of sync and slow motion. Well, by “tests” I mean “mistakenly had the settings wrong.”
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Hi Shane,
Yes, as far as I can tell. I’ll post a couple seconds of my upconverted footage.
But I was amazed! In FCP’s Log and Capture window, all I did was select “MXO2 Apple Pro Res 720p23.98” as my upconvert. My 480i29.97 clip became a 720p23.98 clip in the browser with “23.98” in the fps column. I remember you had mentioned that 720p.29.97 was unnatural, that I should either use “720p59.94” or 720p24 but not “720p29.97”
Interestingly I didn’t find any problems selecting “720p29.97” essentially 720p30. Except that now and again (every 6 or 7 frames) I seemed to have a duplicate frame.
The problem with upconverting to “720p59.94” was that I essentially ended up with twice the number of frames…every second frame being a duplicate of the preceding one. So that if I advanced frame by frame in my resulting 59.94 timeline, movement would stop at every second frame and resume after.
But after selecting “720p23.98” for my upconvert via MXO2, I had a perfect frame rate, no duplicate frames. Of course I’m talking about footage that was originally shot 24p (WWII) but transferred to mini-DV tapes at 480i29.97
Best,
– Nick
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I didn’t know Kona 3 had that option. I have Kona LHi and my only options with that card are “720p59.94”, 1080i29.97 and 1080psf24. But MXO2 seems to have more upconvert options.
How many upconvert options does Kona 3 have?
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The ones you see in the LHi…
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Sorry I don’t understand here- is the MXO2 like a physical thing? Whereas compressor is software? If so surely that’s why people choos compressor, cos it’s cheaper not to buy something else?
😀
Tom Morter-Laing
Certified Apple Product Proffessional, 2010
Production Assistant, Grace Productions
Degree; TV Production -
[Thomas Morter-Laing] “Sorry I don’t understand here- is the MXO2 like a physical thing?”
Yup…
https://www.matrox.com/video/en/products/mac/mxo2_family/
[Thomas Morter-Laing] “Whereas compressor is software?”
Yup.
[Thomas Morter-Laing] “If so surely that’s why people choos compressor, cos it’s cheaper not to buy something else?
“Compressor takes time…a LOT of time…to upconvert footage and make it look good. And it takes a lot of tweaking, and trial and error to get the right settings. And if you have a LOT of footage, it takes longer and longer. Whereas hardware upconversion is realtime, when you capture, and very clean.
Depends on how much your time is worth. Me, I’d rather be editing then waiting for footage to compress.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
“If you have footage originally shot at 24p but transferred to DV tapes at 29.97fps, why
use Compressor if you can make fps rate change from 29.97 to 24p with the MXO2 in real time?”Yeah sorry, the only reason I bough that up was because his above question says’ why use compressor?’ so my answer is: “to save £1249 (ish)” heheh 😀
But yeah fair enough, if you have the funds then I’m sure even MXO(1) would be a very useful thing to have!
😀
Tom Morter-Laing
Certified Apple Product Proffessional, 2010
Production Assistant, Grace Productions
Degree; TV Production -
[Nicholas Natteau] “But after selecting “720p23.98” for my upconvert via MXO2, I had a perfect frame rate, no duplicate frames. Of course I’m talking about footage that was originally shot 24p (WWII) but transferred to mini-DV tapes at 480i29.97 “
I suspect the MXO2 in this case correctly guessed (or tested) that your source footage had pulldown, so it removed the skanky frames and and generated 480p23.98 on the fly and converted that to 720p23.98 at the output.
The same thing can of course be done with software only.
How much time did it take with the MXO2?
(Processing time per second of source footage.)
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