viewing fields from QuickTimes

[Larry Morales]

one way to step thru the fields in avid is within the effects editor.

tvmambo

[Ra-ey Saleh]

1) The white image means that the codec you made the QT in is not installed somehow.
Open the QT in QT Player and press Control/Apple ‘I’. This will tell you what codec the file was made in. Make sure that this is installed on your machine.
2) There is a button you can map that will step through field by field, but the keyboard shortcut is: ALT + ‘1’ will step back a field; ALT +’2′ will step forward.
You’ll know it’s doing it by looking in the top right-hand corner of the composer Source or Record window, as a little number “2” appears when you’re on the 2nd field.

[Dennis Couzin]

I used Ra-ey Saleh’s suggestion of ALT+2 to step through fields. Amazingly, all three viewable QuickTimes exhibited screwed-up field order. That is, time goes 1 step backward, 2 steps forward, 1 step backward, 2 steps forward, etc., field to field. Can the field dominance really be wrong in every case? The original interlaced video was DV-PAL and one of the FCP exports to QT was straight DV-PAL. Did FCP even screw up that one, or is Avid misreading the QT?

Concerning the missing 10-bit codecs, I will either need to install QT Pro on my PC (where I’ve installed Avid), or else install Avid on my Mac (where the codecs definitely reside).

I’m aghast that the field order problem already shows on the 8-bit QTs.

[Ra-ey Saleh]

2 things:
Experiment with your import settings:
They’ve changed in description, but essentially change the Field Order settings and see what happens. It will depend on how you made the original files.

There’s another thread recently that shows where you can get the uptodate Mac/PC Avid codecs.

[Dennis Couzin]

I’ll keep the discussion going on here and also at https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/8/1028737.

If Avid QuickTime import can’t be trusted to keep field order straight, then how can Avid be a method for checking the field order in a QuickTime file?

I did the basic experiment. Some video came out of a Sony DCR-VX2000E. It was definitely shot as DV-PAL. I captured it with FCP using the DV-PAL preset. (There is no option for field dominance in the capture settings.) I put it in the timeline and set sequence settings to DV-PAL with lower field dominance. I rerendered and exported a QuickTime using current settings. Then I set sequence settings to DV-PAL with upper field dominance. (This is the wrong setting for DV-PAL.) I rerendered and exported a QuickTime using current settings.

I imported both QuickTime files to Avid and stepped through their fields. Both showed the field reversal: 1 step backward; 2 steps forward; 1 step backward; 2 steps forward; etc.

It appears that either FCP exports DV-PAL QuickTimes incorrectly or else Avid imports DV-PAL QuickTimes incorrectly. DV-PAL is not an obscure codec. The error seems too large to be possible (unless FCP or Avid is known making for big errors)

[Dennis Couzin]

ra-ey Saleh, I now understand your suggestion. Under Import Settings-Current:

Field Ordering in File

Ordered for current format
Odd (Upper Field First) ordered
Even (Lower Field First) ordered

If I choose Even before I import the QuickTime file, then the field order does appear correct when I step through fields.

I think this means the QuickTime file is correct, because DV-PAL is supposed to be Lower Field First. Whew!

Incidentally, before I set the ordering to Even it was set to current project. The current project format had been set to 25i PAL. Is it reasonable that Avid interpreted this as Odd?

Sorry for the false alarm on the 8-bit QuickTimes. I will now work on viewing the 10-bit QuickTimes in Avid. It was a 10-bit uncompressed 4:2:2 QuickTime (made with FCP 5.1.2 from DV-PAL original) which I once brought to a (professional) video lab which informed me that the fields were reversed. Since I had the whole project with me the lab then recreated the problem in their FCP 6 system, declaring that it was FCP’s bug. Is this related to: https://support.apple.com/kb/TA23518?viewlocale=en_US? I’m now trying to confirm this bug. I’ve now disconfirmed it for the 8-bit uncompressed 4:2:2 QuickTime. Thanks for your help.

[Dennis Couzin]

If Avid can import my QuickTime file either with Upper Field First or with Lower Field First, does this mean that QuickTime files are organized as frames rather than as fields? Is the program which imports (or plays) a QuickTime file not informed by the file whether the even lines in the frame were shot before, after, or simultaneous with the odd lines of the frame? (What are headers for if not to give that kind of information?) If the field information is absent from the QuickTime file, then a QuickTime file can never be said to have reversed fields (except in the horrible case where frames have even line image in odd lines and odd line image in even lines). If the field information is present in the QuickTime file, does Avid import purposely ignore the information and require the user to input it? In that case, I haven’t really verified my QuickTime files.