workflow from SD to HDV108050i sequence in FCP to Sd DV output

[Don Greening]

[Kathleen Rogers] ” I had to render clips and 10 seoonds took 2 hours… “

Wow, that’s a really long time, Kathleen. Hopefully you’re not using your startup drive to store your media files because that’s a big no no. Always use an external drive for your media and it should be at least a firewire 800 drive.

There are many ways to down convert your HD stuff for an SD delivery but the experts will usually tell you to get into your delivery codec as soon as possible. So in your case it’s just a matter of creating a DV PAL Anamorphic sequence first and then dragging your HD footage into it. When FCP asks if you want to change the sequence settings to match your clip settings just say no. Make sure FCP is set to display using Dynamic RT and do your edit. Dynamic RT will allow you to have smoother unrendered playback without dropping frames and FCP will reduce the video quality during playback to make this happen. If you stop the playhead the picture will return to full resolution so you can see what the final output will actually look like.

Hope this helps.

– Don

[Kathleen Rogers]

Dear Don
Many thanks for the advice. This is first forum I have joined so glad it really works. Will try for DVD SD delivery in wide screen and test. I am working from external drives at 800 firewire.

I am aiming for vertical slices of SD DV PAL images accross a full HD TV frame- and then down converting. Do you reckon I should use Apple 422 HQ transcode in sequence compression for the on-line? ??? – I might actually be able to deliver HD for the exhibit- this has turned up as an option.
many
Thanks

Kathleen

[Don Greening]

[Kathleen Rogers] “Do you reckon I should use Apple 422 HQ transcode in sequence compression for the on-line? ???”

Pro Res is an excellent codec and became wildly popular among editors the moment it was released, mostly because it’s virtually identical in quality to the source footage but with much smaller file sizes than the old HD codecs people were using up to that point. Pro Res has a larger data stream than HDV but it’s still doable over firewire. Pro Res is not limited to HD but works with SD as well, as you already know.

Since you now might have the option to show an HD version at the gallery one way to make that happen is to create a sequence using the same settings as your source footage (HDV) but set your renders to use Pro Res. This way the data stream between your media drive(s) stays relatively low but using Pro Res your rendering times will drop substantially. HDV has a 25Mbit per second transfer rate like Mini DV but is much more processor intensive than “I frame” codecs like Pro Res when it comes time to render because FCP has to “conform” the footage to the HDV spec.

Once you’ve finished your edit you can export a QT self-contained HD movie and then also export an SD version for DVD by using the “Export Using Quicktime Conversion” command and choosing your export codec like Pro Res, or another really nice SD codec like DVCPRO 50.

OR

You can export your HD movie, bring that into Compressor and this program will create an MPEG2 file directly from your exported HD movie.

With FCP there’s always 3 or 4 ways of accomplishing the same end result, depending on how you like to work.

– Don

[Kathleen Rogers]

Dear Don
Many thanks for the helpful advice – its reassuring to know that expertise is at hand when setting up these complex edits and distribution issues.
Kathleen

[Don Greening]

You’re welcome. Good luck with your project.

– Don