[Alessio Gemma]

Thanks Scott,
your support is very appreciated.
I’ll run some tests, keeping in mind what you told me.
Alessio

[Alessio Gemma]

I agree with you, of course. My choice was driven by an article posted on Ken Stone website…
I copy and paste below something..

“A number of the new video cameras on the market shoot in HDV and XDCAM EX formats. Both of these formats use long GOP ‘temporal’ compression. For some people, when encoding from these codecs to MPEG2, the quality of the finished MPEG2 video may leave something to be desired. While not everyone experiences this problem, for others it can be a real issue.
There is a way around this problem. Export your HDV or XDCAM EX video from the FCP timeline to Apple’s ProRes 422 codec. The ProRes 422 codec is a 10-bit, full raster, high quality frame-based codec designed to preserve quality. ProRes 422 files can be encoded to MPEG2 (in Compressor or DVD SP) producing high quality video”

What do you think about this? Anyway, I want to follow a new way: it’s not a big problem to test what you explained in your so detailed reply. 😉

Scott, if I want to burn a Blu-Ray starting from my HDV sequence and using the “share” function into Final Cut 7, do you thing that it would be the same like starting from a ProRes one?

Regards,
Alessio

[Alessio Gemma]

Thanks Scott,
I’ll try your workflow… I always thought that it wasn’t a good idea to compress an already compressed format as HDV and I needed an intermediate codec as ProRes: but maybe I need it the only case I have to mix different formats.
Best regards,
Alessio

[Alessio Gemma]

Thanks for your reply!
I want to save time, but I really don’t want to waste the overall quality.
Someone told me that it’s not a good idea to use HDV to obtain an mpeg2, cause of the GOP structure of this codec… but it depends on the sequence complexity, as you wrote here.
I guess that it’s time to test the two methods separately…. HDV and ProRes workflow.
The last question is: is it correct to export the HDV sequence as a ProRes clip before to compress it in mpeg2 or do you think it would be better to export the HDV as self-contained and compress it in moeg2 directly?
Regards,
Alessio

[Alessio Gemma]

Thanks Shane and Scott,
my workflow is: digitize an HDV tape, editing and burn an SD DVD plus a master to tape in HDV.
I work using a ProRes timeline: I export using self-contained to compress in MPEG2, but, of course, I have to go back to tape the system needs to reconvert the sequence to HDV before mastering.
My idea was: digitize using HDV (instead of ProRes), editing in HDV and, once finished:
1) master to tape (it’s an HDV sequence, so I don’t need to transcode)
2) export to ProRes from FCP to obtain a file well suited for the DVD authoring

My question is: using the upon workflow, do you think I’ll loose quality or not? MAybe I need to test it?

Regards,
Alessio

[Alessio Gemma]

Ok, I’ll decide in the next days about the Nattress! But if i wish to use Compressor… how can I deinterlace a sequence
using it? Have I to export the sequence and then launch Compressor using the exported clip? Which settings have I to use?

Sorry for my ignorance, but how can I use compressor to upscale a clip?? I’ve a MAtrox MXO2… but never used to upscaling! 🙁

Regards,
Alessio

[Alessio Gemma]

Wow, I got very useful info from you, dear Rafael!
I agree with you: it’s better to work step-by-step (editing, exporting with downsize and then transcoding) than to make
the same in one step. I’m sure that I can control the process much better, understanding where the issue begins.

For the interlaced clips and the slow-motion, you’re terrible right: I’ll try the optical flow in Motion with an interlaced clips…
at the end, I’ll deinterlace all the sequence before exporting 🙂

Just a question… in the case of 90% of HD source and 10% of SD source, I’d like to work with an HD sequence: so, I’ve to
upscaling the SD clips to HD size… can you tell me a good workflow for this? I’ve to upscale the clips in FCP or it’s
better to use other software/plugin ??

Speaking about the Nattress plugin for the interlacing procedure… I saw in the web it’s a bit out of date, in FCP 6 or 7
I need a FXPlug version as plugin. Do you think it can work anyway?

Regards,
Alessio

[Alessio Gemma]

Ok, I made some trials…
I used Motion to slow down some clips, using the Optical Flow method… if i speed down a lot (10%) I notice a better quality than setting the speed into final Cut directly… but with 50% or 40% I see the same quality…. to wotk better, the clip must be slowed-down and then deinterlaced (i used a progressive clip) or I’ll get the same results??

Speaking about the interlacing… I used a progressive ProRes timeline and I used the final cut deinterlacer for the DV clips (lower first) and XDCAM clips (upper first): I exported a self contained clip, than compressed in MPEG2 (using standard Apple settings) with the field dominance setted again to top first for a PAL SD-DVD. The final mpeg2 is good, very good… no artifacts! I really thank you for your support!!!

Then, I digitized some tapes from HDV camcorder: I setted the system to ProRes 1440×1020 and working and exporting using progressive sequence (with deinterlace filter applied to all clips), I finally got a good result! I made a stupid trial… I create a new ProRes sequence in 720×576 anamorphic, I copied the content of HDV 1440×1080 sequence into the SD 720×576 one, I rendered all and exported a self contained 720×576 movie… well, i compressed it in mpeg2 and the final result is better than the mpeg2 obtained from compressing the hd self-contained movie directly…. is it possible that the mpeg compresso suffers the frame resizing and it’s better to resize the clip in Final Cut??

Thanks,
Alessio

[Alessio Gemma]

Hello Rafael,
I saw the video tutorials you linked here…. very interesting, I’ll try the plugins tomorrow when I come back.

In the sequence settings, in the render control options, I always render in 8-bit YUV… Apple ProRes is a 10-bit codec, so.. have I to change this settings according with the sequence codec or not?

Regards,
Alessio

[Alessio Gemma]

Ok Rafael,
I’ll take a look to TwixTor plugin and I’ll let you know the results!
Anyway… speaking about the interlaced or progressive clips… I always shot interlaced videos (… they told me it results in better quality then progressive…) but you shot in progressive… s othe question is: which is the main difference? it’s a quality issue or not? Because if I have a lot of problems when I have to mix interlaced clips, I could deinterlace them all and do my work always using progressive sequence… but maybe this is not a good point, I’m sure!
You’re an expert and I’m sure you have a good answer for me!
Thanks in advance,
Alessio