[Alexander Kallas]

[Kevin Marks] “Looking for the FCP 5.1.4 updater and I read that some of you may have it available. I have a server for uploading if anyone is feeling generous.
“

Give me your url

Cheers
Alexander

[Alexander Kallas]

Compressor using the frame-controls tab will give you great results, but it is heavily
processor dependent therefore very slow, can you get time on a new Mac Pro tower?

Cheers
Alexander

[Alexander Kallas]

[Rafael Amador] ”
Hi Alexander,
I think you are using the Nattress “Big Box of Tricks” filters. I have never used those.
The one I use is the “G Chroma Sharpen Interlaced” that comes with the “Films effects 2.5.2″ package.
It makes smoothing and then sharpening together. I use it with the default preset and works great with most of the DV footage.
If you are working with DV PAL or NTSC and want to end up in a standard DVD, this is your filter. You will tell me how it works.
Cheers and happy New Year.
rafael”

Gee thanks Rafael,
what a wealth of knowledge you share,
thanks again

Cheers
Alexander

[Alexander Kallas]

[Rafael Amador] “Very happy to hear that I’ve been helpful.
Have very nice holidays and a great 2008.
Rafael
“

If may ask (to save me hours of testing)
With the Nattress sharpener, do you use super-sharpening, at 75 seems brutal,
so I’m asuming the regular sharpener,
What about the other features/settings?
And with the G smoother (for DVD) de-interlaced or not?
Thanks Rafael

Cheers
Alexander

[Alexander Kallas]

[Rafael Amador] “The one of Adam Wilt and FC, only works in NTSC (411).
For PAL was nothing until Nattress released his filters. Normally I use it with the default value: Interlaced, 420, Smoothing+ Sharpening (75%), and works very well. You can use it also with HDV (420). In PAL or HDV it works better than in NTSC, because the 420 blocks are easier to smooth than the 411.
I tried too the “Deartifacter” that comes with Magic Bullet. It works great too, but is very slow to render, and in pictures with a lot of movement doesn’t works as good as the Nattress.
Normally I set the Chroma smoothing when I’m ready to render. I put it the first in the batch of filter, because should works over the raw footage. Nattress told me that I can set it after the Color Correction filters and makes not much difference.
Rafael”

Thanks for your patience Rafael, actually your english is very good, You have “saved” the Apple DV codec for me, and given me/us great information.

Cheers
Alexander

[Alexander Kallas]

[Rafael Amador] “It seems that the 411 is not any more in FC. At least I don’t find it in FC6.
I have never used it because I work with PAL. Adam Wilt have a free one for 411.
The Nattress is great. It doesn’t just Chroma smooth but also re-sharp.
“

Thanks Rafael,
FCP 4.5 and 5 still have a 411 smoother.
I’ll test and report.
In the Natress smoother demo do you change the default settings?
Have you tried Adam Wilt’s?
Do you not need it for PAL?

Cheers
Alexander

[Alexander Kallas]

[Rafael Amador] “If Apple DV would use Chroma filtering, Why FC should have a 411 Chroma filter? Or why Adam Wilt or Nattresse have wrote their 411, Nicer, etc?
“

Thanks R, now I see, ( I’ve been testing in the Avid DV codec ) and understand the concept.
Does the FCP 411 smother work as well as the Nattress?
On top of that I’ve also tried compositing the 8-bit Apple DV clip, but find the Gamma in m2v is too dark at the default setting, what do you recommend?

Cheers
Alexander

[Alexander Kallas]

[Rafael Amador] “That is the correct way. When you send to Compressor from the FC time line, you are sending un uncompress 444 signal. Whatever is the codex of your sequence. No DV compression again.
If you would have export as NTSC DV and then sent to Compressor you would have got something much worst.
“

OK, now if you are re-rendering DV 411 to 444 via FCP to Compressor, why use the Nattress G smoother? Are you saying that without the G smoother, there is no color enhancement in this 444 file?

Cheers
Alexander

[Alexander Kallas]

[Chang Dek] “I did a quick test exporting from FCP NTSC DV timeline to Compressor 8 bit Unc PAL (no, I didnt open any frame rate or other parameters) and the comparison to an export made in PAL DV setting was very noticeable;”

Chang, just so you know,
8-bit always looks better on the Mac, but that’s not your delivery mode.
Now you should really use the frame-controls tab to get the best format conversion (forget about the 8-bit vs Dv debate, I’m talking conversion here now)
To convert standards from NTSC to PAL: Import your NTSC footage to the Batch window. Set a target preset, and make sure you alter it so that it specifies PAL as the standard. Don’t worry. Go to Frame Controls and, again, set it to Custom. The main magic is on the bottom: set Frame rate conversion to “Better” or “Best”. Both are Motion compensated (optical flow) and, depending your source and computer power, it could take DAYS to encode. If you can’t trade quality for time in such a large scale, set it to “Good (frame blending)”. This is the method DVFilm, JES Deinterlacer and similar tools use. It’s fast and the quality is, well, more or less like others which use frame blending. Not that bad. You can also choose a setting for the resizing filter in Frame controls: don’t go too high or the wait will never end. A Quad machine will take much less. Or, if you have another Mac around, Compressor 2 has distributed encoding to make two or more machines work together. That really accelerates things.

Cheers
Alexander

[Alexander Kallas]

[Rafael Amador] “So if you export with a 422 codec you will end with a color sample each 2 pixels”

My point, export to what? To DVD 420, you are only interpreting the origional 411 aquired data, manipulated though it is to “pseudo 422”.
411, 422, and 444 are aquisitiion chromas,
In DV>8-bit you are color correcting in 422. ie re-writing the file, and you may get bizarre results in NTSC

Cheers
Alexander