[Craig Alan]

[Chris Tompkins] “When you shoot interlaced (there are many reasons for doing so) you want to edit interlaced.

“

Thanks Chris, yes i have been staying with interlaced for editing if I shot in interlaced. But most of the feedback I’ve gotten is a preference to shoot in progressive.

What are the reasons to shoot interlaced?

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV30/40, Sony Z7U, VX2000, PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Hi Chris. The specs of the avcintra100 1080/60i before conversion was 29.97 fps. In compressor I had selected 60 fps. Then I reconverted using 29.97. Playback looks the same to me.

The switch to 30pn is in the recording mode in the HPX 250 cam. From other end users I gather progressive is the better choice. Certainly for things like exporting stills and playing back on computer monitors it seems the better. Why would you prefer or under what conditions would you prefer interlaced?
A lot of cable TV is 1080i but where not sending our stuff to them.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV30/40, Sony Z7U, VX2000, PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

[Jeff Greenberg] “Will never happen. 😀 Also won’t ingest native from a P2 card anyway.
“

Well if Imovie becomes FCP X lite, why not? I mean FCP X is advertised as being able to import Imovie projects – a great feature that all the pros are just thrilled about …

[Jeff Greenberg] “If you open compressor you should be able to make (and save) a straight AIC file. Set it as a destination. Then Ingest off the card; select all, share to the AIC setting.
“
Did that in the ‘other” folder in compressor. Very easy. sends it to my AIC for Imovie folder on my media browser.

[Jeff Greenberg] “Can I talk you into shooting 24 instead? Sigh. I’m not 100% sure. FCPX does have a 1080 29.97P resolution – I suggest you ingest via FCPX, drop it into a sequence and see what it says.
“

Got it. as for 24P: Yeah we’ll play with that but students have a tendency to pan too quickly as is. But we’ll get there. Once we are editing in a pro app they learn why good production practices are what they are.

Interesting though: 24 FPS was created out of technical needs not artistic. And some are moving toward higher frame rates not lower. Due to digital projection and film cams being EOL who knows what will become of our sense of artistic visuals. I took out an old slide projector the other day and projected an old 35 mm slide onto a wall. Not a high end film cam, not professionally lit. the wall was not a screen. just the same, it was far more beautiful than anything on my computer screen. Oh well. This too shall pass.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV30/40, Sony Z7U, VX2000, PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Get some stand ins and a crew to help and start setting up. Use a broadcast monitor and work until you have what you want. I mean in the end its what looks good. Your client only has an idea of what that might be. Seeing is believing. Sounds like you have a lot of lights to work with. The Flos are certainly the most idiot proof flattering to skin tone but you can get a lot more drama with the fresnels. I assume you have a light board as well? Why not use soloists in a spot? The camera on the conductor will have a completely different b.g. than the choir. After initial set up I’d ask the director and TD to join you as well and tweak the different camera angles and lighting for them. Looks like a great time could be had by all. I’d love to see your finished set up and product. I work with a combo of fresnels/kinos/lekos and a white cyc. So we’d love to learn from your experience here. How’s the acoustics in that room? Seems like the walls are too parallel. Regardless where will the mics go? If they are hanging from the grid you have another factor to deal with.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV30/40, Sony Z7U, VX2000, PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Thanks so much Jeff, big help,

By next year I’ll skip Imovie unless Apple updates it to include modern codec’s.

I suspect they will since it would tier it to FCP X.

But regardless I’ll have enough students who know FCP X to have them help the newbies.

Seems FCP X can import the P2 stuff right off the card reader no need to save using panasonic’s reader first.

I can ingest into FCP X not optimized and send to compressor and set the aspect and frame size to the match the original. Any other setting in compressor that you think are needed (inspector window)?

As you say the image is degraded. AIC does better with HDV source material. P2 looks great in FCP X though.

Would 30PN be 29.97 or 30 FPS?

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV30/40, Sony Z7U, VX2000, PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Thanks Michael.

It’s strange that compressor can’t read P2 but if I set FCP X to not transcode to pro res and then send to compressor its pretty close. No matter what it seems AIC is pretty lossy. Oh well, by next year we’ll skip Imovie and just have students who know FCP X help the newbies.

Yeah I’m going to go with 30PN. I used 30P last year when we started with the AG-HPX170PJ. The footage looked great. We used FCP 7 exclusively and I felt pretty comfortable with the work flow. I like the AG-HPX250PJ even better but started playing with it on the default settings which was 60i.

The two things I wanted with the 170 were a more powerful lens and three rings instead of two for zoom, focus and aperture. They added both of these plus a better codec. Not sure about 3MOS vs 3CCD. I kinda like ccd more.

Not sure how I feel about FCP X but need to get off the fence and learn it better. I will say I like the “browser” part of the program. Just a better interface for seeing your import and playing around with it. The timeline part will take some getting used to. I don’t mind having a magnetic option and don’t mind having it as the default with the option to turn it off. Not having tracks is a huge change and for me a lot less intuitive.

Thanks for your help. I can see where shotput could come in handy when you are ingesting tons of stuff and need backups. There is a new app on Panasonic’s site that is a P2 for sale reader of some sort. Not sure what it does exactly.

P2 Viewer Plus
This new software supports P2 file viewing, copying and metadata editing for the latest Windows and Mac operating systems.

https://www.panasonic.com/business/provideo/support/software.asp

scroll down to last download

Maybe a shotgun alternative or vice versa?

Craig

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV30/40, Sony Z7U, VX2000, PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Thanks Chris,

I changed the frame setting in Compressor to 29.97. I checked the specs in QT. It got transcoded that way. There does not seem to be any difference in how it plays back from the incorrect 60 FPS.

I’m trying to come up with the best transcode possible to AIC so students can use the footage in Imovie.

What other specs are you referring to?

Am I correct that if I change the system mode to 1080-59.94i record mode to AVC-I100/30PN the frame rate would be 30?

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV30/40, Sony Z7U, VX2000, PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

Thanks Michael,
What is the advantage of shotput pro over CMS? I’m not having problems getting the P2 footage into FCP X. I need compressor to transcode to AIC for Imovie. Now I can send the files from FCPX optimized or not into compressor but then its going through 2 transcodes.

Another question: By default the AG-HPX250 was set on 1080-59.94i/60i. Do you know if that is a frame rate of 60? I’m going to switch to 1080-59.94i 30PN but I’ve been experimenting with transcoding with footage shot in 60i. So I was wondering what the right settings were in compressor to match the original footage.

I’ll try QT get info to see what it says. I don’t know what FCP X was set at upon import.

Why do you prefer pro res over AVCintra?

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV30/40, Sony Z7U, VX2000, PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

So my only option is to open in fcp x and then send to compressor? I thought you recommended going straight to compressor.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV30/40, Sony Z7U, VX2000, PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Craig Alan]

[Jeff Greenberg] “The licenses are a different issue. 😀

“

We got the licenses, raids, computers. Just need IT and electrical to set things up.

[Jeff Greenberg] “FCPX uses compressor as it’s engine to generate ProRes files (optimized or proxy.) I don’t care for AIC at any flavor and the p2>AIC isn’t great…because AIC was optimized for HDV and older machines.
“

That makes sense. HDV and apple pro res look good ingested into Imovie. The P2 stuff seems more degraded.

[Jeff Greenberg] “It is more confusing if you’re super comfortable with FCP7 though.
“

Guilty as charged.

[Jeff Greenberg] “why not just have compressor do the lifting? Why go to FCPX at all?
“

Having trouble getting the P2 files opened directly in compressor. I got P2 CMS working. It creates a folder with the files. Can’t figure how to get it into Compressor. Imports into FCP X. no problem.
I’ve tried “open” in Compressor. No go. Tried dragging into batch window. No.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV30/40, Sony Z7U, VX2000, PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.