Don Greening
Forum Replies Created
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[Pablo Hill] ” Are the EX1’s 4:2:2 or 4:1:1″
Neither. It’s 4:2:0 recording to the cards unless you record using HD SDI out. Then it’s 4:2:2.
– Don
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Hi Steve,
Since I’ve never used or don’t have access to BETACAM footage to compare with footage down converted from the EX you’ll have to wait until someone who has experience looking at both pictures side by side to help you make your decision. I’ve changed the subject title to reflect your request.
– Don
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[steve sullivan] “the only reason i would shoot the ex-1 at 720p is our other HD station broadcasts in 720p.”
If you’re sure that your sister station would be broadcasting what you’re going to be shooting then go with the EX and 720p. If it was up to me I’d shoot HD anyway to future proof your projects and edit down-converted copies as needed.
– Don
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[Bob O’Brien] “If I change the EX3’s settings back and forth, can they be recorded on the same card? “
Yes, no problem there. I just did a little test for you, but on my EX1. The EX3 will be the same. Both clips played back fine from the same card one right after the other. The first clip was shot using PAL 1080i 50 and the other one was NTSC 1080i 60.
Keep in mind that you can’t just cycle back and forth from PAL to NTSC. You have to change the “country” setting as well before the different recording formats become available for each “area.” So this means that every single time you change shooting modes you’ll have to change back and forth between the “PAL” area and the “NTSC” area.
To save your sanity you might want to talk your client into allowing you to rent another EX and have them both shooting the same thing, one in NTSC mode and the other in PAL mode. Also be mindful that shooting PAL in an NTSC country may present an issue with possible lighting/power frequency mis-matches. Especially if you’re shooting with fluorescents. Just a heads up to be on the lookout for that, too.
– Don
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[Chris Babbitt] “I’m wondering if exporting to ProRes SD & checking “High Precision YUV” rendering as Raphael suggests, would yield a better DVD in the end.”
Rendering in High Precision YUV can be either 8 bit or 10 bit depending on the sequence codec you’re using. For example, the YUV 10 bit option will only be available if you use codecs such as ProRes HQ or 10 bit Uncompressed. Using High Precision YUV will take longer to render out and it will make a difference to any graphics in the timeline. However, it will not make any difference to the actual footage.
I can’t advise you on a better way to down convert 1080i to SD because I shoot progressive all the time. I find SD progressive looks far better on today’s LCD and plasma displays than interlaced does. Plus I do a lot of work that ends up on the web and progressive is the only thing to use there. With progressive you don’t have to worry about field dominance at all and whether or not FCP will do a successful field flip going from HD to SD.
There’s also a big issue with down converted EX footage having “line twitter” any time there’s subtle motion. I’ve heard reports that if you shoot with the detail setting off on the EX cameras that the issue almost completely disappears. I have to test this one out for myself.
– Don
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Same result, since Compressor is the common denominator and major player in anything that gets rendered or compressed. The major difference in workflow methods is time. Unlike others who think Compressor takes longer than within FCP, I’ve used Compressor as a stand-alone app. to cross or down convert clips for use in FCP. I continue to edit while Compressor works in the background. For myself, Compressor will work much faster than doing the same thing in the FCP timeline. For example, if you right or control-click a clip in a sequence one of the options in the pop-up is to “media manage” a clip. You can cross, up or down convert by choosing “re-compress” in the media manager window. This will use Compressor to do the job but it takes a lot longer to get the job done using that method than simply using Compressor as a stand-alone app. and do the same thing. Curiouser and curiouser…….
– Don
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Run Disk Utility and repair permissions on the startup drive. Repairing permissions should always be carried out just before and right after a major upgrade. If that doesn’t solve it then buy DiskWarrior and run it to rebuild the startup drive directory. Half the time DiskWarrior will find directory inconsistencies after an update. If this happens FCP can lose important links between itself and the supporting programs and plugins. DiskWarrior will go a long way to restoring the links. This has been my experience.
– Don
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As with anything else to do with FCP there are at least 3 or 4 ways to accomplish the same task. If you want to use ProRes then set your sequence to 853×480 square pixels then copy and paste the EX stuff into it. When FCP asks if you want to change the sequence settings to match the footage say no. Not having a lot of experience going from HD interlaced to SD interlaced you can do a little test. In your initial SD ProRes sequence setup set the field dominance to “lower”. The EX stuff will have the fields set to upper and FCP may shift the fields automatically when you drag the HD stuff into the SD timeline. Just do a test using both methods and see which one does the job.
If you use DVCPRO 50 you can drag everything into the empty sequence and FCP will do everything for you. Folks were using DVCPRO 50 long before ProRes showed up and the results were fine.
Method number 3: Edit your project in the native EX timeline complete with titling, graphics, the works. Set your rendering codec to Pro Res if you want but don’t render anything. When you’re finished choose “Export Using Quicktime Conversion” and choose either DVCPRO 50 or ProRes as the output codec. FCP will scale everything and output a finished, fully rendered self-contained .mov file. You don’t need to render anything before the export which saves on disc space. This is the method I use a fair bit.
– Don
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[Chris Babbitt] “I am often confused, so please be patient with me. “
“I could’ve been a doctor but I had no patience.”
[Chris Babbitt] “Assuming that the footage is 1080 60i and I want to maintain a 16×9 aspect ratio and don’t care to de-interlace, what should the settings be? Frame size? 720×480 anamorphic? 853×480 non-anamorphic? Square or rectangular pixels, etc.”
The SD settings should be DV NTSC Anamorphic if you want to use that. A less lossy SD codec would be the DVCPRO 50 Anamorphic codec but the files sizes are larger than DV NTSC. Both these codecs are 720X480 regardless of the screen aspect ratio. Choosing the Anamorphic setting is the difference between your project being 4:3 or 16:9. Dropping your EX square P.A.R. (pixel aspect ratio) footage into an SD sequence with a P.A.R. of .09 (I think it’s .09) will result in a properly displayed picture. Final Cut Pro will automatically do the PAR change anyway.
– Don
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And don’t forget that the EX1 only has a 14x zoom lens. Of course, the EX3 has the same lens but there may come a time when you need longer glass and don’t want to simply buy a tele-converter for the front of the stock lens. Fujinon makes some awesome glass for the the EX3. And no lens ramping.
– Don