Ed Dooley
Forum Replies Created
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If your output is not TV/DVD then you don’t necessarily need a vido monitor (but you need a well calibrated computer monitor at the very least). The tricky thing is, though, that when you have interlaced footage (as you do), the only sure way to work with it is with a video monitor. Otherwise you make posts saying “I’m getting a zipper look, what’s going on?”
In your first post you said you wanted high quality QTs to make Flash video from. You have a few options: You don’t need to go through the de-interlacing of the raw DV footage if you’re going down eventually to a small file, regular de-interlacing (throwing away one field) works OK in that situation and the quality is fine (you often wind up with a frame rate that’s lower than the raw file anyway-15FPS, for example). You can even wait until you’re compressing the file to do the de-interlacing. You can also create Flash video right out of FCP to eliminate the FCP/QT/FLV steps. The ON2VP6 plug-in for FCP is cheap and allows you to export to Flash.
https://www.on2.com/
Ed[Steve Thomas] “For clarification, I’m doing everything in the computer and monitoring on my screen (not using an external monitor). Given that my intended output is 100% computer vids (QT, flash, streams), I’m hoping I don’t need to add a monitor ?
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You say you’ve read posts about interlacing, but you don’t say whether you believe it, because it sounds exactly like interlacing showing up on a computer monitor. You didn’t say whether you’re looking at it on a video or computer monitor (you should *always* use a video monitor for interlaced video). The suggestions you’ve already gotten here (checking your sequence settings, using a high quality sequence, etc) are good advice. I disagree with the suggestion (below) that de-interlacing will lower the quality (it will if you do it wrong, but it doesn’t have to). Your guide should be: what’s the final use of the project and how much interlaced (most DV for example) vs progressive (stills, graphics, etc.) does your project have? If you have a ton of interlaced, set that as your sequence, if you have a majority progressive, de-interlace your video. Do it this way and you won’t lose quality (simply de-interlacing throws away one of the fields- half the quality).
Use Compressor’s Advanced Format Conversion:
into Compressor and in the Settings (Presets) select the Apple/Advanced Format Conversions/8-bit Uncompressed(either PAL OR NTSC).
Select the Duplicate Selected Setting (one of the 3 buttons at the top left-it’s the right one). You can now edit the setting. Double click the setting
to open the Inspector. Right under Description at the top of Inspector are 6 buttons, select Frame Controls. Select Custom as the Frame Controls
(default is Off). Select Best for Resize Filter, Progressive as Output Fields, and Best as Deinterlace. Also select Best as Rate Conversion at bottom (not sure if that’s necessary, but what the hell). One of those 6 buttons at the top of the Inspector is Filters, and one option there is De-interlace,
DON’T use that one, it’s crap, and you’ve already selected all the de-interlacing you need.
Ed[lightning ad]
Before progressive scan, screens would show alternating fields of a picture. Thus 1 frame = 2 fields – 1 field = even scan lines 1 field = odd scan lines. A 25 frame (1 sec) clip (i’m in pal land) would actually show 50 images that your eye would blend optically into a smooth motion (persistence of vision).Because of this, with motion you could see a slightly different image between the first and second fields in a single frame. All well and good if your playback device plays the fields in the correct order….but disastrous if it does not, and this is the root of the problem…..most video formats (but not all) play back fields with the Upper / Odd field first. DV plays back with Lower / Even fields first.
If your sequence is set to one method and your material to another then the mismatch will cause that horrible strobing.
You can either deinterlace, which will lower the quality of your video, or you could use the filter called Shift Field, which will swap the field order .
“[Steve Thomas] “After getting what appeared to be a ‘general state of lower quality’, I decided to do some trial sessions with just MiniDV captures to isolate the problem. Even in this state, I can see movement screendoor effects, and “zipper” noise.
Most of the dialogue on the forums regarding this issue seemed to point to interlacing i.e. are you watching on a TV or a Computer monitor?, The quicktime player setting set to “play high when avail”, and output format settings.
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You’re talking about 2 completely different things. HDV is already compressed (a lot) and is about 2.5 to 3 MB/s. Uncompressed can mean 720P, 1080i, 1080P. They have far, far, far higher data rates.
You should do a little Googling.
Ed[Dawn Rider] “How difficult is it to work with uncompressed HDV/HD in FCP 6.0? Does anyone have any experience?
Also, how large isthe file of an hour of uncompressed”
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I’m not sure which of the many programs out there my web guy uses, but we have Nmap
on our computers, so maybe that:
https://insecure.org/
We also have Angry IP Scanner, so that could be it too. There are tons of them. But the
main thing is that I think you need to be serving from your own server. I don’t think it’s
easy when you have a host server that also has hundreds of others using it too, like 1&1, etc.
Ed -
Even though QT is more common on PCs now that it’s installed with iTunes,
over 90% of the world uses PCs, and so WMV is more “universal”.We do a couple of things:
-One, we don’t usually have a single “universal” file. We usually create
a WMV for PCs, and compressed with gamma for PC. And we create a
QT (mostly H.264 these days) with gamma set for Macs. The tricky thing
is that with so many people on PCs having iTunes, and therefore QT installed,
some PC users will look at the Mac-optimized QT.
-We also sometimes create a single FLV (ON2VP6). We set it slightly dark for PCs and it
looks slightly light for Macs. Can’t wait to start doing H.264 for Flash!
-In a corporate environment, firewalls sometimes prevent users from installing things to their own PCs, so even though QT or Flash (or Flip4Mac on Macs) are free and easily downloaded, they’re not always allowed. So we don’t count on a corporate client having the latest codec player. That used to mean encoding to MPEG-1 (thankfully those days are over for us).You can either have 2 files available with a user selectable format button, or you can have
your server ping the user’s to determine if they have a PC or Mac and serve the appropriate format.
Ed -
You also have to take into account that Mac gamma is 1.8 and PC gamma is 2.2, so whatever you set black to is going to look different on a Mac than on a PC.
I master from FCP as if it’s going to broadcast, then adjust gamma and other levels when compressing. If you know what you edit is only ever going to the web then I guess you could export from FCP with the levels pretty much optimized, but for what, Mac or PC gamma? WMV, QT, or Flash? They all compress differently.
Ed -
Or, if you’re not going to HD anytime soon, don’t spend $3,000+ on an IOHD
when an SD IO or IOLA may be all you need. They’re FW IO, and the IOLA does
analog composite, S-video, and Component IO. We use one for our Beta-SP
stuff. Under $1,000 for the IOLA. If you’re moving to HD in the next year or so,
the extra $2,000+ for the IOHD might be a good investment.
Ed -
FW800 drives expensive? People on this forum really believe that? Who? I want names, I don’t believe it. 🙂
As for price, Barefeats.com says that 128g versions are $3,000. I think I’ll wait a while.
Ed[walter biscardi] “No pricing data means these are very expensive. Remember that the majority of the folks on this forum find a FW 800 unit very expensive. Seeing how much the P2 cards have held their price for the past two years, I’m guessing it will be at least 3 years before these will be at a price point that most folks would afford.”
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You’re Welcome!
Um, what for?
Ed -
Just a guess, but if your search terms were anywhere near as vague and off-subject as your “hello” is, I’d say be more specific. 🙂
I typed “pleasantville”, restricted it to the FCP forums, selected 2006 to Today, and in the 1st couple of dozen posts, Pleasantville popped up.
Ed[Greg Gogava] “ok I went to FCP forums, than Archive, than FCP again and it gives me thousends of threads, how can I find “The Pleasantvill Effect” ? what am I doing wrong ?”