[Graeme Nattress]

Can you check a downconvert to SD on a real TV or monitor? If you plug the HDV camera in downconvert mode, into a normal TV, does it look ok?

I’m not up on HDV cameras – does this one do real 24p or fake 24p? If it’s doing fake, removing the pulldown doesn’t help at all. If it’s real pulldown and advanced, I don’t think CT will remove it anyway, but you’d have to check. CT wants the “flags” in the data stream like the DVX provides to be able to remove adv pulldown.

Graeme

– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP

[Graeme Nattress]

Ah, but the instructions get you to convert the HDV to PhotoJPEG75%, which is a good codec for this purpose. Practically any codec will work, as long as it’s not MPEG based.

Yes, you must find the A frame. That’s why it takes so long to do as that is rather tricky.

The FCP display is progressive, so 24p in a 60i timeline on a progressive display will jump and jerk twice as much as it will on a proper HD display.

For a total fix yes, you’re correct. However, I’d hope things look “ok” enough on a HD display that you don’t have to.

Graeme

– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP

[Graeme Nattress]

TO get everything right you’d have to remove the pulldown on each and every clip, but I doubt there’s a way to re-link that as timecode would get lost doing the pulldown removal as you’d have to convert to another codec other than HDV to use Cinema Tools. It might work, but I’d not personally be confident.

Only way to know for certain about the footage is to view it on a proper HD monitor. Without that, you’re only guessing.

Film Effects and BBOT don’t have any pulldown tricks in them. Film Effects will help you match the DV footage on a 29.97fps timeline, but that’s about it.

You don’t NEED a 24p DVD. Yes, they do look best, but no, you don’t need it for the end product to look good.

Graeme

– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP

[Graeme Nattress]

I’mhoping the HDV looks ok playing back at 29.97fps as it would take you forever to remove the pulldown to get it into a 23.9i8fps timeline.

If you need your DV to match the 24p of the HDV, if you’re in a:

23.98fps timeline, My Standards Converter plugin will help,

or,

if you’re going to end up in the 29.97fps timeline, then Film Effects does 24p + 3:2 pulldown into a 29.97fps timeline which will work great also.

Graeme

– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP

[Graeme Nattress]

You can’t do the above on an edited movie, only on source footage before you edit it. That’s because on each edit the 3:2 pulldown pattern will change.

Graeme

– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP

[Graeme Nattress]

Best thing about live capture from Varicam is you get the full 1280×720 resolution AND 10bit. With recording to tape, you only get 960×720 and 8bit. HD-SDI will make a really big difference as the camera head is capable of much greater quality than the tape format. This is not always the case with cheaper cameras (to the same extent it is with the Varicam).

Graeme

– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP

[Graeme Nattress]

12bit info won’t travel over HD-SDI and I seriously doubt the component connection would have a 72db SNR.

Graeme

– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP

[Graeme Nattress]

I think that somewhat defeats the point of the magic new codec agnostic timeline though. HDV plays back just fine – it’s it’s rendering that’s a pain. Playback of HDV on a ProRes timeline should be fine, and then any rendering goes to ProRes, which is also fine.

Graeme

– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP

[Graeme Nattress]

Set your canvas to 100% and turn off view as square pixels. Now single frame advance through a piece of video you’re interested in and watch for tell-tale interlace lines. If they’re on every frame, you’re 60i, if they’re on no frames, you’re 30p and if they’re on some frames in a 3:2 pattern, you’re 24p with 3:2 pulldown.

Graeme

– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP

[Graeme Nattress]

I think the optimum solution though, would be to edit native HDV on a ProPres timeline. Then you’ll be rendering to ProRes rather than HDV and you avoid a lossy transcode step.

Graeme

– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP