[Marc Istook]

The FCP playback is great… it’s the AE playback that is s l o w.

[Marc Istook]

I’m using Dell 24″ HC monitors (1920X1200)… The monitor allows you to set several display options — aspect, 1:1 or fill. 1:1 should be a pixel to pixel copy, thereby making a 1920X1080 signal have a small letterboxing of 60 pixels on the top and bottom.

The computer is a 3 ghz quad-core Xeon Mac. My drives are media only internal SATA 750 gb drives… and I’ve tried playing the footage back at 1080p, 1080i, neither works. When playing back other 1080i HD footage, like in FCP, it’s flawless and beautiful. And it plays back in the regular AE monitor without any problem. But when I output to the Kona card for render previews… ugh. I’m only using it for previews, not for interactions, etc. Perhaps the AJA is better suited to RT previews in FCP and not AE, though I’m surprised it plays back at full-res, full motion in the monitor window fine, but not in via the card.

[Marc Istook]

Yeah, no luck! 🙁

[Marc Istook]

Thanks Noah,

Here’s what the client wants:

To be able to ingest the footage into his FCP, where his editor will be working on that project and others. Then, his producers will need to be able to see and log the footage with a timecode window. In the past, he’s shot everything on Beta, so the producers would have decks and computers where they could watch and log. But with this tapeless workflow, I’m not sure what the quickest and most efficient method is for allowing ingest on one end and easy viewing on the other. Ideally, they’d either view Beta dubs, DVDs, or media files on their computers — all with timecode windows or references so they can accurately log the footage. XDCam makes this process VERY easy with its proxies… Just trying to figure out how to do it with P2! If you have any solutions (esp. ones that don’t involve tieing up his FCP system making h.264 copies of just-ingested footage!), I’m all ears!

Thanks again,
Marc

[Marc Istook]

Thanks for the response…

I didn’t use Raylight because I don’t have Raylight… And my typical workflow with this camera will involve FCP. I’m a loyal Vegas user, but my company has a new FCP setup they’ll be using mostly in the future.

I transfered the footage from 24pN to MiniDV, inserting a 2:3 pulldown — 24p regular.

Smart resampling was selected. I didn’t intend to keep it progressive by switching to a 24p timeline — just wanted the 24p look on a 29.97 timeline, which should not have been a problem using 2:3 pulldown 24p footage.

I don’t suspect inverted fields, if only because I’ve checked each step of the process, and lower field first was used every step of the way — though I’ll double-check.

The resampling could be the culprit — I think Vegas having to deal with the widescreen par might’ve caused some problems somewhere. I’ll check the resampling issue and see if that’s the problem.

Again, thanks for your help.

– Marc

[Marc Istook]

Thanks Rick. Great help — except I’m not using HDV. I shot this on the Panasonic HVX-200 — P2 cards. So capturing as HDV isn’t an option. 🙂

– Marc

[Marc Istook]

Let me add a bit of background here which might help those choices listed above make more sense.

I’ve shot a lot of 24p footage with the DVX-100… So I’m used to that workflow — 24p regular, for use on a 29.97 timeline for final destination over air… 24pA for use on a 23.98 timeline for final destination to DVD.

I shot this video with my new HVX-200 in 720p Native — because I wanted to get used to shooting in HD, and for storage space considerations compared to the other HD flavors. Knowing this project would be 29.97, I dubbed to MiniDV with the 24p regular pulldown settings, expecting no problems — should’ve been the same as any of the 24p stuff I’ve shot on the DVX-100, without having to mess with pulldown removal and alternative timeline settings…

Hope that helps!

– Marc

[Marc Istook]

The original footage was 720pN… I dubbed it to tape adding a 2:3 pulldown — best suited, by my understanding, for viewing on a 29.97 timeline and regular video screen… as opposed to adding the 2:3:3:2 pulldown, which you’d use later for removal in a 23.98 timeline.

So when I play the video file back from the camcorder on a 29.97 monitor, it looks fine, so I know that’s not the problem.

As for the aspect ratio — I’m not using the DV Widescreen template because I have other graphics and effects in the project that are 4:3, and I want this footage to remain letterboxed while the other graphics, etc., fill the frame.

Clear as mud!? 🙂

– Marc

[Marc Istook]

Thanks Rick…

Here are the settings:

Footage:
720pNative dubbed with 2:3 pulldown inserted to MiniDV tape
Captured via firewire
Vegas saw the pixel aspect ratio as 1.21

Project Properties:
NTSC DV 720×480
Lower Field First
.90 par
29.97
De-interlace: none

DVDA Render Settings:
DVDA Video Stream
720×480, 29.97
Lower Field First

I’ve shot plenty of 24p and 24pA footage with the DVX-100 before and never had a problem. And since the footage plays back fine out of the camera on a monitor, I do think you’re right — that somehow a field order problem cropped up somewhere, but where? I haven’t done anything other than simply drop this footage into the timeline. Changing the de-interlace settings to blend and interpolate and toying with the “remove 24p pulldown” box hasn’t seemed to have an affect. I could change the timeline to 23.98, but that adds some odd blurs, and this footage *should* work as 29.97 regardless.

I imagine I’m not the first person to try this workflow… I guess we’ll see what the problem is.

One potential solution — re-dubbing the original footage with a 2:3:3:2 pulldown (advance) instead of 2:3, matching up the timecode, removing pulldown and re-creating the project in a 23.98 timeline, where it’d all be progressive. Might work?

Thanks again for your help!

– Marc

[Marc Istook]

Figured it out! Stuffit hid some of the install folders in my FCP download of Knoll… Should be good now. 🙂