Michael Gissing
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COW Coins
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DaVinci Coins
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Solve Coins
Forum Replies Created
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And the codec?
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FCP will adjust a sequence to match footage that it recognises as an editing codec. It is also expecting a frame size that matches a standard and a frame rate as well.
Depending on the flavour of the flipcam footage, you should convert it to a frame size that FCP is happy with. So if the footage is 25 fps, then 720 x 576 is a standard PAL frame rate. If it is 29.97 then 720 x 480 will look good. Of course you should choose a codec as well. .mov is a wrapper. Did you use an editing codec like ProRes, DV or uncompressed?
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I am surprised that film festivals can’t play your 23.98 NTSC DVD. Players are capable of playing back either PAL or NTSC if setup correctly and projectors likewise.
Have you checked to see if your NTSC DVD’s are OK.
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Well best Qt is going to be HD uncompressed but that will be a huge file.
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Personally, I always drop DV material into an uncompressed 10 bit for grading. I also use Nattress gamma filters a lot as well as chroma sharpen, 3 way CC etc. Some might say 8 bit is OK, but I can see the difference going to 10 bit on heavily graded material.
That said, I have not had any problems running uncompressed 10 bit PAL off LaCie FW800 external drives. I usually set my grades and then render overnight and then do real time playback. Most of my work is doco and you can get a very good result with FCP tools plus good plugins. Don’t forget to use RGB limit if you want to stay broadcast safe. I find the broadcast safe filter isn’t safe after render.
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Walter,
Converting your HD footage to DV codec is the problem. This is an extra transcoding of the footage and DV is not a good codec for many reasons. I suspect it is also causing you a field order swap, hence the jittery image on movement.
Either use compressor from FCP timeline (export to Compressor) or export a self contained quicktime in the original codec (DVCProHD) and then use Compressor to make your mpeg2 file for DVD Studio Pro. It means there is one stage of transcoding from your HD to a compatible mpeg2 file. You will find good presets in Compressor and as this has been covered hundreds of times here, a search of this forum will offer a vast storehouse of information on best settings and workflows.
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[gary adcock] “Broadcast HD is NOT limited to 1080.”
If you are delivering to a specific broadcaster then as always ask what they want and will accept. I deliver to international distributors as well as specific broadcasters and both HD and SD are always speced as 1080 50/60i or SD interlaced. The world is a big place so what a few broadcasters do in North America doesn’t really change the day to day reality of facilities that need to make one master for all markets.
Until international broadcast deliverables change to include 720p, I will continue to advise conversion to 1080i.
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HDV is mpeg2 but not the right flavour for DVD which needs standard def mpeg2. Compressor is a program and yes it is needed to convert your HDV to the correct mpeg2 for a DVD.
The canvas/viewer in FCP is not a reference for color, contrast or resolution. Set to 100% it is more accurate but never for color balanceIf you are actually getting a change in color between FCP and your quicktime, I would be surprised. Try dropping the QT back into an FCP timeline. Do you have a reason to deinterlace, as it will throw away resolution.
Ultimately you need an external monitor to accurately assess your footage.
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Dolby encoding sets metadata so that the Dolby chip sets output level and other things like dynamic compression. Basically it is hopeless at both tasks so this advice lets you bypass any processing of levels and dynamics that the Dolby chip does in the amp or DVD player.
Better still is to use PCM audio but many panic about file sizes.
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This is going to be an ongoing nightmare for all of us. EDLs need reel and timecode info that so often doesn’t happen with file based project.
The industry needs to acknowledge that we need tools that give us EDL like manipulation ability but can deal with non tape based sources.