[Neil Ryan]

If, as you say, you don’t want to create any “distortion to the footage” then you must blow up the footage from 4×3 (16×12) to 16×9 and mask off the top&bottom of the footage.
You’re not ‘distorting’ the footage, as in changing the original aspect of the image, but you will lose quality in the blow up process.

Pillarboxing is an option.

[Neil Ryan]

Kristian Lam from Blackmagic Design says:
“Hi Neil,

You’re right about this. We cater for DV video output. Unfortunately, Final Cut Pro is also doing the same when you add a clip that has a different field dominance from the timeline by adding the shift filed filter.”

He then says that BMD will see what they can do to workaround it and that they may be able to bring it to Apple’s attention if BMD can’t solve it alone.

Phew! my sanity is restored …
cheers.

[Neil Ryan]

[Peter Wiggins] ”
All you need to do is remove the shift fields filter – you should then have the red bar & then render.

DV will quite happily playback in an Upper 10bit PAL sequence after that.”

EXACTLY!
At last, someone who can identify the same problem!
And also, confirmation that, in this configuration, there’s no need for FCP to add the Shift Fields filter! Or rather, that FCP AND BM are both trying to ‘fix’ the problem and in fact creating one.

I’ll have to investigate further, but I think it’s a PAL thing only.
Also waiting for a response back from BMD support, directly.
I’ll let you know what happens.

Meanwhile, my brain sure hurts …

[Neil Ryan]

Is this fixed in the Blackmagic 5.6.2 Drivers ?

[Neil Ryan]

“how did you capture your footage?”

Yes.

We have two FCP edit suites, each with a Decklink card (although two different cards.)

We capture in various codecs, depending on the source material, mostly from broadcast decks.
BM is capturing everything properly.
DV codecs are all captured correctly as lower field, all others as upper.

We are not doing anything obscure or unusual.
I just think, as I said originally, that FCP and BM are both trying to solve an issue at the same time, thereby leaving with the problem that they are trying to avoid.

BTW, I posted this on the BlackMagic forum but no-one offered a solution, only one response from someone with the same issue.

[Neil Ryan]

“You are totally screwed”

Am I the only one with this issue ?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

But thanks for the advice, Jeremy; I will seek a solution elsewhere.

[Neil Ryan]

No Jeremy,
what you describe is actually the problem.
BM WILL handle both field dominances in ONE sequence and play them correctly; it doesn’t need the Shift Fields filter.
But FCP adds it, because normally it WOULD need to, but, I assume, it doesn’t recognise that there is BM hardware onboard, and that IT will handle the shifting of fields.
So I’ve got a conflict between BM and FCP BOTH trying to handle the issue, and in turn, creating the very problem we are trying to prevent or fix!

To be clear, with a Decklink card, FCP DOESN’t need a Shift Fields filter in order to play fields correctly!
I DO get the inverted fields jitter if I leave the Shift Fields filter on …

[Neil Ryan]

In your two posts you used two diiferent terms.
an m2v file is a MPEG-2 video only file, no audio, as Zak said.
An MPEG-2 file is a muxed file containing mpeg-2 video AND audio, together.

Are you getting confused in what you are trying to create?

[Neil Ryan]

“Are you going from Pal to NTSC or vice versa?”

Firstly, its a PAL system.
Secondly, the scenario varies, but take this one as an example:
cutting DV-Pal (lower field) footage into a 10bit (upper field)Sequence …

[Neil Ryan]

Well the BlackMagic codecs are installed, as part of their software installation, but in FCP, the effect handling is set, as recommeded by BlackMagic Design, to Final Cut Pro.