[Olin Padilla]

This isn’t an issue of video “quality.” Your footage is 1080i50. The i stands for interlaced. What you are seeing is a discontinuity between the interlaced fields in your video. If it was originally shot interlaced, then there is no way to remove it without lowering the quality of your video.

However, play with your projector and see if there is a 1080i setting. If your projector can play interlaced, then it will look great.

[Olin Padilla]

First off dude, you need to stop dumping so much money into software. You have way more than what you need as is. Trust me.

You have two issues with the avchd footage:

1) FCP doesn’t recognize them without going through a log and transfer process.
2) H.264 and AVCHD are pretty much the same thing, and are not designed for editing.

You need one simple work flow that will work for both cameras. I recommend using Log and Transfer. Choose prores as your codec, and make sure that anything that says ‘interlaced’ or ‘field order’ is set to progressive.

Once you’ve gotten your footage logged, create a sequence and make sure it is also set to prores and progressive.

Finally, when you do your final export, everything should be set to progressive and you should have no problems.

[Olin Padilla]

Let’s focus on FCP for now. Are you importing the footage directly, or are you transcoding it first? Which program and settings are you using for the transcode? When imported, what does FCP read the frame rate as?

Also, are the issues consistent between all the cameras?

And just to clarify, are you not seeing the interlaced lines until the final export, or do you see them while editing in FCP?

[Olin Padilla]

I face this same issue pretty much constantly. I don’t know exactly what the cause is, but I don’t think it’s the codec.

Simply put, in FCP video looks darker than it does in AE.

If you want the gamma to look (almost) exactly like it does in AE, you can apply a gamma correction filter set at .82.

Personally, I do all my color grading in AE, render and re-import for the audio sync in FCP, then apply the filter.

Of course, if you do any kind of additional compressions the gamma will shift again, and in either direction. I think the best solution is to find a middle ground in your brightness that looks good in both programs. Gamma shifts are hard to predict, especially in web compression.

[Olin Padilla]

Man, there is a lot going on here.

First of all, was the HF20 shot at 24p? I don’t really know anything about the camera, a but a quick google search informed me that it can record 24p to flash memory. So there shouldn’t be any interlacing introduced by the camera.

So, where in your work flow do you start seeing interlace lines? In FCP, or just the final exports.

Also, Adobe Premiere is capable of editing raw AVCHD footage because it is 64bit, and can utilize multiple cores. FCP is not, and cannot. Personally I would transcode the AVCHD footage regardless of which program I use to edit it. Yes, the files will be huge. That is the nature of high definition video. If you have FCP7 you can use the Prores LT codec, and that will save you some space.

Editing highly compressed video is hard on your computer, and takes way more processing power per edit. By converting the highly compressed AVCHD video to much larger prores files, you are taking the stress off the live edit, and potentially avoiding a lot of problems.

[Olin Padilla]

I haven’t dealt with a problem like this in a long, long time. If I recall correctly, the problem was always caused in camera. In other words something must have happened while shooting (i.e. turning the camera off, resetting time code, etc.), and there really is a discontinuity in the time code.

I don’t really know how the time code works in HDV24p, but if there’s an option in the capture to change the frame rate or capture 24pa then I would try it.

[Olin Padilla]

Transcoding to prores is the professional way to do it. It’s also the simplest.

FCP does not automatically convert your files. You don’t need to convert them to import into FCP, but you will have a lot of problems editing if you don’t.

Just plug in your card, let the files transcode over night, and never have to deal with it again.

[Olin Padilla]

One issue at a time. First off is removing the unwanted objects. If the rotobrush isn’t working, then I don’t see any choice but do the roto by hand. Post a frame, and maybe I’ll think of something.

Second, in Mocha try tracking something besides the object itself. Hopefully something like this exists and is on the same plane as the boats, etc.

Third, replacing the object. In more complex situations, I generally don’t bother with the clone stamp in AE. Instead, I open up a frame in Photoshop and do the cloning there on a separate layer. Then take the patch layer and apply the tracking data (or match move) it with the footage. You’ll have to play with the grain, etc. to make it match the video, but in my experience this gets much better results than trying to clone from the video source.

[Olin Padilla]

Yes. There is a distinct difference.

[Olin Padilla]

I’ve never heard of this issue. The only thing I can think of is that some settings must be wrong in your presets (I never use presets, so I don’t really know).

Your options are basically to:

1) Go trough and meticulously check all of your settings in the inspector to make sure there isn’t some kind of filter/de-interlacer/frame control issue.

2) Try another tool. Do a quick test export with one of your clips from Quicktime and see if there is an issue. You could also try downloading MPEG Streamclip.