Sean Oneil
Forum Replies Created
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[Oliver Busch] “You should keep in mind that SD (ITU 601) and HD (ITU 709) have different colorspaces and gamma.
Apple Uncompressed codecs decide whether to use HD or SD color space from the horizontal resolution. Any size higher than 720 pixels (D1 size) is processed in HD colorspace.”Thanks. Yes, I figured this was the reason for it.
The problem is that although the footage was HD, the colorist corrected it while viewing an NTSC monitor as it was being downconverted in RT. So for Quicktime to automatically decide to change this for me was undesireable.
Sean
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Trust me, it’s there. You have to tell Spotlight to specifically search within the “Final Cut Pro.app/Contents” folder. Simply using the Magnifying Glass in the top right of the screen will not search within application files (which is where this is).
Open up the FCP/Contents folder in a Finder window. Then use the search box in that specific Finder window. Now you’ll see the advanced Spotlight options. Make sure to choose the “Contents” folder as your search area.
Sean
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This may or may not be a related issue, but I had a serious problem recently. A colorist worked on a project here by correcting in FCP on a DVCProHD sequence. Later, I wanted to downconvert it, so I copied and pasted the clips on to an Uncompressed SD timeline (tried 8-bit and 10-bit).
The luma shifted drasticly. It didn’t matter if I set it to White or Superwhite, High-precision 10-bit, etc. There was absolutely nothing I could do to keep the same color and luma as it was on the HD sequence.
Sean
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They moved the location of “RT Enabler” with the release of 5.1. It’s still in the Contents of the “Final Cut Pro.app” somewhere and the hack does still work. I forget where it’s exact location is. Use Spotlight to seach the Contents folder to find it.
Sean
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Sorry it’s not working out. I think there’s a “shift fields” filter. Instead of changing the field dominance, it just places the video one line higher or lower than center – which has the end result of changing the field dominance.
Sean
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Fantastic idea. Too expensive. Way too expensive. But I’m sure he needs to charge that much since making it looks very expensive to make. If it had built-in hardware RAID-5, that would help justify the cost. But it would only help a little. It’s still way too much money.
Sonnet has new SATA-II cards that support port multipliers. That’s TWENTY off-the-shelf, dirt-cheap OEM drives stripped together and it only takes up one card slot. Not as pretty looking, but it’s without a doubt the fastest disk drive solution available on a Mac. And for hardly any money. For those who want localized storage, the new Sonnet cards are a no-brainer if you ask me. Nothing else even comes close.
Sean
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Use a de-interlace filter. Try the one that comes with FCP or try Stib’s free filters (Google that phrase). You may be able to add the filter to the clips on an NTSC timeline, or you may have to do it on an HDV timeline first, then nest that sequence into an NTSC timeline. I believe that will solve your problem. Just figure out which setting on the filter works best.
Normally these filters are not the proper way to do a downconversion. But in this case it should be fine.
There are two methods of deinterlacing. I forget what Final Cut’s filter calls them, but you should be able to figure it out. “Weave” method combines the two fields together and is perfect for a true 30fps video. It will make it a perfect 60p – suitable for re-sizing to whatever you want without any flickering artifacts.
But if the video was shot at 24fps (I think the Sony Z1U calls it CinemaMode or something), this adds pulldown so a weave deinterlace will not work. You’ll get nasty flickering. If this is the case, you’d need the “Bob” method of deinterlacing. This method throws away every other field instead of combining them. This essentially cuts the vertical resolution in half. So using Bob on NTSC turns 480i into 240p, and then blows it back up to 480p (but with the quality of only 240p). 1080i becomes 540p, blown back up to 1080p etc. Throwing away half the resolution is generally bad, which is why you want to avoid Bob with standard def footage. But since its 1080i and you’re downconverting to NTSC anyways, this method should be ok.
This is actually the method the FCP canvas and viewer both use, and it is why your video looks fine on the computer monitor – but it flickers on the external video monitor.
Again, I foget what terminology the FCP and Stibs filters use. I think they use their own terms rather than bob and weave. I’m not at work so I can’t check. But again, you should be able to figure it out w/ trial & error. I’ve downconverted HDV footage doing this and it works great.
Or you can hire a Teranex and not worry about any of this stuff :).
Sean
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The first thing you tried did not work because “Advanced Pulldown Removal” is a special feature for a handful of standard-defenition NTSC cameras. You used regular telecine pulldown.
The second thing, the Panasonic DVCPro Frame-rate converter, also will not work because this reads flags created by a Panasonic Varicam camera. Doing a telecine from film will not add these flags. The tape doesn’t “know” where the good 24 frames are because there are no flags marking them. Only a Varicam camera can add these flags, as Steven mentioned.
So normally a telecine to 30/60 is 60i interlaced. So with that, you can just do a 3:2 pulldown removal, or reverse telecine. There are several ways to do this, one of them is Cinema Tools. But I’m not sure that will work for you because it sounds like you transfered the film directly to 60p somehow. This is not common practice, since 720p tape formats can record at 24p natively. Often, film based material needs to be delivered at 60i for the broadcaster. But this is for a final master, not something to be edited.
So if you do have 24fps within 60 progressive frames, and there are duplicate progressive frames making up the difference. But with no Varicam flags identifying them, there’s no way to quickly remove them and go back to 24p.
I think you best bet is to create a 23.98fps sequence in Final Cut. Throw the clips down on the timeline and render a few seconds. If there is any stuttering (duplicate frames) then the cadance is off. If so, just shift the clip down a frame and check again. Once you find there are no redundant frames, you should export it as a self-contained 23.98 clip. Hopefully you don’t have a lot of short clips because you migh have to find the cadance of each one. Also, if you have the drive space and speed I would make it an Uncompressed 8 or 10 bit sequence before exporting. That way you don’t lose a generation in quality.
Or you can try using Cinema Tools. I’m not sure if the reverse telecine feature will work with progressive 60p, but it might.
Sean
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Final Cut can downconvert and encode to DV if you capture via SDI using a Decklink or Kona card. Just not firewire. But there’s really no need to since every HD VTR w/ firewire I know of (HDV or DVCProHD) can do the conversion to DV itself.
Sean