Sean Oneil
Forum Replies Created
-
[Rafael Amador] “I bet that for each copy of FC working there are 50 copies of Premier running.”
I wonder how many of those were actually paid for. I think pirating Adobe software is more common among college students than smoking pot.
I just bought CS3 for Encore Blu-ray a few weeks ago. I played around with Premiere. I had an HDV sequence. It was blazing fast. No lag when scrubbing or anything like that.
Sean
-
A few things. First, my understanding is that Quicktime can only process RGB at 8-bit. I don’t fully understand the situation for this, but I know it’s the reason why AJA and Blackmagic have to provide their own RGB 4:4:4 codecs. So that could be the problem right there. Also, perhaps your original TIFFs had an alpha channel.
Sean
-
[Justin Maguda] “When I use clipwrap it does the fast repackage but some how makes the files HDV but 1920×1080. This software does not recode so am I loosing quality when this change happens?”
No. It’s not possible. What makes you think it’s 1920×1080? Is that what Quicktime is telling you?
Sean
-
[Peter von Puttkamer] “Yes we are using apple pro res 422 HQ codec- it’s 10 bit, so I’ve heard it referred to as a “lossless” codec.”
ProRes is not lossless. Not at all. It’s very good though and can hold up multiple generations. You could say “virtually lossless” but I wouldn’t. It’s essentially the same as Avid hdnx.
[Peter von Puttkamer] “I’ve done some tests using compressor- up-res to 1080 for the slo mo shots and didn’t notice a huge quality difference. So your advice to let FCP do the scaling- sounds like the one to go with.”
Cool. Just make sure to change the motion filtering quality to best. Go into sequence settings, video processing.
[Peter von Puttkamer] “So the main issue now- is best solution for running 720 60p shots at “normal” speed- in 1080 23.98;
An up-res through the Aja Kona 3 Card- selecting 72060p Primary Videoformat in, then which one of the 1080 formats? They have 1080p23.98 and 1080 sf23.98 (there’s also 1080p24) and 1080sf24)- which one would give the smoothest results for up-rezing and converting from 72060p,”Generally, 3:2 removal on capture is very complicated. You need to know what the “A Frame” is and set the cadence offset accordingly. I can’t get into it as it’s complex. However, with Varicam capture it’s different and easier. FCP automatically detects the duplicate frames and can remove them without worry. It’s called “VFR”. See the Easy Setup AJA 720p ProRes 23.98 (VFR) – which I haven’t tried personally (I always use Firewire DVCProHD capture) but that should be the right one. However, I don’t believe it’s possible to upconvert to 1080 and do this at the same time. You should just capture 720p and deal with it they way you dealt with the slow-mo footage.
Sean
-
[Peter von Puttkamer] “We are delivering an uncompressed sequence- 1080 23.98psf, on HDCAM to the tv network.
We have mastered in Apple Pro Res 422 HQ”??? So which is it, uncompressed or ProRes? Either one’s fine, I just didn’t quite understand what you’re saying there. Generation loss from re-compressing lossy codecs is of far greater concern than whether or not FCP does a good job upressing 720p to 1080p. But since you’re using either one of those codecs, you’re fine.
[Peter von Puttkamer] “I went into the sequence, I noticed it had
blown up everything in the timeline- to 150%- that can’t be ideal.”It’s not as bad as all that. In the sequence settings, you can change the scaling quality to “best.” Are you actually noticing degradation? Obviously some scaling methods are better than others, but no matter what it’s not going to look worse than the original 720p video would on a 720p monitor. Converting to 1080i60 is a more complex process in which you don’t want to trust FCP to take care of. And upconverting SD footage is also more complex. But going 720p to 1080p, same frame rate, is not complex at all. I honestly wouldn’t worry about it unless you’re actually seeing problems with it. Otherwise, you’re going to have to isolate the slow-mo shots and process those separately. You can use Compressor (which uses Lanczos scaling, considered to be the best software scaling algorithm available) to convert your footage to 1080.
As for when to do the frame rate conversion. I guess it doesn’t matter. I’ve never tried converting to 1080p60 and then doing a slowdown. Don’t know if it will work. Note that 1080p60 is not a broadcast standard, so you won’t be able to watch it on your broadcast monitor until after it’s been converted to 23.98.
Given your circumstances and the need to do slowdowns, I really think you should just let Final Cut scale everything. My philosophy is to always capture the native codec (if possible), native frame rate, and native resolution. After picture lock, you can re-process the 720p using Compressor or After Effects and reconnect the media if you want to make it as good looking as humanly possible. This way you’re only spending time with the footage you’re actually going to use.
Sean
-
Peter,
I can totally help you out here. I need to know what codec you are working in first.
I also need to know why you are working in a 1080p sequence. Is it because there is other footage that is natively 1080p, or is it only because 1080psf 23.98 is your delivery format?
Sean
-
Firewire is native. You can only capture the format that the tape already is. If you don’t want to use a capture card, you can capture HDV and then use software to convert it to DVCProHD. But why do you want to convert it to DVCProHD? If you have FCP 6 you can use an HDV sequence and set the rendering to ProRes. Or just edit on a ProRes sequence.
Sean
-
When dropping 24p into a 60i sequence in FCP, it is not good. It doesn’t add 3:2 pulldown, it adds 2:2:2:4, which is unsuitable for broadcast IMO.
I haven’t tried doing 24p into a 60p sequence. You say it does add 3:2. If you can confirm this, then there’s no reason to not go ahead with it. Just make sure it is 3:2 and not 2:2:2:4.
As far as EDL. Your media’s source timecode should already be 29.97. Even when you capture 23.98 from a Varicam, the media retains the 29.97 formatting even though the actual video is 23.98. The only time the timecode gets changed to 23.98 formatting is if you use Cinema Tools or Compressor to do a reverse telecine. Or the DVCProHD frame converter.
If your TC is 23.98 formatting, then you can change it back to non-drop 29.97 by using Final Cut’s “Modify->Timecode.” This won’t affect the edits in any of your sequences.
Sean
-
The Kona does the best uprez but After Effecs and Compressor also do a very good job.
To take it in at 1080 23.98, you need to select the proper cadence offset. It’s in the AJA control panel. There are 5 possibilities. One is right, the other four are wrong and will cause the problem you are seeing.
Sean
-
You haven’t said what codec you’re working with. Compressed formats, you can edit on almost any drive, including an iPod. Uncompressed you need a fast raid.
Download the AJA data rate calculator.
Sean