Sean Oneil
Forum Replies Created
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[Tom Brooks] “The sequence field dom set to NONE is to make sure moving titles are made with no fields and to let Compressor know the sequence is meant to be progressive for MPEG-2 that’s going to DVD. We’re starting to sound like a broken CD here.
“Tom,
We’re are in complete agreement.
However, in regards to 60i/30p, I think it is much wiser to also set the clip to “None” – not just the sequence.
Even if Final Cut is aware of that there is no difference, I wouldn’t trust every scenario. For example, certain plugin filters may render differently if it thinks the source footage is interlaced.
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[videovideo] “when i look at the field dominance of the footage capture settings as progressive in the Browser– it is set to lower. If it was true progressive footage, wouldn’t it default to “none” ?”
No, it wouldn’t. Change it to “None” and you will accomplish what you are trying to do. I just tested this myself. Notice you don’t have to render anything. You wont’ even get a dark green bar. This proves my point.
There is no such thing as a “true progressive” DV file. An NTSC DV stream is always the same format – interlaced 29.97, 25mbps. It’s a universal standard. If it wasn’t, you wouldn’t be able to capture it over firewire.
Yes, your camera records and probably encodes in progressive scan. But once it’s stored on your miniDV tape – a DV stream is a DV stream. It doesn’t care if you want to playback with the fields combined or seperated. It stores it the same way regardless.
Your footage is progressive-scan. And it is also interlaced. This is how digital video works whenever field 1 matches up perfectly with field 2 (since you recorded in 30p mode on your camera, they will).
I and P are completely interchangable in this case, and changing the clip proerties in FCP’s browser is a way to switch back and forth. As long as you are not using a deinterlace filter (that re-renders it) this is a completely lossless process.
That is why chainging field dominance to None is your solution.
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I’m having problems as well. Compressor can’t figure out the right field dominace for 1080i source.
Seems to have started after the Quicktime 7.2 update.
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[Borjis] “The new Mac Book Pro’s that have LED backlighting are not that great and don’t have improved contrast at all.
The Samsung LEC backlit panel is not impressive either”
Those monitors work no differently than conventional CFL backlights. They just use an LED source instead to get more lumens per watt – thus saving on battery power. The light source itself is also better. But that’s not where the true potential of LED backlighting comes in. The real potential is that multiple light sources can be zoned off. So areas of black have the light completely turned off.
Samsung’s high-end big-screen LCD TV sets that just came out are already doing some of this. They are literally claiming 500,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio! That’s not a typo.
The key word is of course dynamic. Obviously it cheats and you certainly wouldn’t want to color correct on a monitor that is automatically adjusting the brightness and contrast on its own. But this technology has a ton of potential for professional products.
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Keep in mind, LED backlighting will start being introduced in products these next few years. This can drastically improve the black levels for LCDs. I think it’s a great time to wait on a monitor if possible.
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Run the memory test in the Techtool Deluxe.
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I’m not going to be too definitive with this, but I think everyone here is mistaken. I could be wrong. If I am, someone please say so and explain why.
In your FCP Browser, change the field dominance of the actual clip you captured (not just the sequence) to “None”. THEN, and only then, drag the clip(s) to the sequence (which is also set to “None”).
My understanding is that there is no actual difference between 60i and 30p within the confines of the DV NTSC codec. It is always stored as 60i, 25mbps CBR. All that matters is how QT/FCP interprets it during export or playback. Certain “flags” tell it to playback at either 60i, 30p, or 24pA. These flags can be changed – one way to change it to 30p is by changing the field dominance to “None” like I described.
It’s just like the anamorphic flag. It makes no difference if you capture it with or without “Anamorphic” checked in the capture settings. You can change it back and forth after capturing as you like. It doesn’t re-render anything.
This isn’t the case with most video, but with DV, I believe it is.
Again, someone correct me if I’m wrong.
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Little typo there, sorry about that. What I meant to say was with FCP5 or FCP6 you can drop HD in an SD timeline and it will usually do the proper conversion – but there are problems.
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[Byrd Mcdonald] “1) What is the best way for me to output to digi-beta an sd timeline that originated in DVC ProHD 720p 24n timeline? Transcoding through compressor? Re-mastering an SD timeline of the same footage and laying that to tape?
2) When I bring this 10 minutes back into my machine, what is the best way to make that footage place nice with the other 70 minutes of the feature, which are, again, DVC PRO HD 720p 24n??
3) Is the big missing component for me a Kona card or other such thing that would downconvert via hardware in real time?”
I agree with Shane and David. But I’ll answer your questions. Hardware downconversion is where it’s at. So yeah, the Kona card is what you are missing. It’s the best option without a doubt.
If you have FCP5 you can drop the
After Effects absolutely provides the best scaling quality for software. But does it automatically convert the color space (709 to 601)? I don’t think it assumes these things for you.
Final Cut 6 and Compressor are loaded design mistakes in regards to video conversion. And the scaling within FCP is not very good (turning on “Best” in the sequence settings helps, but it’s still not great).
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An external broadcast monitor will always show the raw interlaced footage. But I agree it’s annoying you can’t turn it off in FCP.
As far as QT player goes, sometimes I see the fields and sometimes I don’t. I think with certain codecs/formats QT automatically knows how to deinterlace it.
You can always use Cinema Tools. Just open a QT file in CT, and it will never show anything deinterlaced.