[Tom Brooks]

[Paul Godard] “I see you also own the HVX-200. When I got the camera from Panasonic, I was told – and that was confirmed by other ‘experts’ – that to achieve the best quality with the camera, I had to shot in 720pN25, not 1080.”

Some experts say that the camera’s CCD is optimized for 720. Others say you get slightly better resolution at 1080. I have not compared side-by-side. I suggested you use a 720 timeline for the footage that has already been shot in 720 format. For future projects that must end up with at least one version in 1080, I recommend shooting in 1080. While 720P is also a true HD format, software cross-conversion to 1080 is not the best practice. Avoid it if you can.

[Paul Godard] “Question : Can I place a high res 1920 x 1080 in the 720p timeline with the appropriate scaling factor to display the pic full page, then upscale to the new 1080 timeline without loosing image quality on the still?”

No. That is a good point and I hadn’t taken the time to think through this part of your process. The stills and any titles would be better if you place them in the 1080 timeline. Can you add those elements after you are in a 1080 timeline? Another approach would be to use Compressor to batch convert all of your 720 clips to 1080 before you start the edit. In other words, make all of your source clips 1080 so that you can work only in a 1080 timeline.

You have two problems that should be fixed to make your life easier. 1-You have footage of two different frame sizes (720 and 1080). 2-The majority of your footage was shot at a smaller size than your final output. Shooting at 1080 with the HVX camera will make everything better (and much simpler).

[Tom Brooks]

For objective 2 (SD DVD), use your existing sequence and export using Compressor. Choose Best Quality 60 min. 16:9. That’s as good as you’ll get with Compressor. The only disadvantage is that the export will tie up Final Cut until it’s done.

By “full HD” do you mean 1920×1080 progressive? If you want 1080 output in the future, you should shoot 1080 with your HVX200. I’m not sure myself how you should proceed to make a 1080 Quicktime with only the software you have. My first try would be to finish the edit in 720p25 and then drop the sequence onto a 1080p25 timeline. Export from that using Compressor with a high quality H.264 setting.

Realize that only high-end PCs will be able to play 1080 Quicktimes. Mom’s Pentium-III won’t cut it.

If you do shoot 1080p25 on your P2 in the future, your SD DVD method is the same. Just export using Compressor to a high quality 16:9 setting. If you wish to work from an intermediate Quicktime (export using current settings), you won’t lose much this way.

Final Cut Studio 2, FCP 6.0.2, Mac OS-X 10.4.11, Quicktime 7.4, After Effects 6.5 Pro, G5 Quad 2.5, Kona-LHe V5.1, 4.5GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 7800-GT 256MB, G-RAID 2x1TB FW800, 6TB RAID-5 (Enhance E8-ML, Highpoint 2322), Panasonic HVX-200P P2.

[Tom Brooks]

Paul,
As I read it, you have two video sources: HDV (1080p25) and DVCProHD (720pN25). You also have high-res stills. Your sequence is HDV. Your output is various quicktime formats.

I don’t believe there’s anything NECESSARILY wrong with choosing HDV as the sequence format. Especially if the majority of your source footage is HDV, this is not a bad choice. If the P2 stuff is the majority, I’d rethink that (and the solution gets complicated). The reason HDV is not bad is that you are rendering to various other formats anyway. In other words, the program that compresses your sequence to various other formats is going to take what you have in the HDV sequence in its native form and it will then compress that into another form.

The one bad thing you’re doing is exporting “QuickTime with current settings” as an intermediate file and then making all your other formats from that. In that step you are adding tremendous compression to both the DVCProHD and the stills. You can export straight out of Final Cut, via Compressor, to each of the needed formats. This will avoid the intermediate compression step.

If you must use an intermediate file for some reason, it is better to go with an uncompressed (or much LESS compressed) format instead of the HDV. This can be done using Quicktime Conversion or by changing the sequence compressor and then exporting QuickTime using those settings.

Regarding HD playback on Windows and Mac:
If you are targeting the general public, you should choose a codec that is commonly available to them. Apple HDV is not one of those. Two choices rise to the top: H.264 for Quicktime and Windows Media for Windows. Quicktime specs for HD playback are here: https://www.apple.com/quicktime/player/specs.html

Windows Media has a similar page. If you’re not targeting the general public and can supply a codec, the choices are different.

When you do export to the various formats, check to make sure you’re keeping your output progressive throughout. Compressor handles this automatically.
-Tom

[Tom Brooks]

I believe all the available slots on a G5 are compatible. I’m using the one next to the video card.

Final Cut Studio 2, FCP 6.0.2, Mac OS-X 10.4.11, Quicktime 7.4, After Effects 6.5 Pro, G5 Quad 2.5, Kona-LHe V5.1, 4.5GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 7800-GT 256MB, G-RAID 2x1TB FW800, 6TB RAID-5 (Enhance E8-ML, Highpoint 2322), Panasonic HVX-200P P2.

[Tom Brooks]

I’ve seen a little of this with my HVX200 as well. Only on certain shots that had hard-edged diagonal lines. Never quite got an answer on it. I suspected something to do with the 60fps to 30. The original is progressive, but it’s 59.94fps progressive. That obviously means there’s temporal information comparable to 60i. So just exactly how does Compressor combine those two frames into one to come up with 29.97 progressive? Is each pair of 60P frames (with their temporal changes) blended together? Would this cause jaggies?

[Tom Brooks]

Maybe the parameter behavior “Randomize” is closer to what you want.

[Tom Brooks]

In Motion 3 under Behaviors you’ll find something called Wriggle. This adds motion to an object. I believe you can set it up in a way that the motion is random. I’ve used it to add flicker to lights and lens flares, but haven’t tried it to add motion to a regular layer.

[Tom Brooks]

[Shane Ross] “You only have ONE Dell? You are crippling yourself…”

Not for long! You’re right, all that scrolling and searching in the Browser…it’s nuts. I chuckle when I hear people raving about how they can put together a Final Cut system for $5K or less. Fantasy, I say.

[Tom Brooks]

Walter,
At risk of asking a dumb question here, is it standard practice to put your Browser on one monitor and your Viewer, Canvas, and Timeline on the other? Since switching to FCP I’ve suffered from tiny bins on my one Dell 24″ monitor. Do you have any other tips about laying out FCP’s various tools within the ‘real estate’ of your two Dells? Thanks.
-Tom

Final Cut Studio 2, FCP 6.0.2, Mac OS-X 10.4.11, Quicktime 7.4, After Effects 6.5 Pro, G5 Quad 2.5, Kona-LHe V5.1, 4.5GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 7800-GT 256MB, G-RAID 2x1TB FW800, 6TB RAID-5 (Enhance E8-ML, Highpoint 2322), Panasonic HVX-200P P2.

[Tom Brooks]

Scott,
I built a RAID-5 using the Highpoint 2322 card as you may have seen in an earlier post. I didn’t even see a place to set the block size. That would be done in the Highpoint web management utility would it not? Would you post what you learn about this ? Getting knowledge on these details is harder than you’d think isn’t it? Thanks.
-Tom

Final Cut Studio 2, FCP 6.0.2, Mac OS-X 10.4.11, Quicktime 7.4, After Effects 6.5 Pro, G5 Quad 2.5, Kona-LHe V5.1, 4.5GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 7800-GT 256MB, G-RAID 2x1TB FW800, 6TB RAID-5 (Enhance E8-ML, Highpoint 2322), Panasonic HVX-200P P2.