Capturing SD vs HD in FCP

[Will Crain]

I am working some footage that in the end will be used exclusively online. I experimented shooting SD and HD footage. Hoping that the SD footage might be useful being that the file size is smaller therefore less file to compress in the end, hopefully speeding things up.

My problem is that when i am trying to capture the SD footage it comes out quite bad. I was just wondering which settings anyone has captured SD with in FCP. On the camera it looks great, but once i get it into FCP it looks crappy (Very pixelated). So figured that its the way i am capturing.

With the HD footage i am using the 'HDV-1080p24' Easy Setup, because i am shooting HD 1080@24fsp. I've tried capturing SD using the same as well as 'DV-NTSC 24p (23.98)' and 'DV-NTSC Anamorphic', shooting both SD 16:9 and 4:3

Thanks.

[Tomas Chinchilla]

My personal recomendation is what everyone preaches about here:

Shoot HD
Edit HD
Downconvert.

[Jacob Mothersbaugh]

will I have the same question, and thomas what about people who are in a time crunch. I shoot skateboarding too so i need to be able to capture it as SD 4:3 and really wont always have the time to downconvert and crop. Are the SD capabilities comparable to those of the dvx or a vx2000 (of course not in low light)?

[Stu Siegal]

I've been shooting dv 4:3 24f and capturing using the dv ntsc preset with a dsr-11 in fcp just fine. As for comparisons to the dvx, which I just switched from, I use preset 18 from the library here, and I actually prefer the footage to that of the dvx, which is saying a lot, because I loved the dvx. It's cleaner, yet no less filmic.

I do, however, miss the stop to stop 1/2 you lose in low light. And because the image is cleaner, the gain up from 0 to +6 is a bit more noticeable.

[Holly Rognan]

The XHA1 is the king of SD 4:3. I can't imagine many camcorders under $15,000 that do a better job. It is simply fantastic. If you are shooting in 4:3, I suggest doing it in cam because the time it takes to crop and downconvert in post is time you could spend doing more important things.

[Will Crain]

thanks for the replys guys, I found it all useful
If i shoot the video in SD which settings do you sugguest capturing it in FCP with? Like I said in the first post of the thread, my problem is that it just looks ready bad when i bring it in. Thanks for any further help.

[Josh Dahlberg]

Originally Posted by Holly Rognan

If you are shooting in 4:3, I suggest doing it in cam because the time it takes to crop and downconvert in post is time you could spend doing more important things.

I totally agree. I wouldn't shoot HD if I had not intention of delivering HD. The A1 does a great job in SD - like another poster I come from a DVX background, owned to of them, and the A1 is much much cleaner and also sharper. I also owned an XL2 and shot footage side by side with the A1, and found the A1 to be superior - sold the XL2.

Sorry I can't help with your settings Will as I'm in Pal land, but I will reiterate what others have said that A1 SD footage looks great - if not, then something's up with your settings.

[Tomas Chinchilla]

Originally Posted by Josh Dahlberg

I totally agree. I wouldn't shoot HD if I had not intention of delivering HD. The A1 does a great job in SD - like another poster I come from a DVX background, owned to of them, and the A1 is much much cleaner and also sharper. I also owned an XL2 and shot footage side by side with the A1, and found the A1 to be superior - sold the XL2.

Sorry I can't help with your settings Will as I'm in Pal land, but I will reiterate what others have said that A1 SD footage looks great - if not, then something's up with your settings.

I guess it's just a matter of personal preference, if I have an HD camcorder with such quality "which I do" why would I shoot SD? even if your intention is not to do HD why not keep the original footage at the best quality and just downconvert either in camera while capturing or on your NLE of preference?

It's been proven over and over that the quality of the video is higher when downconverted than actually shot in SD, even when the final output might be something like 485x270 "small compressed".

Then again don't mean to stirr things up, that's just someone's personal opinion.

[Will Crain]

tomas
i want to test it out for myself to see. when you downconvert, are you doing it in the camera, or after you get the footage onto the hard drive? if from the camera, are there specific settings that you are using that you could share with me. I am very new to this and actually havent downconverted anything as of yet.

thanks again for all the advice and insight guys.

[Eric Hansen]

Just my own opinion as well, having the A1 I will never shoot anything in SD again. The main reason is that any shoot I do, I might want to be able to use the shots again one day, for a demo reel or for some b-roll or whatever. You can downconvert in the camera, which looks fine, or downconvert in post (better results). But that way, you'll always have that footage in HDV for whatever purposes in the future. Just my opinion as it has happened to me already.

Eric Hansen
www.ehansenproductions.com

[Tomas Chinchilla]

Originally Posted by Will Crain

tomas
i want to test it out for myself to see. when you downconvert, are you doing it in the camera, or after you get the footage onto the hard drive? if from the camera, are there specific settings that you are using that you could share with me. I am very new to this and actually havent downconverted anything as of yet.

thanks again for all the advice and insight guys.

Me personally, I never shoot DV on an HD camcorder, also I don't downconvert in camera (although you can do it in camera while capturing).

I shoot HD, Capture HD, Edit HD, then when I am done I send to compressor and chosse which ever setting I want, in your case for web distribution I would go H264 or (Quicktime for web).

When I am in a hurry and don't want to wait for compressor I do export from FCP to a Quicktime "NOT Quicktime conversion" (Can't remember exactly but I will post later when I am at home) and open it in MPEGSTREAMCLIP and create my H264's from there.

But since you might be in a time crunch and don't want to edit in HD then downconvert in camera.

When I get home I'll get details for you.

[Will Crain]

thanks i will look later on for your response.
The only time crunch that i really have is getting the footage from the camera and then into the hands of several people who need to review it to select what they want from particular interviews. I would rather keep it all digital because then they can just write down the times of the segments that they like and i can then open my originals and grab it from there. The less steps and least amount of time that i can do all that in the better for me.

Usually the footage is shot(A), its ran upstairs to me(B), i capture it (C) and then slice the completely unsusable sections out to not waste anymore time overall(D), then compress it (E) to something that i can put onto a server for several others to view and send me and email of what they want (F) from it in the final.

Anything that i can do to make steps C thru E faster would be great being as to i will be doing this for about 30+ individuals over the next couple weeks, not to mention that i have to edit the final files video and audio then compress into FLV format as to bring them into flash. Its a lot and i am trying to just streamline the process as much as possible.

I dont mind editing the finals in HD or SD as long as the finals look good inscreen.

Thanks again for all the help. I will look again later for any response.

[Eric Hansen]

try a firestore FS-4