Z1U Cineframe 30

[Marty Baggen]

With all the negative chatter on several forums about the Cineframe function of the Sony Z1U, I never really thought seriously about shooting in the CF mode and thereby committing my footage to an inferior image.

I ran across a few old posts, mainly from Shannon Rawls about his success with CF, so I was re-inspired to explore the possibilities.

With some extra time on my hands yesterday, I went out and shot some random footage yesterday at a park (man swinging a metal detector, a guy tossing a frisbee, and sparkling rapid river water) in CF30. I won't be transferring anything to film, so something that would produce a progressive image for computer viewing is my primary goal.

With David's help, I set my Cineform capture parameters and captured via Premiere 2.0.

I then exported to Premiere's preset for WMV720p. The stuff looks amazing. Beautifully crisp frames, smooth-as-interlaced playback....gorgeous.
I understand I am losing some resolution with CF, but I must say, it can't be a lot. Perhaps going to 720 compensates for some of the resolution loss?

So a few questions for the esteemed group:
1 - what should I export if I want an SD DVD from this footage
2 - what settings should I use to export back to tape
(the Sony is an interlaced device, so I am uncertain on this)
3 - To establish my Cineform settings, I simply selected CF24 as a new project, then edited the framerate. I captured with Cineform in both interlaced and progressive, and it didn't seem to make a visual difference, although the progressive files were smaller. I would love to see a flowchart of what is happening to the interlacing as various modes of capture and export are utilized. It's one of those things that I can't get my head around.

David, thanks for your guidance on this process that you shared a month or so ago. At this point, with much of my work going to Powerpoint presentations and computer-based viewing, CF30 seems to be a really solid solution when used in tandem with Cineform.

Marty
OnQ Film

[David Newman]

Yes I also quite like the Cineframe modes. We shoot Cineframe 25 on a Z1 for 2005 entry for the 48 Hour Film project.

1) For DVD export choose 720x480 16x9 progressive 29.97. There is a question whether all progressive DVD playback understand 2-2 pulldown of 30p (vs 24p), but I my experience they do (and if they don't you are no worse off then regular interlaced presentation.)

2) Export-to-tape use standard 60i modes, that is how Cineframe is orginally stored anyway.

3) Create a new 30p present. For Cineframe project use progressive on capture -- this makes compression more efficient and instructs the scaling engine to use the whole frame, not just a field when resizing (you get better looking DVD outputs using progressive encoding.)

[Marty Baggen]

Hi David...

Yes, I saw the film entry you spoke of, and it really looked great.

Your explanation of the progessive vs interlaced on the Cineform capture settings makes sense to me now.

Is there a way to quantify how much actual resolution loss there is using the CF/Cineform combo? Is the perceived loss somewhat offset when outputing to a 720 framesize?

When the destination is a 1080p capable plasma, would I be better off outputing to 720 and allowing the TV to upscale, or would a 1080p export be better?

After my little field experiment with the Z1U, I am convinced that I can match up footage nicely with native progressive footage from an HVX200. The sharpness of the Z1U holds up well, even if it takes a hit via the CF process.

I can't begin to describe how vital the incorporation of Cineform has been to my workflow... especially with the ability to convert MXF, it's indespensible for editors needing to combine mixed source footage from difference HD camcorders. Your constant presence and support in this forum adds a value that many benefit from as well.

Marty
OnQ Film

[David Newman]

You didn't see the 2005 film (it didn't win any prizes :( ), only the 2006 film was put online which was shoot with the Silicon Imaging camera.

The Cineframe mode only resolves about 540 lines, so either 720p or 1080p presentation with have about 540 lines. So converting 1440x1080 to 1280x720 doesn't lose anything.