Smooth iMovie/FCP HD HDV Workflow

Nate Weaver · January 30th, 2005, 12:01 PM

Frederic, will FCP properly create the offline media? I never had any luck getting FCP to properly downscale while paying attention to the AIC clips fields.

In other news, I have a rough cut of the video I've been working on all week. It took 3 days to get After Effects to not give me corrupt files, and 6 hours to get a cut! :-)

http://homepage.mac.com/nweaver/.Movies/DOAFD.mov

My evil HD field to SD frame slow motion plan worked beautifully...

Heath McKnight · January 30th, 2005, 12:28 PM

Nate, to make hyperlinks, do this:

[url ]www.dvinfo.net/conf[/url ]

Only remove the space between "l" and "]".

heath

Kaku Ito · January 30th, 2005, 12:30 PM

Nate,

Thanks to you, my test with offline Blackmagic HD JPEG worked pretty well.
Getting back to full size AIC from HD JPEG also worked.

It would have never worked if you did not mentioned about changing the pixel size.

Thanks again.

Best,

Kaku

Nate Weaver · January 30th, 2005, 12:43 PM

Kaku, I realized last night that I had your webpage bookmarked for another reason besides the FX1...I ride mtb too! I have a CDale Prophet w/Rohloff, etc.

Going riding now (taking the significant other on a mellow ride)!

Kaku Ito · January 30th, 2005, 12:46 PM

Hahaha! Nate, we are all alike!

Prophet is a nice bike. I once owned a Gemini 1000 for great deal but the size was little large for me so I sold it.

You must have seen my Cedric Gracia clip (which was not that good because that was my first experience with PDX10).

Have a nice ride.

Heath McKnight · January 30th, 2005, 12:51 PM

Frederic,

if my settings are like this:

Frame size: 1280x1080 DVCPro HD1080i60

(The anamorphic 16:9 is not checked)

The pixel aspect ratio is: NTSC - CCIR 60i / DV

The field dominance is: Lower (Even)

The Editing Timebase is: 29.97

And the QuickTime Video Settings are: Compressor - DVCPro HD 1080i60

Can I start editing in FCPHD? I'm chomping at the bit, so to speak, to get crackin'! I also want to get started on Release Me (720p30). And can I go back to iMovie HD?

Thanks,

heath

Filip Kovcin · January 30th, 2005, 02:57 PM

hello there,
i know i'm boring, this is not DIRECTLY connected with imovie solution, but:

does anyone know is TIMECODE still the same as in original/master tape when using imovie solution?

thanks,

filip

Nate Weaver · January 30th, 2005, 07:59 PM

<<<-- Originally posted by Filip Kovcin : hello there,
i know i'm boring, this is not DIRECTLY connected with imovie solution, but:

does anyone know is TIMECODE still the same as in original/master tape when using imovie solution?

thanks,

filip -->>>

No, timecode is not captured with iMovie.

Filip Kovcin · February 3rd, 2005, 07:41 PM

thanks Nate!

filip

Graeme Nattress · February 6th, 2005, 10:48 AM

I've not had much luck getting AIC clips to play out of my Decklink HD Pro + HDLink setup.

When I tried to convert the AIC clips to either uncompressed or PhotoJPEG I had issues - the scaling up from the 1440 to 1920 in quicktime is quite poor, and produced noticible resolution loss and artifacting.

So, I exported 1440x1080 and then scaled up in the FCP timline to 1920x1080 and played out of the Decklink just fine.

Has anyone else noticed Quicktime doing a bad job of scaling HDV to full HD rez for use in other codecs, or is this a decklink quirk?

Graeme

Heath McKnight · February 6th, 2005, 11:16 AM

Graeme,

My iMovie HD clips ARE in 1920 by 1080i. Looks fine, but I'm lost on getting the edited footage back to iMovie HD.

Also, anytime I try exporting to QuickTime, the image is stretched out horizontally.

heath

Graeme Nattress · February 6th, 2005, 11:36 AM

Well, Quicktime and FCP say that they're 1920x1080, but we know that they're not! They're 1440x1080 with a display flag so that they get displayed at 1920x1080!

Graeme

Heath McKnight · February 6th, 2005, 11:42 AM

Funny thing is, set to DVCPro 1080i60 (1280x1080) and the compressor set to the same thing, it looks normal. But when I output it, it gets all stretched out the cast looks wide. How can I fix that?

heath

Graeme Nattress · February 6th, 2005, 11:45 AM

I've not tried taking AIC to DVCproHD yet... Have to try that next.

Graeme

Nate Weaver · February 6th, 2005, 12:27 PM

This is the same problem I had...when Quicktime is doing background resizing from 1440 to 1920 you get the interlace chroma artifacts, etc.

When you resize the clips so the 1920 display flag is absent, and Final Cut has to do the anamorphic stretch instead of Quicktime, things work fine.

Also Graeme, if your AIC clips are 1440 and then you set the anamorphic flag in the FCP clip properties as opposed to stretching them on the timeline, FCP will do the anamorphic stretch without putting green RT rendering bars on clips. In other words, the resize becomes "free", instead of taking valuable RT resources.

Heath, to get footage back into iMovie you need to export 1440x1080 AIC codec, not DVCPRO HD.

January 30th, 2005, 12:28 PM	#47
Heath McKnight MPS Digital Studios Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Palm Beach County, Florida Posts: 8,531	Nate, to make hyperlinks, do this: [url ]www.dvinfo.net/conf[/url ] Only remove the space between "l" and "]". heath __________________ My Final Cut Pro X blog

January 30th, 2005, 12:51 PM	#51
Heath McKnight MPS Digital Studios Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Palm Beach County, Florida Posts: 8,531	Frederic, if my settings are like this: Frame size: 1280x1080 DVCPro HD1080i60 (The anamorphic 16:9 is not checked) The pixel aspect ratio is: NTSC - CCIR 60i / DV The field dominance is: Lower (Even) The Editing Timebase is: 29.97 And the QuickTime Video Settings are: Compressor - DVCPro HD 1080i60 Can I start editing in FCPHD? I'm chomping at the bit, so to speak, to get crackin'! I also want to get started on Release Me (720p30). And can I go back to iMovie HD? Thanks, heath __________________ My Final Cut Pro X blog

January 30th, 2005, 02:57 PM	#52
Filip Kovcin Major Player Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: warsaw, poland Posts: 440	little OT - again about timecode hello there, i know i'm boring, this is not DIRECTLY connected with imovie solution, but: does anyone know is TIMECODE still the same as in original/master tape when using imovie solution? thanks, filip

January 30th, 2005, 07:59 PM	#53
Nate Weaver Wrangler Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 2,100	Re: little OT - again about timecode <<<-- Originally posted by Filip Kovcin : hello there, i know i'm boring, this is not DIRECTLY connected with imovie solution, but: does anyone know is TIMECODE still the same as in original/master tape when using imovie solution? thanks, filip -->>> No, timecode is not captured with iMovie.

February 6th, 2005, 10:48 AM	#55
Graeme Nattress RED Problem Solver Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Ottawa, Canada Posts: 1,365	I've not had much luck getting AIC clips to play out of my Decklink HD Pro + HDLink setup. When I tried to convert the AIC clips to either uncompressed or PhotoJPEG I had issues - the scaling up from the 1440 to 1920 in quicktime is quite poor, and produced noticible resolution loss and artifacting. So, I exported 1440x1080 and then scaled up in the FCP timline to 1920x1080 and played out of the Decklink just fine. Has anyone else noticed Quicktime doing a bad job of scaling HDV to full HD rez for use in other codecs, or is this a decklink quirk? Graeme __________________ www.nattress.com - filters for FCP

January 30th, 2005, 12:01 PM	#46
Nate Weaver Wrangler Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 2,100	Frederic, will FCP properly create the offline media? I never had any luck getting FCP to properly downscale while paying attention to the AIC clips fields. In other news, I have a rough cut of the video I've been working on all week. It took 3 days to get After Effects to not give me corrupt files, and 6 hours to get a cut! :-) http://homepage.mac.com/nweaver/.Movies/DOAFD.mov My evil HD field to SD frame slow motion plan worked beautifully...

January 30th, 2005, 12:30 PM	#48
Kaku Ito Trustee Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Posts: 1,382	Nate, Thanks to you, my test with offline Blackmagic HD JPEG worked pretty well. Getting back to full size AIC from HD JPEG also worked. It would have never worked if you did not mentioned about changing the pixel size. Thanks again. Best, Kaku

January 30th, 2005, 12:43 PM	#49
Nate Weaver Wrangler Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 2,100	Kaku, I realized last night that I had your webpage bookmarked for another reason besides the FX1...I ride mtb too! I have a CDale Prophet w/Rohloff, etc. Going riding now (taking the significant other on a mellow ride)!

January 30th, 2005, 12:46 PM	#50
Kaku Ito Trustee Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Posts: 1,382	Hahaha! Nate, we are all alike! Prophet is a nice bike. I once owned a Gemini 1000 for great deal but the size was little large for me so I sold it. You must have seen my Cedric Gracia clip (which was not that good because that was my first experience with PDX10). Have a nice ride.

February 3rd, 2005, 07:41 PM	#54
Filip Kovcin Major Player Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: warsaw, poland Posts: 440	thanks Nate! filip

February 6th, 2005, 11:16 AM	#56
Heath McKnight MPS Digital Studios Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Palm Beach County, Florida Posts: 8,531	Graeme, My iMovie HD clips ARE in 1920 by 1080i. Looks fine, but I'm lost on getting the edited footage back to iMovie HD. Also, anytime I try exporting to QuickTime, the image is stretched out horizontally. heath __________________ My Final Cut Pro X blog

February 6th, 2005, 11:36 AM	#57
Graeme Nattress RED Problem Solver Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Ottawa, Canada Posts: 1,365	Well, Quicktime and FCP say that they're 1920x1080, but we know that they're not! They're 1440x1080 with a display flag so that they get displayed at 1920x1080! Graeme __________________ www.nattress.com - filters for FCP

February 6th, 2005, 11:42 AM	#58
Heath McKnight MPS Digital Studios Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Palm Beach County, Florida Posts: 8,531	Funny thing is, set to DVCPro 1080i60 (1280x1080) and the compressor set to the same thing, it looks normal. But when I output it, it gets all stretched out the cast looks wide. How can I fix that? heath __________________ My Final Cut Pro X blog

February 6th, 2005, 11:45 AM	#59
Graeme Nattress RED Problem Solver Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Ottawa, Canada Posts: 1,365	I've not tried taking AIC to DVCproHD yet... Have to try that next. Graeme __________________ www.nattress.com - filters for FCP

February 6th, 2005, 12:27 PM	#60
Nate Weaver Wrangler Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 2,100	This is the same problem I had...when Quicktime is doing background resizing from 1440 to 1920 you get the interlace chroma artifacts, etc. When you resize the clips so the 1920 display flag is absent, and Final Cut has to do the anamorphic stretch instead of Quicktime, things work fine. Also Graeme, if your AIC clips are 1440 and then you set the anamorphic flag in the FCP clip properties as opposed to stretching them on the timeline, FCP will do the anamorphic stretch without putting green RT rendering bars on clips. In other words, the resize becomes "free", instead of taking valuable RT resources. Heath, to get footage back into iMovie you need to export 1440x1080 AIC codec, not DVCPRO HD.