Straight lines become jagged in FCP at DVinfo.net

Bradley Paul · June 25th, 2007, 09:25 PM

Hi everyone,

I've been shooting 24p using a Sony HVR V1U. I used the work around that Steve Mullen and others have discussed here for capturing, and it worked great, so thanks for that. But now that I've captured all my footage and have done reverse telecine on them, I have a new problem. My clips look great in Quicktime -- very crisp, sharp -- but when I import them into Final Cut and put them in my timeline, the lines become jagged (especially noticeable on hair, door frames, etc.), colors get a little splotchy, and overall the image loses a ton of quality. I thought maybe it was just a low-quality image for editing, but when I use Compressor to make the highest quality DVD file, the movie still looks awful, and to my knowledge all the display settings are set to highest quality.

Incidentally, this isn't unique to the clips that I've done reverse telecine on. When I drag the non-telecined clips into the timeline, I get the same problem.

Any ideas on why clips that look great when opened in Quicktime look so bad in Final Cut?

By the way, I'm using FCS 2, Sony HVR V1U, G5 with dual 2.66 GHz, OS 10.4.9.

Paul J Carey · June 26th, 2007, 03:47 PM

FCP sacrifices quality for speed. As far as I know, anything you edit in FCP will be displayed at a much lesser quality. It doesn't mean your actual raw footage is crap, it's just that it's way too much info for FCP to display at once. When exported, the quality should be restored. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Bradley Paul · June 26th, 2007, 04:44 PM

Follow up: As usual with FCP problems, annoying things usually have a simple solution. It turns out that one of my export settings was wrong. I fixed it, and all seems to be well.

Paul, thanks for your response. I think you're right that FCP sacrifices quality for speed in the editing environment displays; this time, though, I had compounded the problem by not paying close attention to my settings while preparing a DVD.

Scott Shama · June 29th, 2007, 03:40 AM

So what was the right setting? Help us avoid the same mistake by isting what you found was wrong. Thanks!

Scott

John Cash · June 29th, 2007, 07:08 AM

Yes, please post your settings. Im having the same issues and I shoot with the same equipment. I cant seem to put anything out to web content in High Def . I capture strait into FCP, put together a nice looking short movie ,looks good in FCP but I cant render it to anything that looks good thats not a HUGE file.
I need an encoding for web content expert please

June 25th, 2007, 09:25 PM	#1
Bradley Paul New Boot Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Austin, TX Posts: 19	Straight lines become jagged in FCP Hi everyone, I've been shooting 24p using a Sony HVR V1U. I used the work around that Steve Mullen and others have discussed here for capturing, and it worked great, so thanks for that. But now that I've captured all my footage and have done reverse telecine on them, I have a new problem. My clips look great in Quicktime -- very crisp, sharp -- but when I import them into Final Cut and put them in my timeline, the lines become jagged (especially noticeable on hair, door frames, etc.), colors get a little splotchy, and overall the image loses a ton of quality. I thought maybe it was just a low-quality image for editing, but when I use Compressor to make the highest quality DVD file, the movie still looks awful, and to my knowledge all the display settings are set to highest quality. Incidentally, this isn't unique to the clips that I've done reverse telecine on. When I drag the non-telecined clips into the timeline, I get the same problem. Any ideas on why clips that look great when opened in Quicktime look so bad in Final Cut? By the way, I'm using FCS 2, Sony HVR V1U, G5 with dual 2.66 GHz, OS 10.4.9. Last edited by Bradley Paul; June 26th, 2007 at 09:53 AM.

June 26th, 2007, 03:47 PM	#2
Paul J Carey Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Minneapolis Posts: 66	FCP sacrifices quality for speed. As far as I know, anything you edit in FCP will be displayed at a much lesser quality. It doesn't mean your actual raw footage is crap, it's just that it's way too much info for FCP to display at once. When exported, the quality should be restored. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

June 26th, 2007, 04:44 PM	#3
Bradley Paul New Boot Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Austin, TX Posts: 19	Follow up: As usual with FCP problems, annoying things usually have a simple solution. It turns out that one of my export settings was wrong. I fixed it, and all seems to be well. Paul, thanks for your response. I think you're right that FCP sacrifices quality for speed in the editing environment displays; this time, though, I had compounded the problem by not paying close attention to my settings while preparing a DVD.

June 29th, 2007, 03:40 AM	#4
Scott Shama Major Player Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Beaverton, Oregon Posts: 399	So what was the right setting? Help us avoid the same mistake by isting what you found was wrong. Thanks! Scott

June 29th, 2007, 07:08 AM	#5
John Cash Major Player Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: San Diego CA Posts: 253	Yes, please post your settings. Im having the same issues and I shoot with the same equipment. I cant seem to put anything out to web content in High Def . I capture strait into FCP, put together a nice looking short movie ,looks good in FCP but I cant render it to anything that looks good thats not a HUGE file. I need an encoding for web content expert please