Ken Stone article on EX1 -> SD workflow in FCP

[Evan Donn]

Good article on getting the best results when downconverting, which seems to be a common difficulty with the EX1 footage:

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage...put_young.html

[Bill Davis]

I appreciate the reference, Evan.

But I'm always disappointed when I see yet another workflow solution that assumes that somehow the whole world wants play with "digital movies" at 24 frames.

It's a pet peave of mine when the VAST majority of video watched in the US is being watched at 29.97.

Has anyone done this kind of downconversion testing with a standard VIDEO framerate that would help us put good looking EX-1 footage on STANDARD NTSC DVDs and TVs - you know - the stuff that makes up the HUGE majority of the stuff that's actually broadcast and sold RIGHT NOW?

This is not a critique. It's just a call for paying attention to what the majority of clients are still paying for TODAY.

And that's footage that can be watched on a majority of the standard def TV sets still in use.

[Henry Dale]

Originally Posted by Bill Davis

But I'm always disappointed when I see yet another workflow solution that assumes that somehow the whole world wants play with "digital movies" at 24 frames.

Have I read the wrong article? I didn't see any mention of 24 fps. Can you not convert the PAL references to the NTSC equivalents with this workflow?

[Craig Seeman]

I posted this a few days ago and few read it

http://dvinfo.net/conf/showpost.php?...12&postcount=1

My question would be why DV? Why not DVCPro50 or some higher quality SD? It would be easy enough to figure that out based on this article. The important thing is it shows how to downconvert HD Progressive.

[Greg Boston]

Originally Posted by Craig Seeman

I posted this a few days ago and few read it

http://dvinfo.net/conf/showpost.php?...12&postcount=1

My question would be why DV? Why not DVCPro50 or some higher quality SD? It would be easy enough to figure that out based on this article. The important thing is it shows how to downconvert HD Progressive.

I agree Craig. If down converting HD, why not stop at a 50 mb codec that will allow for more chroma resolution.

-gb-

[John Godwin]

Since I'm new to FCP, I'm wondering what you end up with this workflow? - Letterboxed, squeezed or edge cropped?

I'd be interested in knowing how you modify this workflow to be able to end up with each type, or at least letterboxed and edge cropped, which is what most of my clients want one or the other of.

[Greg Boston]

Originally Posted by John Godwin

Since I'm new to FCP, I'm wondering what you end up with this workflow? - Letterboxed, squeezed or edge cropped?

I'd be interested in knowing how you modify this workflow to be able to end up with each type, or at least letterboxed and edge cropped, which is what most of my clients want one or the other of.

You end up with SD anamorphic video because the anamorphic flag is checked on the down convert settings. It would appear squished on any device that doesn't understand the anamorphic flag.

-gb-

[John Godwin]

Thanks, Greg,

So, if you didn't check the box would you end up with letterboxed or edge-cropped? And how, then to achieve the other?

[Rob Collins]

Originally Posted by Craig Seeman

I posted this a few days ago and few read it

http://dvinfo.net/conf/showpost.php?...12&postcount=1

My question would be why DV? Why not DVCPro50 or some higher quality SD? It would be easy enough to figure that out based on this article. The important thing is it shows how to downconvert HD Progressive.

I would think you'd choose whatever codec you're printing to. Sometimes it can be useful to print out to a DV tape via firewire. In this case, you'd want a DV sequence. If going out to a DVCPro50 deck via SDI or component, then you'd use that codec. Beta or digibeta, ProRes or uncompressed if you have the hardware?

For DVD's I've had great results just exporting the sequence HD, then using Compressor's DVD preset to encode.

[Craig Seeman]

I tried that recently in iDVD which is really using Compressor (sans any user controls). It looked horrible IMHO.

In Rick Young's article he says right at the top

"Compressor or other encoding software provide options but these too produce less than beautiful images."

Originally Posted by Rob Collins

For DVD's I've had great results just exporting the sequence HD, then using Compressor's DVD preset to encode.

[Ed David]

i did a job shot in 1080p 50i HQ mode, placed in a pal dv timeline with lower field dominance and played back on a monitor and looked great - nice and sharp.

[Ed David]

to do a center cut, according to FCP manual, just go to the motion tab on your footage and enlarge it till it fills the frame. zoom size setting for me I believe was 61. don't quote me on that though.

[John Godwin]

Thanks, Ed. FCP is lot different from Avid Liquid Chrome.

[Rob Collins]

Originally Posted by Craig Seeman

I tried that recently in iDVD which is really using Compressor (sans any user controls). It looked horrible IMHO.

I don't claim to know the under-the-hood relation of iDVD to Compressor, but I've found the results to be quite different. I too have tried using iDVD with poor results, but using Compressor then DVDSP looks great to me.

[Evan Donn]

Originally Posted by Craig Seeman

I posted this a few days ago and few read it

http://dvinfo.net/conf/showpost.php?...12&postcount=1

My question would be why DV? Why not DVCPro50 or some higher quality SD? It would be easy enough to figure that out based on this article. The important thing is it shows how to downconvert HD Progressive.

Sorry about that, I missed your post. I agree, I've generally been using DVCPro50 as a mastering format when going to DVD in order to avoid the double chroma subsampling you get in the conversion from DV's 4:1:1 to MPEG2's 4:2:0. In fact I think the only reason you'd ever choose DV would be if you wanted to go out to DV tape.