HVX200 to DVD - FCP/DVD Studio Pro Workflow

[J0B00]

Ok, I've finally gotten a Final Cut Pro system of my own and I love their implementation of a P2 workflow compared to Avid's. It works so much smoother, and is easier to deal with. I really like the open timeline as well for mixing formats. I've been using my system a lot to sort out compatibility issues my coworker has with stuff shot in different resolutions/frame rates because he can't seem to understand that you can't mix as easily with an Avid system, which is what we have at the office. I digress....

Here's what I'm doing:

I've got a bunch of shots that are mostly shot in 720p60 on the HVX200. I've also got a handful of shots that I've mixed in that were shot at 720p24 (native) overcranked to 60fps. I'm editing on a 17in. MacBook Pro with the hi-res screen. I have my sequence setup to use the DVCPRO HD 720p60 sequence preset. When I do a full screen preview, I am very unhappy with what I see. I'm seeing individual pixels around certain areas of the image. For example, the edges of a window frame in the shot are pixelated, while the rest of the frame looks great. I thought it was possibly interlacing creeping in there somehow, but I'm thinking it has to do with the 960x720 resolution of the 720p footage from the HVX200. It's definitely not interlaced. I tried to keep everything shot in 720p24, but my coworker can't stop messing with the cameras after I get them setup for a project, and now I've got to get in the habit of checking them before I press record so that I keep as much as possible in he same format.

This pixel issue bothers me more when I attempt to burn a DVD of the footage because even on an SD display monitor from DVD, I notice the jagginess of certain areas of the image. I will also add that I notice it on both the 720p24 and 720p60 sections of the sequence. As for DVD authoring workflow, I send the sequence to Compressor and encode it using the DVD Best Quality 90 min. preset. I make sure "progressive" is turned on, as well as check to make sure it it setup to burn a 16x9 DVD. I've played this DVD on both my HDTV thru an upconverting DVD player as well as a SD TV set thru a regular DVD player. Both have noticeable jaggies around car window frames, an other similar areas. As I mentioned earlier, I also get the jaggies on my HD computer monitor when previewed in full screen mode.

Any idea what (if anything) I'm doing wrong? Is this just a deficiency in the HVX200 compared to higher end cameras that shoot full raster 1920x1080p resolution files?

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks!

[J0B00]

Here's a still frame that I exported and stretched out to 1280x720 (square pixels) to compensate for aspect ratio of the DVCPRO HD video resolution. Its probably the worst shot of them all. Yes, its slightly out of focus as well, but nonetheless, the artifacts I speak of are very visible.

[David Saraceno]

You absolutely cannot judge the quality of your footage using the desktop preview.

The Matrox MXO to a HD monitor set up is the only way.

How are you viewing the SD DVD? I don't know what you refer to as a "SD display monitor."

When I encode, I don't check anything in Compressor. I just used the preset or a custom preset for 16:9 SD DVDs. That's it.

[J0B00]

I wish I could afford an MXO and another HD monitor, but if I'm seeing this stuff in still shots grabbed from the timeline, shouldn't that show the problem isn't with how I'm previewing the stuff?

For viewing the DVD on an SD set, I have a Pioneer DVD recorder hooked up to a JVC TM-H150CG production monitor with an s-video cable.

For viewing the DVD on an HD monitor, I have a Philips upconverting DVD player hooked up to a Panasonic consumer HDTV (tube tv, but still 16x9) at home with an HDMI cable. Its not fancy professional equipment, but it has always looked great playing motion picture DVDs. I know this stuff isn't gonna look that good, but it should look better than what I'm getting.

I'll also add that when I play the DVD on my MacBook Pro, which has the hi-res display option (1920x1200 resolution), I still see the artifacts I'm describing, both before and after burning it to DVD. I even ran the sequence thru Compressor set to output as a DVCPRO HD 720x60p file (mxf in quicktime wrapper?) for comparison, and its exactly the same.

The still image I posted above demonstrates exactly what I'm talking about as far as what I'm seeing. I exported this directly from Final Cut Pro. The only compression applied is the .jpg compression applied from saving it, as well as the DVCPRO HD compression that it was recorded in.

I just did a little video slideshow for a banquet we're having tonight and even though its in SD it looks 100 times better compared to the quality I'm getting, IMHO. The photos (about 100) were dropped onto a regular DV timeline with field dominance set to "none", and I added keyframes to all of the images to put some movment in. Exported to Compressor and encoded using the standard SD DVD 90min. preset, and then burned it to disk. Looks crisp everywhere I play it.

Maybe I'm just being really picky...I dunno.

[J0B00]

It just occured to me to that Color might be causing these problems. I forgot to mention that I had sent some of the shots out to Color for some work in the primary room.

When sending HVX200 stuff thru Color, what settings should you have Color setup for when rendering? I went and checked my settings, and it was setup for 1280x720 resolution...I set it to a custon setting of 960x720 and I am rendering everything out again right now...

[J0B00]

Ok, pretty convinced now that my renders from Color were causing the problem...

I'm about to burn a new DVD and try it on the SD monitor in a minute...so far, everything looks good on my computer monitor.

[David Saraceno]

We have a Pioneer Elite upconverting to a Pioneer Elite plasma.

Our SD DVDs look pretty darn good.