Quality issue with AE6.5 importing footage

[Baluardo]

I only recently found out i was loosing quality importing my 25p footage (PAL, but i guess the same issue is with 24p NTSC) into AE6.5, in all projects.

I realized (even thanks to this forum) that for EVERY piece of 25p footage i import into a project i HAVE to go to the INTERPRET menu and tell the system to NOT separate the fields (set it to off). If i dont do this, the output quality is severely affected (the quality difference is already visible while working on the project, in the composition window).

I'm sure somebody is laughing at me now, but I wanted to share this little piece of knowledge with other 'ignorants' like me out there, who maybe, like me, already worked on several projects and felt they were losing quality but thought it was normal.

:)Andrea

[KyleProhaska]

Wow thats a bummer, ah well lesson learned eh? Another reason I hate software sometimes, the little hidden thigns that bite you in the ass.

- Kyle

[oneinfiniteloop]

Hmmm, I've never had this issue, AE has always been pretty good about correctly interupting the footage for me.

[Baluardo]

i never realized 100% i had quality losses until i started working on this footage showing a still car well lit with lots of straight geometric lines.
In the imported footage (composition window) they looked like crap, all squared and everything, until i applied the correct 'interpret' command. In PAL, After Effects 6.5 is not able to recognize progressive footage automatically. maybe in NTSC is different..

Andrea

[Averdahl]

I realized (even thanks to this forum) that for EVERY piece of 25p footage i import into a project i HAVE to go to the INTERPRET menu and tell the system to NOT separate the fields (set it to off).
If you often 25p footage you should customize Interpretation Rules.txt so that AE automatically interprets your footage correct. No need to interpret it manually after the change. :)

Interpretation Rules.txt can be found here: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects X.X\Support Files

/Roger

[Baluardo]

thx for the tip!

Andrea