Can't figure out right capture settings

M

Mike@AF

Veteran
I am trying to capture some video shot on MiniDV tapes through my HVX200. The video was shot in a DVX100 in 16:9 and 30P fps. I have selected the following presets:

Sequence preset = DV NTSC 48kHz
Capture preset = DV NTSC 48kHz
Device Control preset = FireWire NTSC

I have my batch capture log ready to import, but I test one clip first just to make sure, and it's not working right. I've even gone as far as capturing additional clips to make sure. The clips import automatically as NTSC - CCIR 60 for the pixel aspect and anamorphic in the bin. These shouldn't be anamorphic though because the DVX100 is not anamorphic. I can uncheck the anamorphic in the bin, bit then in the viewer "Show As Sq. Pixels" option is automatically selected for every clip. The same option is selected automatically for every sequence if I create a new sequence. This causes the image to be stretched vertically so everyone looks skinny and their faces long.

If I uncheck the "Show As Sq. Pixels" option in the viewer and in the canvas the images look normal. I have uncheck "Show As Sq. Pixels for every clip I capture. If I open those clips in Quicktime they are all squeezed vertically so everyone looks fat or stretched out horizontally. Looking at the properties in Quicktime they have the "Conform aperture to 'Clean'" option turned on in the Presentation tab. Unchecking the conform option makes the clip open correctly. I can change all this for all clips manually if I have to, but it would be a PITA and doesn't make sense. Doing that also causes me to get a gray bar on the top and bottom in both the viewer and the canvas and I can't get rid of them. Selecting Window/Arrange/Standard or any other arrangements does nothing. If I manually adjust the windows and try to arrange I get the gray bars again.

If I change the sequence to anamorphic the gray bars on the top and bottom go away, but then I get gray bars on the sides and can't get them to go away.

I somehow have also managed to get the canvas to give me black bars on the top and bottom instead of gray, but there's gray lines outlining the actual frame of the video (image with the black letterbox bars the DVX100 put there). I don't know how I managed that with the settings the same as in the default DV NTSC sequence preset I've been using. It has the "Show As Sq. Pixels" selected and if I deselect that option I get the gray bars again but the image is stretched horizontally. Also, if I change the sequence settings for Pixel Aspect Ratio from NTSC-CCIR 601/DV(720x480) to Square the image looks right but I have the gray bars at the top and bottom again and they won't go away.

The sequence is never requiring me to render.

I'm using FCP 5.1.4 on a G5.

What am I doing wrong?
 
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Its impossible for your footage to be 16x9 because the dvx100 doesnt have a 16x9 ccd. You mean squeeze?? If so you should use the preset anamorphique
 
macs said:
Its impossible for your footage to be 16x9 because the dvx100 doesnt have a 16x9 ccd. You mean squeeze?? If so you should use the preset anamorphique
Click to expand...

I just tried creating a new project using the DV NTSC Anamorphic settings for the sequence and capture presets. I captured from the camera and I get the same result. Switching the project from NTSC CCIR 601/DV (720x480) to Square and turning off anamorphic in the sequence settings, and changing the clip setting to Square for pixel aspect and turning off anamorphic gives me the image I need in the viewer and canvas, but I shouldn't have to do that with every clip. I can also Arrange/Standard and the gray bars go away.

Playing that clip (that was captured as anamorphic) directly in Quicktime shows an image stretched out horizontally.

So what's going wrong here?
 
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macs said:
It would be really helpful
Click to expand...

He says he shot 24P with the "widescreen mask". However I don't think he shot 24P, because the LCD readout on my HVX200 shows 30P when the tape is playing. Either way, the 29.97fps setting in FCP shouldn't have anything to do with this issue. Capturing like normal DV footage should work without seeing this issue, so I don't know what's wrong. Thanks for the help.
 
So if he shot 24p or 30p with the widecreen mask you should use the dv ntsc preset and everything should be fine, you should have an image with black bars on top and at the bottom. Can you post a screen grab of your problem in final cut??
 
macs said:
So if he shot 24p or 30p with the widecreen mask you should use the dv ntsc preset and everything should be fine, you should have an image with black bars on top and at the bottom. Can you post a screen grab of your problem in final cut??
Click to expand...

I am using the DV NTSC preset as you described. I will get some screen grabs and post them when I get home tonight. Thanks!
 
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I trashed my preferences before doing this and then created a new project using DV NTSC for the sequence and capture presets. I didn't change any other settings. I then did a capture now with the HVX. The clip imported as NTSC CCIR 601 for the pixel aspect in the bin. Anamorphic in the bin is NOT checked off.

Here is a screen capture of my FCP desktop with Quicktime Pro.

fcp1.jpg


The same frame is in the viewer and the canvas. In the viewer, you see the frame with the setting as "Show As Sq. Pixels". That was how it looked in both the viewer and the canvas by default, but I've change the canvas by unchecking the "Show As Sq. Pixels" option. That created a gray bar at the top and bottom. The canvas now shows the image as it should be. Changing the same setting in the viewer produces the same gray bars. Then arranging the windows to Standard gives the same look you see now, still with the gray bars.

I also have the same clip at the same frame in Quicktime Pro. This is exactly how Quicktime Pro opens it by default. You can see the frame is stretched horizontally.

The person that shot this said he just used the widescreen setting in the DVX100B, which is just putting black bars on the frame and not a true 16:9.

This is really baffling. What do you think?
 
Well, I've been working on this all night. I've tried every which way to Sunday to get this to capture correctly and it's a no go. If I use the default DV NTSC capture preset I can get the image to show up correctly if I turn off "Show As Sq. Pixels" in the viewer and canvas. But then I end up with the gray bars on the top and bottom and I can't get rid of those.

However, the clips are all stretched horizontally in Quicktime. The only way to fix that is to go to Movie Properties and turn off the "Conform" option under the Presentation tab on each clip individually.

I went a step further and opened the clips in Cinema Tools to see what they look like. They're perfect! And the quality is noticeably better in Cinema Tools than in Quicktime or FCP. It looks far more crisp and sharper!

What's going on here? Anyone have any ideas?
 
For really good measure I just tried all this on another computer (my MBP) and got the exact same results with FCP, Quicktime Pro, and Cinema Tools. For some reason the viewer and the canvas default to square pixels and QT defaults to "conform" turned on.
 
I just tried capturing using the H.264 codec instead of DV/DVCPRO NTSC codec. I get the same results in FCP with the viewer defaulting to showing square pixels with those clips. However, QT opens the clips normally without any stretching, but the quality is noticeably worse than the DV counterpart after deactivating the "conform to aperture" option.
 
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