---- Down-rezzing High Def Footage for Standard Def----

R

reelmike

Active member
Hey what's up guys, I have a quick question for you. Perhaps, it's quite simple, but thought I would run it by all of you pros out there.

I am putting together a demo reel in standard def, and I am considering using a couple of clips that are actually in high-def. What is the best way of reducing the resolution of the high-def clips so that I can incorporate them into my standard def timeline / demo.

Thoughts?


Thanks in advance.

Michael
 
If you already have them captured as HD you can just drop them into your SD seq and FCP should resize them (letterbox them) to fit. Or you could set the deck/camera to down-convert the footage and capture it as SD that way.


-A
 
You can also take your clip/clips and drop into into compressor and go advanced format conversions> NTSC DV anamorphic. I have done it with good results. Just import your new clips into the timeline and they should look great ( FCP 5.1.4). Had great results with 720p 60 to NTSC DV anamorphic.

jim kinsey
 
I would definitely go with the latter options. Using a hardware solution (VTR or capture card) will yield great results. Do it here all the time and looks clean as can be (actually downconverted HD looks brilliant as SD). But the Compressor route should be pretty good option as well. I know quite a few around the forum here have mentioned that one in the past and been very satisified with the results. I'm personally not a huge fan of FCP doing conversions via a render (dropping the HD clip onto the timeline). Not to say it wouldn't work, but has created output headaches for us a couple of times here.

cheers.
 
Anyone with FCP6 dropped a HD clip in a SD timeline? I'm wondering how well it looks, quality wise.
 
RE1000 said:
Anyone with FCP6 dropped a HD clip in a SD timeline? I'm wondering how well it looks, quality wise.
Click to expand...
I do that all the time and it turns out really good. Just remember to put render quality to best in the sequence settings and atch out that the field order of the clips is correctly flagged.
 
moebius said:
I do that all the time and it turns out really good. Just remember to put render quality to best in the sequence settings and atch out that the field order of the clips is correctly flagged.
Click to expand...
What does that mean again?
 
It means you should check if the files have the correct field dominance in FCP. The easiest way is to press Apple-9 for a clip, or go to the fields column in the browser. Sometimes (at least with SD footage) FCP will flag files as lower field firt, even though they should be treated as progressive for better resizing. Not sure if that's an issue with HD footage at all, since I only had interlaced footage so far. Hope this helps. I once compared uprezzing to HD by FCP in the timeline to uprezzing with Photozoom, and FCP was just as good.
 
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