Blurry 1080 footage?

J

jeepsterryan

Member
I'm sure this has to do with the fact that I am a total rookie, so be patient. I recently started shooting with and HVX200 in DVC Pro HD at 1080 and capturing directly to a hard drive via On Location. I am storing the footage in that format, but my current projects require the output to be 4:3 and they do not require HD. When we import the footage into a standard NTSC 4:3 (letterboxing the original footage) project in Premiere pro cs3 it makes the footage seem blurry (almost like we shot with a tiffen soft fx 4 filter on steroids). What don't I know that I should know?
 
Right click on the footage in the timeline, you will see that "Scale to Frame Size" is checked. Uncheck it. Now you will have to shrink the footage to fit the timeline, but it should be as sharp as the original footage is. Also check to make sure that the Preview Quality is set to Highest.
 
Sort of an aside to your issue, and more of a workflow comment, is that you could consider doing your edit in the HD project, and then at the end do your downconvert to 4:3 SD. Since you're planning on letterboxing anyway, you won't have to worry too much about graphic placement and such.

This workflow has a number of benefits. For one, you'll already have an HD edit ready to output to an HD medium, should your client request it at some point in the future. It'll be a lot easier than doing a re-edit later. You'll also find (I believe) that working in PPro will be a lot smoother and snappier in the HD project. Doesn't make a lot of sense, but consider this: if you're cutting in the SD project, the HD clips are having to be rescaled at every single frame of every single clip. This adds significantly to the operational overhead of the software and the hardware. So far, I've found HD editing in PPro to be very smooth and snappy--though of course things will slow down once you start adding effects and such.

In any event, what you're doing presently is a valid workflow. It limits you somewhat, but if you're OK with that, there's no reason not to do what you're doing.
 
are u editing with pro 2 or 3? i'm having this issue right now with fx1 footage ..it looks like ass from pro 2. My buddy got the vegas demo and it looks amazing, same footage. Pro2 footage looks super blurry. I belive it has to do with the codec for pro 2 but i hear pro 3 has that all figured out.

I am switiching over to the darkside - MAC after i finish off my movie. Too many jobs i'm loosing out to FCP editors.
 
saturnin said:
I belive it has to do with the codec for pro 2 but i hear pro 3 has that all figured out.
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I edit on PP2.0 and have not encountered any problem with the codec. I used to own an FX1, have used an HVX and now owned an A1, and PP2.0 works just fine for all three cameras.
 
cbrougham said:
Sort of an aside to your issue, and more of a workflow comment, is that you could consider doing your edit in the HD project, and then at the end do your downconvert to 4:3 SD. Since you're planning on letterboxing anyway, you won't have to worry too much about graphic placement and such.
Click to expand...

This is the workflow I want, however, because I am such a rookie I need some clarification. I am assuming I would open the original project as HDV 1080p, import my footage and edit. After I'm done, then what? Do I export the clip then import into a standard 4:3 project?
 
jeepsterryan said:
This is the workflow I want, however, because I am such a rookie I need some clarification. I am assuming I would open the original project as HDV 1080p, import my footage and edit. After I'm done, then what? Do I export the clip then import into a standard 4:3 project?
Click to expand...

You want to open the SD project and import the 1080p project file into it. Then double click on your master sequence for that project and it will open up your timeline with all the cuts on there. The thing to remember is that you have to select all the clips and uncheck Scale to Frame Size if it is checked. Then scale each of the clip to the appropriate size.
 
Huy Vu said:
You want to open the SD project and import the 1080p project file into it. Then double click on your master sequence for that project and it will open up your timeline with all the cuts on there. The thing to remember is that you have to select all the clips and uncheck Scale to Frame Size if it is checked. Then scale each of the clip to the appropriate size.
Click to expand...

That really doesn't make any sense. That would be no different than cutting the project initially with an SD preset, and in fact, would actually be more of a pain to deal with. For example, if a clip had been scaled for a PIP or something similar in the HD project, it would have to be scaled differently from the rest of the clips once imported into the SD project.

There are quite a few different ways to go about the HD>SD downres that are much more efficient and will save some hair pulling, each with certain benefits. But first, riddle me this:

1) What mode are you shooting in with the HVX?
2) What version of PPro are you using?
3) What project preset are you using in PPro?
4) What is your destination for the SD project? DVD? Web? Tape? Broadcast?

Instead of yammering on about all the alternative ways of going about the downres, let me know the answers to those questions, and I'll help you find the best method.
 
cbrougham said:
Instead of yammering on about all the alternative ways of going about the downres, let me know the answers to those questions, and I'll help you find the best method.
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My "yammering" is actually based on literally days of experimentation, rendering out the same project over and over with different settings, and inputs from other experienced users who have tried it all. My conclusion is that Premiere must be "tricked" into downrezzing the project properly. Simply telling it to render to 720 x 480 leads to serious softness in the resulting image. But when scaling down high res footage within an SD timeline, the result is razor sharp, more so than can be gained by shooting native SD to begin with. Obviously, care must be taken so that clips that are not 100% to begin with are scaled properly, but this is a small price to pay. Only editing the footage in its proper project will you be able to get decent performances out of the program. Trying to edit HD in an SD project will result is stuttery preview and make the program more prone to crashing. Hence the HD project import.

Before criticizing the methods of others, take care to not put your foot in your mouth.
 
Excuse me, my yammering comment was NOT directed at you; I was referring to myself, thank you very much. I was NOT criticizing your method; I was pointing out that it was absolutely no different than what the original poster was doing, which I do believe is more work and eliminates flexibility.

My reference to "yammering" was such that I did not want to go on and on with possible solutions to the original poster's question without having more detail about the project he was working on. There are multiple solutions to this issue, and certain solutions are better for certain problems. Once more information is collected from the original poster, those solutions can be found.

So, in the meantime, I'll keep my foot out of my mouth. What you choose to do with yours, is your decision.
 
Yammering or no, I am going to give both you guys a big slobbery kiss next time I see you (which, if you are lucky, will be never). Imported my HD project into my 4:3 project and the video looks amazing! Currently, the video is being streamed on the net, but we own the content. Some of it will be used for regular broadcast and some of it will end up on DVD, so having the HD projects already to go will be very useful in the long run. Thanks again for the help, this has solved a huge quality issue for us.
 
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