24p footage looks bad please help

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daybyday

New member
I recently shot some footage with my new dvx 100a on 24p and the footage looks great on the lcd and on a tv but when I capture into final cut 5, the footage looks bad. Say if somebody is wearing a white shirt, the edges of the shirt are jagged and moving. Any lines in the footage are real jagged. I've been searching different forums for days now trying to find out what I'm doing wrong wether its how I'm supposed to capture or what the sequence settings are supposed to be. I'm very confused. Any help would be greatly
appreciated.
 
The most likely problem here is you didn't capture with pulldown removal. Look at the properties of the clip, and if it says they are 29.97 and you know you recorded 24pa then there is a problem. You can either use the advance pulldown preset or remove the pulldown manually.
 
I didn't shoot in 24pa I shot in 24p normal. How do I manually remove the pulldown. I'm confused as to what the pulldown actually is. Thanks for your help.
 
I ran into the same problem, was utterly confused when I started watching my footage and it looked all jaggedy.

After you import your footage, click on the clip in the Browser, then click Tools, then select Cinema Tools Reverse Telecine. This will make your footage nice and smooth.

Also, CTRL-Click your sequence, select Settings, and make sure you have selected 23.98 for your editing timebase.
 
reversing the telecine from the tools menu doesn't seem to change the jagged edges. Also how do I change the frame rate in the editing timebase? I thought I read that with 24p normal I should edit in a 29.97 fps timeline. Just so you know, my final output will be dvd which will have a majority of video shot with a gl1. Thanks for the help, sorry I'm so stupid.
 
Okay now when I reversed the telecine and changed my field dominance to none in sequence settings it looks good. Thank you. Just a few more questions. Now the clip is at a 23.98 fps but my timeline is still 29.97 fps. Does that sound right? Also eventually I will be editing projects with 24p footage like this mixed with regular old footage from my gl1. Am I going to run into problems doing this? When I export say to quicktime, do I need to do something different than usual. I just want my new footage to eventually cooperate with old footage. I just want my footage to look good, I don't care about converting to film, I wonder if I should even use 24p at all. Thanks again guys, this forum has been very helpful.
 
If you mix with old video footage shoot at 24p (F5) mode, not 24pa (F6) mode.
Do NOT remove pulldown. The frame rate will be 29.97 but the capture rate was 24fps so it will have a film look. By not removing pullodwn you can edit it and your old footage in a 29.97 timeline. If you want it to have the same 'video' look then shoot at 60i, just like your old camera, and edit in a 29.97 timeline.
 
Yes I understand that I need to shoot with 24p and not 24pa which is what I've been doing but I've been capturing at 29.97fps with regular firewire ntsc under device control. Are you saying that I need to capture at 24fps. If so what preset allows me to do this. This might explain why my footage is jagged. Also when I reversed the telecine in cinema tools it fixed the jagged lines but the D frame and sometimes the C frames are very distorted with horizontal lines. I think its because my timeline is 29.97fps and its stretching the frame. But your saying that my clip should stay at 29.97 as well as my timeline. Does that mean that my jagged lines issue is a result from improperly capturing my footage? I'll re-import its no problem, how would you import 24p footage the easiest way into fcp for the footage to look correct. Thanks again.
 
Your old camera runs at 60i. It is interlaced, hence you may see jagged horizontal lines. Even lines (fields) show one moment in time and the odd lines (field) shows another moment in time. These lines show up when you view them on the web or a computer but are necessary for most video playback.
When you shoot 24p or 24pa the results are saved with some frames showing interlacing. This is necessary to save to a normal MiniDV tape.
If you're going to mix your old footage with new footage then as mentioend shoot 24p (or 60i). Capture this at 29.97 normal and do not remove pulldown. Pulldown is removed when you do a reverse telecine or remove pulldown.
When movie films go to video 'pulldown' is added. This is the process of converting 24fps to 29.97 for video. Some frames are mixed with next frames to provide 5 frames where there once 4. In doing so it creates interlaced images. This is as it should be so yopu can view a video tape on a normal TV.
When you shoot 24p this same pulldown process is done. This way you can view and edit it just like regular (or your old) video.

if you remove pulldown (reverse telecine) and then try to edit in a 29.97 sequence then FCP will add frames so that it runs at the right speed but won't do a very good job of making it look smooth. That's why you don't want to remove the pulldown for 29.97 sequences.
 
I've been having huge problems with the 24p footage to. Mine is more with outputting the footage. I only have Final Cut EXpress HD. And I need to output to DVD. When I do everything looks all jittery and stuttery and awful. I can't figure out what setttings to use and what-not. Believe me man. When it comes to this. I'm more stupid than you. I just can't figure it out. I'm using a 29.97 timeline my footage is standard 24p and the DVD looks so awful I can barely look at it. I don't know how to make it look like it looks when I hook my camera straight up to my interlaced television. Let me know if you figure anything out. Maybe it will pertain somehow to my problems. They sound somehow similar.
 
Thanks for the links, after all this I am under the impression that my footage will just look bad sometimes on my monitor but once back on tv it should look fine. I bought a small tv and hooked it up through the computer and even when I export to quicktime, the jagged lines are gone. So I think my problem is okay now. Thanks for the help. Bare Knuckled, I haven't messed with dvd studio yet but when I do I'll let you know how it goes.
 
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