Best Quality Downconvert Settings in FCP?

[Nitsuj]

Hey peeps I was hoping somebody could give me their thoughts and input on the subject. I am in the last stretch of a 24 Hour Film Festival and one of the requirements is HD content has to be downcoverted to SD. Lame I know but I want to make sure I get the best quality image out of the downconvert. I am using the GH1 and after some of my own testing it seemed the best quality I got was rendering from the timeline using compressor with the Uncompressed SD presets. Does anybody know if this is the best bang for the buck I can get? I am rendering out to 480p also.

This downconvert is going to be played on a huge screen in a theatre. It is real lame we have to downconvert and see how horrid it looks blown up but I wanted to try and get the most I can out of it. With such little time left I wanted to ask anybody here if they think the Uncompressed SD presets are the best option. Oh and it also has to be a self contained QT file and not DVD.

Thanks!

 

[J Davis]

Hey Justin, look into SD widescreen, see if that is breaking the rules or not.
Basically here in the states Standard Definition (SD) NTSC is 720wide 480high using rectangular pixels. (640x480 square pixels equating to 720x480 rectangular pixels)

NTSC Anamorphic which is also SD and should therefore also be allowed is
720x480 rectangular pixels equating to 853x480 square pixels.

Provided they allow this it will help you avoid the letter boxing you would otherwise have to do
to get your 16x9 high definition footage into a 4x3 SD aspect ratio.

Assuming they do allow this ... open up a brand new sequence in Final Cut and hit Command Zero
to get presets. Load a preset called DV NTSC 48khz Anamorphic.
Once its loaded your seq settings should look like the jpeg I attached to this post.

Then grab your final sequence from the project bin and drop it onto your SD timeline
this is called nesting sequences.
It should be a perfect match of aspect ratio.
Hit render then select EXPORT Quicktime Movie.
Your 16x9 high def is now exporting at 853x480 aka SD widescreen
aka NTSC Anamorphic in the QT file you wanted

Hope that helps. PM me if u get stuck

 

[Nitsuj]

I'll give it a go. Thanks!