Compressor 3 and the HV20

I am also wondering, when doing the ProRes 422 conversion, should the frame rate be 24 fps or 23.98 fps? I don't really know when it would be better to use on over the other. I would prefer to use the whole number of 24 just for clarity of mind. Is it true that I could keep my final edit, which I would want to burn to DVD, as .m2v in 24 fps and that my DVD player would do the 29.97 re-conversion on the fly (ie I don't have to do the re-conversion back out of 24p within FCP/Compressor)?

thanks again,

-Nate
 
Aldous,

The only thing I didn't do in the inspector was change the frame rate. I chose the reverse telecine as specified., etc. Should I have changed the frame rate as well? I followed everything you said verbatim. Should I have changed the framerate to 23.978? Then submitted the job? I am completely new to compressor. It took me awhile to figure out that I had to submit a job for the thing to render. :)
 
Dear Forum:

I appreciate all your insights. A quick question about 24 P and Compressor. I read the above posts about how to use Compressor to batch process 24p style footage from the HV20. My question is this: Can I work with my regularly imported clips in FCP, assemble them into a short movie, and then export that entire sequence into Compressor. That is, can I do the compression with the reverse telecine setup at the end of the editing process or do I have to do it with each individual clip before editing?

I hope that's not a dumb question. I'm new to FCP and was a former SONY Vegas user.

Thanks,

MSafran NY
 
nkhstudio said:
I am about to get a new Mac, and I would prefer to get a Mac Book Pro, not a Mac Pro. But I just read on the Apple site: "Capturing HD resolution video using the ProRes 422 format requires a Mac Pro with an Intel Xeon processor and a qualified third-party capture card." Does this mean that although I can't capture in ProRes 422 using a laptop, I can still edit in ProRes 422, as described by Aldous' first posts about workflow? Is anyone successfully capturing HDV footage from their HV20, doing the 422 conversion/reverse telecine, editing in ProRes 422 + 24fps timeline, and dumping to 16:9 letterbox SD DVD using a Mac Book Pro? This is what I want to do..
Click to expand...

Has anyone come up with an answer to this. I'd like to upgrade to FCP2, but I have a PB G4 1.67 and an HV20, so if can't use this workflow based on the above limitation, I may hold off on the upgrade. Anyone?
 
aldous said:
I just finished messing around with my friends copy of Final Cut Studio 2 and it is definitely worth it for us HV20 owners. No more of the AIC, cut the first few frames trick as previously outlined in the forums. With ProRes and Compressor 3 the process has been simplified. Just send the clip to Compressor,....

Do you have to compress/pulldown each clip individually or can you send the whole batch, all clips from a project?
Click to expand...
 
Is there a disadvantage to importing and editing as HDV then sending the final footage to compressor for conversion? This is still confusing.
 
There isnt a disadvantage if you are shooting 29.97 HDV. The reason i transcode to prores is to get rid of the 3:2 pulldown when shooting 24p. If you shoot at 29.97 then edit at 29.97 and export 29.97 then there should not be a problem editing the native HDV.
 
msafran said:
Dear Forum:

I appreciate all your insights. A quick question about 24 P and Compressor. I read the above posts about how to use Compressor to batch process 24p style footage from the HV20. My question is this: Can I work with my regularly imported clips in FCP, assemble them into a short movie, and then export that entire sequence into Compressor. That is, can I do the compression with the reverse telecine setup at the end of the editing process or do I have to do it with each individual clip before editing?

I hope that's not a dumb question. I'm new to FCP and was a former SONY Vegas user.

Thanks,

MSafran NY
Click to expand...

If your ultimate goal is 24p footage. I would not work the way you suggest.

This is why.

Raw imported footage looks to FCP as 60 fields per second. When editing you can cut at any one of these fields. The trouble it that each individual 24p frame straddles several of these fields.

The problem is you can make a cut halfway through a frame. Your resulting footage will look like.

Frame Frame Frame Half-Frame <cut> Frame Frame Frame <cut> half-frame frame

When the edited footage is sent to Compressor, I am 90% certain that it will not be able to solve the resulting mess.

My advice is to...
1) Capture as 60i
2) Reverse Telecine into ProRes422.
DO NOT RESIZE to 1920x1080
3) Import the converted clips into a new 24p project
4) Edit.

You might notice that some clips have untidy start or end frames which are interlaced. So always trim the mouse-teeth frames off the start and end.

C.
 
He is absolutely Right DO NOT RESIZE, unless you have specific reason too. The only reason i do is because I'm actually a Visual effects artist, and i use my HV20 for VFX tests. The apps I use after the edit only like full frame square pixels (Maya, Nuke, Boujou)
 
RE:
1) Capture as 60i
2) Reverse Telecine into ProRes422.
DO NOT RESIZE to 1920x1080
3) Import the converted clips into a new 24p project
4) Edit.

Ouch! my head is spinning now. So what res does the final footage actually end up being?
 
Zephyrnoid said:
RE:
1) Capture as 60i
2) Reverse Telecine into ProRes422.
DO NOT RESIZE to 1920x1080
3) Import the converted clips into a new 24p project
4) Edit.

Ouch! my head is spinning now. So what res does the final footage actually end up being?
Click to expand...

It's really only one extra step (reverse telecine). I was initially tempted to rescale in compressor to "full" 1080p. Compressor does a really bad job of rescaling to 1920x1080. It introduces some nasty scaling artifacts. So leave it at 1440x1080 for the edit. The files are smaller and you are not losing quality.

Once the edit is complete - export it at any size you want. From the HV20 720p looks especially nice.


C.
 
in compressor, under frame controls, set resize to best. In fact, set everythong to best. It takes longer but will give you superior results if you want 1920x1080.
 
Zak Forsman said:
in compressor, under frame controls, set resize to best. In fact, set everythong to best. It takes longer but will give you superior results if you want 1920x1080.
Click to expand...

I did try that. But when you select "reverse-telecine" in Frame controls. The scaling quality defaults to "linear" and is greyed-out.

The result is below.

I have really no idea why it is so bad.

However, it no big deal because there is absolutely no advantage in working in 1920x1080 for the edit.

You are not gaining quality in any meaningful way. Those extra pixels are just made up.
All rendering will be 33% slower.
and all clips will take up more 33% more disk space.

If your project demands a 1920x1080 master. Then scale up at the very end.


CompressorScaling.jpg
 
Last edited:
Canon HV20 workflow and 24p

Canon HV20 workflow and 24p

Hello,
as all posters before me have said, this is good information. I do have one question.

I plan to have a "movie" put together in FCP using clips from my HV20, shot in cinemode, etc, etc.

I will assume that once i finish editing the movie (with audio) I can pass the whole clip (audio and video) to Compressor, and perform the steps you outline above?

Thanks for good info.

eholz1
 
oops! I backed up a page or two on the forum, and got an answer to my
question. Next time I will read more!
1. capture 60i
2. prores 422
3. import converted clips into a 24p project,
4. edit
Thanks again,
eholz1
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top