Down Converting HVX to cut with HVX

[Jim Anderson]

I did a recent shoot where the client wanted dvcpro-hd footage for archives and a dvd with footage from both the HVX in 720/24p 960x720 down converted and a DVX100A in 24P letterbox. Now, it appears that I have to scale both files to match either a widescreen or 4x3 project. I have after effects CS3 but I am afraid of losing detail in the scaling. Any pointers would be appreciated. Jim.

 

[John Froton]

I think your best choice is going to be creating a 720x480 widescreen project and upscaling the DVX100A letterbox footage to fill the screen. At least this way you would get a fair middle ground between your two sources.

However, if you really want to make sure the difference in the two sources of footage looks as identical as possible as far as resolution, you will probably need to mix everything in a 4x3 project and add black bars to the HVX footage.

 

[Jim Anderson]

Yes, so far the 4 x 3 project test looked clearer in terms of detail. I may also try using AE for both the bars (matte) and the down conversion. I think I may have to increase the frame size of the HVX footage to a full 1280 x 720 instead of 960 x 720 for a better aspect ratio match. Thanks, Jim.

 

[Ted Spencer]

You might try a pan and scan on the HVX footage to avoid the black bars if your NLE will allow it. It's probably going to be pretty labor intensive though.

 

[Jim Anderson]

Thanks, I am trying first scaling down the HVX footage to 66% where it fits into the widescreen frame with minimal black margins. I guess if the letterbox DVX footage fits the frame very closely it should look pretty good. If not, I am going to try doing the same in a 4 x 3 project and add the black bars to the HVX 960x720 with AE. I think scaling down is always better than up in terms of detail preservation.