Editing 30p footage from the GH2 and AC90 using Premiere CS5

C

Camera Expert

Well-known member
OK. I'm editing a hacked (FlowMotion) GH2 together with the Panasonic AC90 in 30p and I have a slight issue. It's a 30p timeline and what I do to the GH2 footage is right click, "modify", "interpret footage" I then go to "field order" and choose "No fields (Progressive Scan)" This seams to fix the interlaced lines I was seeing on the timeline. The thing is, I see that I have to do the same thing to the AC90 footage when I thought the AC90's 1080 30p mode was native and not inside a 60i stream. Since it's supposed to be native, why am I seeing interlaced lines when I don't modify the clip?

If I'm doing any of these steps wrong than what's the best ways to go about to edit 30p footage from the 2 cameras on the same timeline? I'm obviously going to export it to 30p when I'm done.
 
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I'd question if the footage itself is actually 30p. Panasonic has a history of recording progressive as genuine progressive, not PsF.
 
I re checked the time line properties and I decided to put in a file that I knew was actually 30p since that's what I converted it to and when I go to interpret footage, it says "no fields" (progressive) under field order from file. Looking at a RAW 1080 30p file from the AC90, it says the original file is upper filed first which would mean it's within a 60i stream. That is exactly what it says when I'm looking at a 30p file from the GH2.

Here is a sample AC90 30p file directly from the card that I just took in case someone want's to inspect it on their end.
https://vimeo.com/56715307
I almost thought that because the AC90 is so new that it would be pure 30p directly from the card and not like the way it is on the GH2. That's really crazy because not everybody will realize that you need to do a few extra steps.
 
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From the AC90 manual:

Motion picture recorded in [PH 1080/30p] is converted to 1080/60i.
Click to expand...

Poorly-worded as that is, because that's not really what it does -- it still shouldn't matter, because each frame should just be a field pair and appear progressive on the timeline. Do you see the interlacing in clips before you trim them? I could see something appearing if you break a GOP, but the raw footage should look clean.
 
"Motion picture recorded in [PH 1080/30p] is converted to 1080/60i."
Yes that's what I ended up finding out the hard way.

If I just play an original clip on left screen, it looks fine. It's only when I put it into the timeline and play it on the right screen that you can see the lines. Then once you modify the clip, it looks fine like the left screen.

At least I see that other people are doing what I was doing.
http://forums.adobe.com/message/4700102

I'm glad I'm fully squared away before my next major project in case I decide to use 30p.
 
Well, that could be a Premiere timeline thing, then. If it looks fine in the source window, then the footage is doing what it's supposed to do.
 
The file uploaded to Vimeo is genuine progressive, not PsF, which is not surprising. GH2 30p is the same. The cameras do not record them as interalced.

PP sees 30p files from both cameras properly, as 30p, and displays them properly in both Source and Program monitors (assuming a matching sequence).

If you're seeing something different, I'm inclined to believe Operator Error on this one.
 
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If that's the case then Panasonic's manual must have it wrong then for saying "Motion picture recorded in [PH 1080/30p] is converted to 1080/60i." I see that it's in page 89.
ftp://ftp.panasonic.com/pub/Panason...ls/AG-AC90_Operating_Instructions_Advance.pdf

Even Premiere Pro CS5 says "upper field first" rather than "No fields (Progressive scan)" for my AC90 clips. Does it say "No fields (Progressive scan)" in CS6? In that case then perhaps for CS6, it's reading the file as progressive to begin with and you don't have to do extra steps.

All I know is that once I modify it and export it, the visual results in the exported file looks fine especially when I put it back into Premiere Pro CS5 and the properties of that exported clip is "No fields (Progressive scan)".
 
When the camera records the 30p, it does so in a 60i stream with 2:2 pulldown. There SHOULD be flags embedded in the footage telling any NLE that the footage is 30p and not straight 60i. Premiere SHOULD read these flags.
 
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