HD Uprez

H

huck

Member
Hi

I've completed a couple of attempts at uprezzing some raw unfiltered DV footage to HD (1080p). Wanted to get feedback and start a discussion on the whole process.


http://www.lafamiglia.tv/origdv.mov (720x576 DV footage)
http://www.lafamiglia.tv/instanthd.mov (InstantHD Tool)
http://www.lafamiglia.tv/photozoom.mov (PhotoZoom Tool)


Probably best to open directly in Quicktime using the File > Open URL command.
​

I also did an attempt using the Advanced Conversion Option but haven't got it quite right yet.
 
huck said:
Hi

I've completed a couple of attempts at uprezzing some raw unfiltered DV footage to HD (1080p). Wanted to get feedback and start a discussion on the whole process.

I also did an attempt using the Advanced Conversion Option but haven't got it quite right yet.
Click to expand...


Can you tell us how you did this uprezz? What did you use?
 
I tried a couple of techniques...firstly let me talk about the stepping that is present in the footage (particularly in bright red & blue colours), this has something to do with the chroma sampling and apparently can be fixed...but when i projected the film there was no stepping present??? So just to clarify this stepping is present in the DV footage and is not a result of the uprez process.

1st thing to note that these tools only work with Progressive footage

InstantHD.mov uses the Instant HD plug-in from Red Giant Software (for Premiere, After Effects and Final Cut Pro) Fairly straightforward to use.

The other method was Photozoom where I exported individual frames to TIFF's and then batch processed the images in the PC software Phtozoom Pro and uprezzed them to 1920 x 1080 using the S-Spline algorithm to high res TIFFS...these are then imported in to an FCP HD timeline.

I'm interested in anyones opinion of how the two compare?
 
To compare them I would have to be able to see them first. I have tried my usual program (VLC), also Quicktime and they refuse to play the samples.

What program or plug-in do I need for my PC to play them?
 
for the instant HD one

i took some 4x3 footage and imported it into a 16x9 project in PP1.5

then i exported the movie but when it plays back the frame size is 4x3 and all of the footage is more jerky.

care to lend a hand?
 
Quicktime keeps asking me for a "necessary compressor" to see the mov files.

Can anyone help me on what to do? What should I download?

I seem to remember there was some special way to see HDV files, but I am not sure this is the case.
 
WOW in the first shot the entire area is bathed in red light. The worst case scenario for DV. Sorry I didnt watch much more... the download from your server is really slow for me.
 
huck said:
Probably best to open directly in Quicktime using the File > Open URL command.
[/CENTER]
Click to expand...


Which version of Quicktime or which codec will open those files? I will be able to say something about them when I can see them.

I am very much interested on uprezz.
 
Carlos_E._Martinez said:
Which version of Quicktime or which codec will open those files? I will be able to say something about them when I can see them.

I am very much interested on uprezz.
Click to expand...

Its just Quicktime 7 with the h.264 codec.
 
ncje said:
WOW in the first shot the entire area is bathed in red light. The worst case scenario for DV. Sorry I didnt watch much more... the download from your server is really slow for me.
Click to expand...

The weird thing is I've projected this footage on a Barco DP90 2K Projector and upped to 35mm and all that stepping disappears.
 
You projected digitally and you transfered it to film? You must have alot invested in this footage why not just get an HD camera?
To get rid of the red stair stepping you need to use a filter called "chroma blur" adding a little chroma blur to the vertical axis will get rid of that stair stepping, just make sure that you don't export again to a DV codec or it will re-appear.
 
scharky said:
You projected digitally and you transfered it to film? You must have alot invested in this footage why not just get an HD camera?
To get rid of the red stair stepping you need to use a filter called "chroma blur" adding a little chroma blur to the vertical axis will get rid of that stair stepping, just make sure that you don't export again to a DV codec or it will re-appear.
Click to expand...
It's a 120 min film shot over the last three years on the DVX...the next one will deffinately be HD!

Thanks for the "chroma blur" tip....i hadn't figured it yet.
 
Ok. Now I could see the samples after installing QT7. Some questions:

1) What did you shoot this with?

2) The Photozoom version seems to have slightly more detail. Am I right?

3) What PZ version did you use and how long does take to uprezz? Video seconds or minutes take how long to convert?

4) Is there any chance I could adapt any of these to use with material edited in Avid Xpress Pro? Or convert original DV stuff into a format I can import from Avid Xpress HD?
 
Last edited:
Let me tell you why I am quite interested in your test.

I have shot part of a video documentary in a PD170, at 60i, and now there might be a chance to take that into a theatrical film.

As I will be shooting more, if the theatrical exploitation becomes a fact, it might be interesting shooting the rest in HD, which would provide a better blow up to film.

But in order to do that I would like to uprezz the DV stuff onto HD and edit it all together.

Sounds too crazy?
 
Carlos_E._Martinez said:
Let me tell you why I am quite interested in your test.

I have shot part of a video documentary in a PD170, at 60i, and now there might be a chance to take that into a theatrical film.

As I will be shooting more, if the theatrical exploitation becomes a fact, it might be interesting shooting the rest in HD, which would provide a better blow up to film.

But in order to do that I would like to uprezz the DV stuff onto HD and edit it all together.

Sounds too crazy?
Click to expand...

In order to uprez frames the footage MUST be progressive. You cannot do it with interlaced footage. I guess you can try to de-interlace your footage but I would imagine this would still impact heavily on your quality when uprezzed?

In answer to your other questions

1) What did you shoot this with?

  • Panasonic DVX100A at 25p
2) The Photozoom version seems to have slightly more detail. Am I right?

  • It's hard to say...I think on some of the scenes yes, but on others maybe not so much?
3) What PZ version did you use and how long does take to uprezz? Video seconds or minutes take how long to convert?
  • Photozoom Pro 1.095
  • Firstly it takes a little time to output the TIFFS from the FCP timeline and copy them across to the PC. Each TIFF is 900KB
  • Photozoom is slow. It takes about 5 seconds per frame on my machine (AMD Dual Core, 2GB RAM) So estimate (2 hours per minute)
  • The killer is that each output TIFF at 1920x1080 is 5.5 MB so one minute of footage requires 8 GB of HDD
  • The each TIFF is imported back in to FCP as a new HD sequence which can then be exported as a HD movie and re-imported as footage. The TIFFS can then be deleted.
4) Is there any chance I could adapt any of these to use with material edited in Avid Xpress Pro? Or convert original DV stuff into a format I can import from Avid Xpress HD?
  • Of course. AVID will export and import the TIFFS in the sameway as Final Cut Pro.
Hope this helps!
 
huck said:
In order to uprez frames the footage MUST be progressive. You cannot do it with interlaced footage. I guess you can try to de-interlace your footage but I would imagine this would still impact heavily on your quality when uprezzed?
Click to expand...

Yes, of course. VirtualDub to the rescue. It's virtually transparent and is free. I used it to deflicker several scenes with fluorescent flickering (shooting 60i in 50Hz country), and it did a marvelous job.

I am not too sure, but I don't think there will be much problem when uprezzing.

  • Panasonic DVX100A at 25p
Click to expand...

Yes, I saw that after I sent my query. And I guessed that might have been it.

Did you transfer these uprezz images to film? At 25fps?

  • Firstly it takes a little time to output the TIFFS from the FCP timeline and copy them across to the PC. Each TIFF is 900KB
Click to expand...

Probably might take that long exporting from Avid too.

  • Photozoom is slow. It takes about 5 seconds per frame on my machine (AMD Dual Core, 2GB RAM) So estimate (2 hours per minute)
Click to expand...

That would mean around 100 hours for the material I would have right now.

One thing I am planning to do for that job is upgrading my computer, probably onto an Intel Core 2 Duo. The last comment on the Videoguys site sounds promising:

http://www.videoguys.com/DIY4.html

The configuration they call Liquid Vaporizer seems very interesting, and the fact that those CPUs seem to run cooler is very tempting. What do you think?


  • The killer is that each output TIFF at 1920x1080 is 5.5 MB so one minute of footage requires 8 GB of HDD
Click to expand...

That would mean 750GB for a 90 minute film, though of course I wouldn't be up-rezzing the whole movie.


  • Of course. AVID will export and import the TIFFS in the sameway as Final Cut Pro.
Click to expand...

Great!
 
i used virtualdub a few years ago...forgot how good that tool was!

on the videoguys thing...they look like good machines, i have the same mobo and it's very reliable..I don't do much editing on my PC mostly use my Mac

the specs of my home build are:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe MOBO
2GB Corsair PC3200 DDR RAM
nVIDEO GeForce 6600 GT PCI-E Graphics
Maxtor 7200 80GB HDD
Maxtor 7200 400GB HDD
 
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