HVX footage on p2 cards: 720P/60 but looks choppy and stroby?

evolvnyc

evolvnyc

Well-known member
So I just shot a job with an HVX handheld, which I usually don't do. I usually shoot in 24p, but they didn't care and I figured as it was handheld, better to shoot in 60 to avoid strobing. The other problem is that I had promised my HVX to a friend and I was forced to rent last minute. I reset the camera using the small reset button and set it to 720p/60i (unfortunately the camera is returned so there is no way to verify what I had it set to.) But it was set back to the default and I was shooting in F1 on the scene dial.

So everything looked great in the lcd, smooth and good. Now I'm brining it into fcp and it's really jittery and stroby, it looks like 24p but without the "film feel". When I look at the clips in the viewer, the settings read: Frame Size: 960 x 720, Vid Rate: 23.98 fps, Compressor: DVCPRO HD 720p60, Data Rate: 5.9 MB/sec, Pixel Aspect: HD (960x720)

So it looks to me like this is in fact 24p, no? Is there a way I can save/fix this footage? I haven't changed my sequence settings either, I suspect I should do that but don't know what to set it to. Any help greatly appreciated.
 
I'm not a fcp guy but it sounds like you have fcp set for a 24p project and need to change it to a 720/60p project.
 
Well it looks just as bad in the Panasonic P2 viewer, before it even gets into my FCP project (could this be because it's not showing full res or...?)
 
60p is not choppy, it's very smooth so either your shutter speed was to high or your fcp settings aren't correct but now I'm leaning towards a shutter speed that was to high, it should play back smoth in p2 viewer providing your computer is fast enough. Your timeline in fcp is set to 60fps project and not 24p?
 
P2 viewer does have a setting where it can play every other frame so you might want to make sure that is turned off.
 
I made sure shutter was off on the hvx, and it was def smooth in the lcd, I searched the FCP manual and can't find instructions on how to change any setting in the P2 viewer. And it looks the same once in FCP anyway. I think the problem is that in FCP, under the "Vid Rate" column it says "23.98"
on all the clips. Shouldn't the HVX in 720/60 read "59.94" there? Is it possible to "recapture" somehow from the original files? I'm totally lost on this, thanks for your help thus far.
 
I'm an avid guy so I'm out of my league with the fcp settings, you should post this question in the fcp section, I'm sure those guys will know in 2 sec.
 
The Scene File doesn't control the base frame rate -- that's under Recording Setup. It sounds like you may have recorded in 24p-over-60 and perhaps had the variable Frame Rate (which IS under the Scene File) set to something else.

Is there sound with the video?
 
Yes there's sound and it seems to sound normal, does this tell us anything?
Thanks for weighing in.
 
you probably set to 60P-24P. Thats the "varicam" mode. it records 60FPS ot the "tape" ( or P2 card in this case) but with 24p embedded into it in a 2:3 pulldown.

You have to make sure the camera is set to 60P, in the scene file when youre shooting in 60P recording setup.

Sadly ive never had the oppertunity to shoot 60P for ANY project.... still waiting. i think it looks great from the HVX. i wanna so a sports shoot or dance shoot or something with heaps of motion.
 
It tells us you weren't shooting in a Native mode with a variable frame rate, so we can eliminate that. But you could have been, as I said, shooting 24p-over-60 with a variable frame rate.
 
Ok, so how do I fix it? Is there a way to look at the clip info and determine what I had it set at and thus how to fix it? Also I noticed that once the footage goes from the viewer to the canvas, it looses resolution, looks REALLY soft and has interlace lines. I think I need to start from the beginning but I guess I need to know what to set everything at. The manual is useless in this regard, it doesn't tell you how to set-up everything if you're starting from zero. Sorry to be so clueless on this, I've just been using the same thing without thinking about it for so long because I never changed anything and now I have no idea where I've ended up or how to fix it. Thanks again.
 
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If that's the problem, then there's really no way to fix it and maintain full quality. You can probably do various conversions, but there will be some cost somewhere -- in resolution, or ghosting, or something else.

What are your timeline settings? You shouldn't be seeing any interlacing with 720p footage -- it's progressive.
 
it'll say in the meta data what frame rate / resolution it was shot at, as long as it says 720 /60p your ok and it would be your fcp timeline settings that are wrong.
 
P2 Viewer, look at the metadata in the Viewer. It won't lie or be influenced by missed settings. It will just tell you what you have.

Best,

Jan
 
Feels like a Quicktime codec problem to me. @Evolvnyc: do you have other P2 footage to compare it to, from another source or another day? If you messed with the shutter speed, it would have looked strobed or choppy on the EVF/LCD past a certain speed. Check you MAC, check your FCP. Try on another computer.

More questions: Does it play in real-time (is it slower or faster than actually shot?


The 960x720 @ 23.987 is a 720-24fps - Quicktime Inspector and (Command-9) in FCP will report it as DVC PRO HD 720p60. So if you happened to do a log-and-transfer from the camera into your FCP thats all you've got.
If you made an image of the P2 card onto disk, then did Log and Transfer. Then you can extract more info as to how it was shot.
 
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Hey DJ,

It plays in real time and the sound is fine. I made sure the "shutter" button on the hvx was set to "off." It looks the same in the p2 viewer as it does in fcp, so I don't think it's an 'importing into fcp' issue, but what settings would I want to check and what should they be set to just so I can verify?

I do have other footage but it was all shot at 24p so it's not a proper comparison. I'm not sure what I did for import, I just opened the p2 viewer and clicked "add to queue" and it imported them, I didn't see anywhere to adjust any settings. What I did was protected the cards, then drag and dropped (I know you're not supposed to) then opened those copied clips in the p2 viewer in FCP Studio. Is there a way to tell more info? Thanks for your help on this, they want to see roughs tomorrow.
 
I know this is a dumb question, but is there a resource (it ain't in the manual) where it breaks it down to the most BASIC setup to know what my setting should be, like "If you shot 720p/60 on the hvx, your sequence settings should be the following:" ??? I need to start from scratch and make sure everything is right but I've been using the same set-up for so long I don't know how I got there and what I need to change, help! (and thanks)
 
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