Interlacing problem?

C

Cater2theGame

Member
I have the infamous hvx200 and right now I can't afford the P2 cards so I'm stuck with dv tapes. I'm finding out that this sucks! Anyways, I just did a video for a client and I would like to get them the highest quality dvd possible. I'm working on a PC right now so Premiere was the go to program.

I had Premiere Pro, but it was acting up so I went with Premiere Elements 3.0 to see what I could come up with. It's obviously not as advanced, but it gets the job done. So I edit everything in post and get the dvd ready to burn. After I setup the menus, etc. I clicked "burn dvd." After checking the dvd out on a big screen you can see how it looks sloppier compared to the small monitor when you're editing.

I think this is an interlace problem, but I'm not sure. I had the same problem before in Premiere Pro and I switched those settings around a lot only to continually get the same results. There aren't all those options in Elements 3.0, so I don't know what it could be. Basically, I want to know why the footage is not as sharp as it looks on the small screen. This $5000 camera should be giving me some crazy results so I'm assuming I'm doing something wrong. Does it have bad dv recordings? Also, maybe 4 or 5 times throughout the video I noticed the video would just glitch up for a second and freeze, then go back to the video. This looks bad when you want to impress a paying customer. Please help me out! Thank you and happy shooting..
 
DV tapes are not as good as other cameras because the footage starts off as progressive and then has to be made into DV.

Then if you don't do a pull down, or do it wrong, then it will look interlaced.

The "glitch" is just drop outs caused from the tape/head contact area either being dirty, new, or from mixing old dv tapes into the camera that had different formulations (tapes made in the early 2000's) sony into panasonic etc.

Clean the heads and stick to one brand of tape.
 
What format did you shoot? If you're shooting and editing in Elements, you should shoot 24p, not 24pA. If you're shooting 60i, the 200 has a known issue with 480/60i. In any case, Elements will not allow you to work with the footage as progressive, so you're stuck with the interlacing.

Also, keep in mind that DV is low-resolution; the larger you blow it up, the worse it will look. As well, footage often looks better on a computer screen than it will on a TV screen.
 
Wow both nice answers so far. I shot in 480/60i. Should I start shooting in 480/24p until I can get the firestore?

Also, does the hvx200 shoot in progressive mode?? I was under the impression that it was lower field interlaced.

Finally, how much nicer does the footage look when you actually start shooting on a P2 or firestore? A friend of mine shoots on his Canon GL-2 and his dv work looks nice and smooth so I'm assuming its an interlace problem. I've been using Panasonic tapes since day 1 so how do I do the proper "pull down?"

Thanks!
 
Cater2theGame said:
Wow both nice answers so far. I shot in 480/60i. Should I start shooting in 480/24p until I can get the firestore?
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24p and 30p are better in 480 with the 200.

Also, does the hvx200 shoot in progressive mode?? I was under the impression that it was lower field interlaced.
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In DV, 24p and 30p are progressive. They're recorded in an interlaced stream, because that's what DV requires.

The camera actually shoots everything progressive and then converts to interlaced when needed.

Finally, how much nicer does the footage look when you actually start shooting on a P2 or firestore?
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DV will look exactly the same. But you'll have many more options for much nicer footage with DVCPRO 50 and DVCPRO HD.

A friend of mine shoots on his Canon GL-2 and his dv work looks nice and smooth so I'm assuming its an interlace problem.
Click to expand...
A GL2 shoots nothing BUT interlaced. The cameras are in no way comparable.

EDIT: Well, it does have the "Frame" mode which takes 60i and interpolates into 30p -- but it's not true 30p and you lose up to half your vertical resolution.



I've been using Panasonic tapes since day 1 so how do I do the proper "pull down?"
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Pulldown doesn't have anything to do with tape, per se. It's used when you need to record a slower frame rate into the stream of a higher frame rate. Some codecs require this, especially the ones originally developed for recording to tape.

You don't need to do anything to insert the pulldown -- the camera does it when necessary.

If you're using Elements, you can't remove pulldown, so you just edit as-is. But as I said, shoot 24p standard, not 24pA.
 
The "known problem" with the HVX and SD (480) interlace (60i) is that you can get absolutely horrible stair-step aliasing on certain kinds of high contrast lines especially diagonals. This is just as bad in DVCPro50.
This is a unique problem to the HVX as far as I know.
If shooting tape always shoot progressive.
I've been burned.

Lenny Levy
 
Oh, I should mention -- once you go to shooting the on cards or Firestore, you won't be able to use Premiere Elements anymore.
 
In Standard def, as others have mentioned, we always shoot 30p. If we need to shoot HD, we will often shoot 60i with no stairstepping problems.
And just my personal opinion, but I think the footage looks better on P2 because you don't have tape issues, just the data for the computer to read.
 
So basically you guys probably just saved my video career. I never heard about the issue with the hvx getting bad results with 480/60i. I am about to pick up another copy of the Premiere Pro so I'm gonna retire Elements after this and go back to Ole Faithful. Anyways, if the hvx shoots in progressive should I import it in to Premiere Pro and render the finished product with the settings set to progressive?

I don't know if anybody would be up to it, but I was wondering if somebody would pm me their phone number so I could give them a quick 5/10 minute call and pick their brain about some questions I have. I would appreciate it times a million. I don't know how I could make it up to someone but I would. I just have some questions about the hvx, editing, etc. Thank you for all of the help so far as well.
 
Oh and I have the Barry Green book. I just want to touch base with an actual person that has been doing video for a while that could get me up to par plus perhaps network. Thanks again.
 
Feel free to contact me any time for a million in thanks! :thumbup:
You can get my # on our website.
 
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