SD and HD in same project

Pro Swooping Tour

Pro Swooping Tour

Active member
I have edited footage from a SD camera and HD footage from HVX 200 that I want to use in same project. I want to keep the HD footage looking as good as I can. What are my options when mixing these formats for my new up and coming DVD? Should I have SD edited pieces and HD edited pieces seperate on the DVD menu or can I mix the two on one timeline?

What would you guys do in this situation? Help....
 
You can mix the two in one timeline. The question you have to ask yourself is, do you want your HD down rez'ed to SD, or to uprez your SD to HD. There is no universal rule about which path to take. So the issues you have to decide on yourself are these:

SD up rez'ed to HD will look worse than the original.
HD down rez'ed to SD will look like really nice SD, but no longer be HD.
Once on DVD, nothing will be HD.

I would do the project as SD. Set up an SD Sequence, drop all your stuff in it. Depending on your hardware, you'll have to render some of the HD footage. I'm on a Quad Core G5 and do this, with little rendering. My dual 2.0 G5 has to render every bit of HD footage in the SD Sequence, though. Once you drop the HD footage into your SD Sequence, it get's converted to SD upon rendering and output.

You could keep the HD in it's own HD Sequence, but then, it's going to get down rez'ed to SD going to the DVD anyway.

But I do know folks who went with dropping everythign into an HD Seqeucne for their own resaons with acceptable results. It's up to you. I personally recommend dropping everything into an SD Sequence to start with.
 
If I keep it in HD sequence what in the system makes the decision to down convert to SD. I mean what decides whether it stays native HD on DVD or down converts to SD?
 
How can I down convert a HD sequence to a SD sequence within FCP? I need to edit in a HD timeline to make frame conversions and such with HVX 200 footage and then down convert to SD to put with other standard project clips...
 
Ok, I just happened to come upon this thread and found the good advice so far. As always, many ways to do the same thing. Man, I love FCP!

Now here's the million dollar question.... Two scenerios:

1) Edit on an SD timeline and downrez the HD in FCP (Apple-R), letting FCP do the downrez.

2) Edit in HD, letting FCP do a crude uprez of the SD, then let Compressor downrez the whole thing to SD for DVD?

Of the two, which would you say does a better job of downrezzing the HD footage - Compressor or Final Cut? Or do they use the same "engine"?

I'm downrezzing an HD timeline now using compressor, and if no one has done this yet, I'll try and post some actual screenshots for comparison.

Scott
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top