1440x1080 DVCPRO 50i to 1920x1080 10bit uncompressed 29.97?
by eric pautsch
on
Oct 24, 2009 at 12:21:41 am
Hi Folks
This client has thrown another problem my way. He has a DVCPRO 1440x1080 50i FCP Sequence that needs to be be converted to 1920x1080 10bit Uncompressed 29.97 to be encoded for Blu Ray. It did a test in a FCP system using a Black Magic preset of 1080i 29.97, dropped the 50i QT in there and spit out fairly decent looking stream once it was encoded to AVC and put on a BD disc.
At first I was thinking the conversion would need to go through a good (and expensive) hardware converter but was told by a post house in Burbank that the sequence would be converted through their Kona Card.
Being the skeptic I am, what would be the preferred way to do this conversion? How would others handle this situation?
Re: 1440x1080 DVCPRO 50i to 1920x1080 10bit uncompressed 29.97? by Mads Nybo Jørgensen on Oct 24, 2009 at 12:59:27 am
Hey Eric,
Honestly, you are paying the post house a lot of money for their services (I hope :-)), and I'm sure they'll continue working on your Blueray till they get it right. So doubting them in public is not really beneficial for your relationship - if you get my drift, unless you are just sampling advice to get a majority verdict...
However, if there already is a 50i version, then that should be your benchmark for the 29.97 disc. Depending on what the material originated from and what the content is, I think that you'll find it hard to see a noticeable difference on the two versions in regards to picture quality. Since you are interlaced, there shouldn't really be any motion artefacts either - unless the original source material was progressive...
I would have thought that the easiest way would be to master out to tape in 50i and then do a cross conversion from that master rather than messing about with the fcp settings.
my 10p
All the Best
Mads
London, UK
Mac Million Ltd. - HD Production & Editing
Please watch our Showreel here: http://reels.creativecow.net/film/1145
Blog: http://macmillionltd.blogspot.com
Re: 1440x1080 DVCPRO 50i to 1920x1080 10bit uncompressed 29.97? by eric pautsch on Oct 24, 2009 at 3:48:05 am
Thanks Mads
I'm actually the one doing the encoding and authoring. I'm usually given 1080i 60 or 1080p 23.98 and I encode away but this one threw me for a loop. Its to be release worldwide but was shot 50i.
I guess I was treating this as a standards conversion, not a cross conversion. So your saying going from 50i to 60i there should be no loss in quality? I already did an test and it looks fine but I'm trying to wrap my head wrapped around all this.
Re: 1440x1080 DVCPRO 50i to 1920x1080 10bit uncompressed 29.97? by Arnie Schlissel on Oct 24, 2009 at 4:49:46 am
You can get a very clean standards conversion from 50i to 60i, or 60i to 50i.
A lot of networks and distributors insist on getting it done with a Teranex hardware converter, probably because it's the best known brand name for this. You can also use an Alchemist hardware converter for the same result, if the end user allows it. Some large shops have them instead of the Teranex.
You can get a perfectly acceptable conversion through software a lot of the time these days. I've gotten very good results with the current version of Compressor. If your spec allows it, it's worth testing with whatever software you already have.
Some people will run this through After Effects, Shake, Combustion, etc. Test whatever software you already have, if the results are up to your specs, then you can start encoding. If not, send it out to someone with
Arnie
Post production is not an afterthought!
http://www.arniepix.com/
Re: 1440x1080 DVCPRO 50i to 1920x1080 10bit uncompressed 29.97? by eric pautsch on Oct 24, 2009 at 5:27:26 am
Thanks
I was surprised by the quality I recieved in my test through After Effects and FCP. I thought I'd have to go through a Terenex or Alchemist but this doesn't seem to be the case now. 1st time dealing with a conversion of this type - especailly for BD.
