Posting 1080i HDV for 720p Broadcast-How to?
by Jeff Scott
on
May 12, 2006 at 3:39:09 pm
Hi,
I'm facing the challenge of editing news pieces that were acquired with the Sony Z1 and need to make air on a 720p ABC news station. Since the flavor of HDV I'm working with is 1080i, what's the best workflow to eventually convert this footage to 720p? The station has Panasonic AJ-HD1200a decks. Would it be best to capture HDV in Final Cut Pro and edit it on a DVCPRO HD timeline and then master to the Panny deck?
Any help would greatly be appreciated...the deadline is quickly approaching.
Re: Posting 1080i HDV for 720p Broadcast-How to? by Gary Taylor on May 13, 2006 at 12:26:37 pm
Hi Jeff,
You might want to look at the AJA Kona 3. AJA recently announced hardware based cross conversion from 1080i to 720p as a feature. The driver update won't be available until next week and since you mentioned news I can see where you might not be able to wait.
If you can't wait you might want to look at Compressor. Apple apparently incorporated some of Shake's optical flow technology into Compressor. Other's have reported nearly perfect results using Compressor to convert from 1080i to 720p. The only catch is it is very very slow.
Good luck!
Gary
Re: Posting 1080i HDV for 720p Broadcast-How to? by Scott Juergens on May 16, 2006 at 1:00:14 am
If you can afford it... you'll get a better image by using a hardware based converter like Miranda's HD-Bridge to Cross convert 1080i to 720p . Miranda has just updated this box to support JVC 24p which will allow me to carry the 24 flagged frames across to the DVCPRO HD format. I always feel it's better to do your conform outside your NLE via a dedicated hardware solution vs. via the card. By doing this you streamline your 720p workflow so that all your source tapes are the same despite the original format you've shot on....This solution is also based on having multiple SD and HD formats.....
Re: Posting 1080i HDV for 720p Broadcast-How to? by Gary Taylor on May 16, 2006 at 1:59:38 pm
Hi Scott,
The Kona 3 does its cross conversion in hardware. I wasn't at NAB but from what I heard it is beautiful, and it doesn't cost that much more than Miranda's HD-Bridge.
You might want take a look at Compressor's cross conversion. I have seen some very good results with it, and Ben Waggoner who joined Microsft late last year as their Program Manager for Video Encoding, said that Compressor's cross conversion was "nearly perfect."
The Miranda does look very cool, and it sounds like it has given you a great workflow.
Gary
Re: Posting 1080i HDV for 720p Broadcast-How to? by Barlow Elton on May 21, 2006 at 2:23:54 pm
The best results from Compressor are EXTREMELY render intensive. It does all this motion adaptive stuff that's amazingly good in the end but it's DOG SLOW. I'm talking an hour for a 12 sec. clip on a dual 2.7 G5.
I've converted XL-H1 1080i into 720 60p for a slow motion effect in 720-24p and it was amazingly effective. For conversion to 60p for broadcast I'd look into a hardware solution like the Kona 3 or a mini Teranex.
Re: Posting 1080i HDV for 720p Broadcast-How to? by Gary Taylor on May 21, 2006 at 11:17:43 pm
Hi Barlow,
I guess it depends on what you you are posting doesn't it? If you are doing a 30 second commercial or a one minute news segement once a week you might be able to handle a few hours of render time.
The Kona 3 does look cool though. It is amazing how much value AJA packed in that card.
Have you been testing other codecs recently? Have you taken a look at SheerVideo?
Thanks,
Gary
Re: Posting 1080i HDV for 720p Broadcast-How to? by Barlow Elton on May 22, 2006 at 6:56:43 am
[Gary Taylor]"I guess it depends on what you you are posting doesn't it? If you are doing a 30 second commercial or a one minute news segement once a week you might be able to handle a few hours of render time."
True, true. I've been amazed at how good a job Compressor does with this task, and yeah, for shorter content it could work fine. Seeing such great results makes me yearn for a hardware accelerated fix for the task though. I don't know if the Kona does motion adaptive compensation, but I'm pretty sure the little Teranex does, which could be a good option if 720 60p is an important delivery HD format for you.
