4x3 SD to HD thru MXO2 - Best workflow?
by Kurt Waddington
on
Aug 16, 2009 at 7:53:46 pm
Hi all,
I am looking for expert advice on the best workflow to Uprez SD 4x3 Betacam footage to 1080i 59.94. I am editing with FCP7 with input through an MXO2 with MAX. Betacam footage is fed in via component. The MXO2 will only upres to a Pillar boxed 4x3. Once in FCP7 I am forced to scale the clips by about 136 % to fill the 1080 frame. As well, many clips of this program will be footage shot on the PMW-EX1 in 1080p30.
What I've been doing is upresing the Betacam footage through the MXO2 to 1080i59.94 in Prores 422 (HQ) in order to preserve the largest amount of image info. Then I scale the 4x3 to fill the 1080 frame and position vertically to select the 4x3. This usually requires about a 136 % scale. Obviously softening the image very much. After this I render the timeline in the prores and send to Color. Grade in Color and send back to FCP7. At some point, either before sending to Color or after I need to do some editing and effects work.
At this point my plan is to output the sequence to blu-ray thru the MXO2 or FCP7's share feature as well as output directly to a DVD recorder thru the MXO2's analog outputs.
Sorry for what seems a long post, but is this the best way to deal with this 4x3 Betacam footage? Is there a better way to maintain the image quality when cutting a 16:9 HD swath from the 4x3 SD footage?
Thanks very much for any info or direction on this.
Re: 4x3 SD to HD thru MXO2 - Best workflow? by Tony Brittan on Aug 16, 2009 at 10:48:01 pm
Shane, does that mean the new drivers allows you to blow it up and crop so that the 4:3 is captured full screen 16:9 on capture? I was wondering about thus as well.
Re: 4x3 SD to HD thru MXO2 - Best workflow? by Kurt Waddington on Aug 16, 2009 at 11:08:48 pm
Thanks Shane.
After some more reading I see that standard prores should work well As far as the latest driver (1.5.1) for the MXO2 with Max I have that installed and it seems even according to Tech support it is not yet capable of cropping. I mentioned to the tech that one of the AJA products I worked with was able to center cut the 4x3 on upres and he said it would be passed on to the engineers.
May concern with my workflow is obviously the scaling required to fill the frame from side too side being well over 100% at 136%. I wondered if there is a preferred method or software to accomplish this step. I have read here by some that Compressor does the best job over Motion and FCP. This presumably with respect to the earlier versions of the two softwares. It may be that with the advancements in FCS3 there is a better method now. Having only just taken delivery of and installed the new version, I am unsure if there is a higher quality route here?
Re: 4x3 SD to HD thru MXO2 - Best workflow? by Shane Ross on Aug 17, 2009 at 12:44:20 am
I am running the latest drivers, which are 1.5 I believe. They include the ability to letterbox, pillarbox or crop.
Kurt, here's the rub. You are already upscaling your betasp footage more than 100%. 1920x1080 is over 300% larger than 720x480. The issue here is hardware upscale vs software. I'd rather upscale all the way with hardware instead of going part way with hardware and the rest with software.
Re: 4x3 SD to HD thru MXO2 - Best workflow? by Andy Mees on Aug 17, 2009 at 1:51:47 am
Nope ... can't see the option to center cut on upscale. I see an "HD to SD aspect ratio" control but nothing for SD to HD. Does the same control work for both directions for you? It didn't used to for me ... will have a play later.
Re: 4x3 SD to HD thru MXO2 - Best workflow? by Kurt Waddington on Aug 17, 2009 at 3:30:22 am
Yes Andy, that is what I have found too. I didn't think setting the "HD to SD aspect ratio" control had anything to do with up converting SD. I think it always has a setting of some sort. I have always selected the "Scale input for capture" option as well.
Maybe there's something I'm missing?
Shane. I agree. I believe full hardware up-scaling of the 4x3 SD would be best. It's just that as you've read, at least for me, the MXO2 is not bringing it all the way to full 16:9.
Re: 4x3 SD to HD thru MXO2 - Best workflow? by Andy Mees on Aug 17, 2009 at 4:31:11 am
Hey Kurt
One option you can investigate is to set the MXO2 Preference Pane's A/V Input > Scaling >> Source to SD 16:9 ... you'll then get an upscale that stretches your source to fill the full HD frame after which you can "distort" back to the correct aspect and reframe as needed in the motion tab. It may, or it may not, give better results than a the software upscale in both x & y axis? Might be worth a look.
Andy
Re: 4x3 SD to HD thru MXO2 - Best workflow? by Kurt Waddington on Aug 17, 2009 at 5:26:35 am
Thanks Andy. I'm going to try that. I was just double checking the PDF Manual and read this;
-SD 4:3 Select this option for standard 4:3 NTSC or PAL video. When
upscaling to HD, the video is captured in pillarbox format.
-SD 16:9 Select this option for widescreen 16:9 NTSC or PAL video.
When upscaling to HD, the video is captured in anamorphic format.
Then I checked back with this thread.
So I also thought maybe fooling the system by selecting the SD 16:9 might get the results Shane is getting.
Re: 4x3 SD to HD thru MXO2 - Best workflow? by Shane Ross on Aug 17, 2009 at 8:33:10 am
Sorry, all day at Disneyland (posting while waiting in LONG lines) and I get home and forgot that the MXO2 is at work. So I can answer better tomorrow. Sorry. And I might be confused as I use the Kona 3 at work and the MXO2 at home, so I might be transposing Kona 3 capabilities.
Re: 4x3 SD to HD thru MXO2 - Best workflow? by Shane Ross on Aug 17, 2009 at 5:47:26 pm
Yeah, I'd like to apologize for misleading. The only options for SD to HD are Letterbox, Pillarbox and Anamorphic. I must be confused do to the fact that I use the Kona 3 daily as well.
