FCP HDV Capture Question (from an Avid guy)
by Mike Fay
on
Sep 15, 2009 at 3:12:27 pm
Hi all,
I'm cutting a short film in FCP and just have some, what I think are, basic questions. I'm an Avid editor, been doing this for 10 years, and been giving myself a crash course in FCP (read Diana Weynand's Final Cut Pro 6 book) in order to cut this short. I think I have most of it down, just wondering if you wonderful folks might be able to answer some questions.
1) Project was shot on HDV on Sony V1U in 24p mode. We want to capture at an "online" resolution, so I don't have to uprez later on and go print back to tape without any loss in resolution. What is the best codec for this workflow? Should I do an Easy Setup with HDV - 1080p24? Will this bring my HDV footage in losslessly (doing a straight file copy off the tape via firewire), or will it re-compress it again as HDV (in effect applying double compression)? I've read about some Pro Res 422 workflows, but it sounds like I would need to re-conform prior to print to tape if I use that codec. We don't have time for that in the schedule. We don't have a lot of color correction or VFX work to do, so I'm not going to be taking advantage of the 4:2:2 chroma sampling. I think loading as HDV is the right thing to do, just kind of need a check on this.
2) Audio was recorded dual-system on set on a Sound Devices 744T in 24 bit. I'm pretty sure I can augment my sequence to be 24 bit, but will FCP allow me to print to HDV tape with 24 bit audio in the sequence? Or, will I need to go through a conversion process to get it to 16 bit? I'm pretty sure HDV needs 48k 16 bit and my hunch is 24 bit is going to throw it for a loop. On the other hand, will FCP cross-convert on the fly to 16 bit during print to tape?
Re: FCP HDV Capture Question (from an Avid guy) by Mike Fay on Sep 15, 2009 at 4:04:27 pm
Also, I forgot to mention this in the original post: I'm cutting in FCP 6.0.6. Loading via firewire on an 8 core Mac Pro, 8 GB RAM. No 3rd party cards. Thanks!
Re: FCP HDV Capture Question (from an Avid guy) by Shane Ross on Sep 15, 2009 at 4:29:34 pm
[Mike Fay]"1) Project was shot on HDV on Sony V1U in 24p mode. We want to capture at an "online" resolution, so I don't have to uprez later on and go print back to tape without any loss in resolution. What is the best codec for this workflow? Should I do an Easy Setup with HDV - 1080p24?"
Yes. Wait, that is the VU1? I don't think that actually shoots 23.98...but rather 24p over 29.97. Choose that first option you have, then HDV1080i60 and see what the difference is. I think you need to choose 1080i60 HDV.
[Mike Fay]" Will this bring my HDV footage in losslessly (doing a straight file copy off the tape via firewire), or will it re-compress it again as HDV (in effect applying double compression)?"
Lossless. Pure data transfer.
[Mike Fay]" I've read about some Pro Res 422 workflows, but it sounds like I would need to re-conform prior to print to tape if I use that codec."
If you are going BACK to HDV, then yes, avoid ProRes. Stick to HDV native.
[Mike Fay]"but will FCP allow me to print to HDV tape with 24 bit audio in the sequence"
No. The HDV format does not support that....it isn't an FCP thing.
[Mike Fay]"On the other hand, will FCP cross-convert on the fly to 16 bit during print to tape? "
Re: FCP HDV Capture Question (from an Avid guy) by Mike Fay on Sep 15, 2009 at 5:32:17 pm
Shane,
Thanks very much for the reply. Yes, the V1U shoots "24p" with a 2:3 cadence inside 60i, so I think you're right that the sequence needs to be set-up as 1080i60 and not as 1080p24. I'll try test clips with both though as I'm curious what FCP will say.
Excellent news on the HDV being a straight file transfer. I was hoping that was the case, but wanted to be sure. Pro Res sounds interesting, but I'll save it for another project.
Yeah, I figured that 24 bit was going to be a sticking point. I asked the production mixer to do 16 bit, but then backed off when they said it should be fine. I should've followed my hunch on that one. Oh well, it was only a 1 day shoot so there won't be a ton of material to convert.
Thanks again for the help, Shane. Much appreciated!
Re: FCP HDV Capture Question (from an Avid guy) by Mike Fay on Sep 16, 2009 at 12:20:00 am
Well I ran into an issue with the 24p cadence in the 60i and decided to go with a somewhat modified workflow.
I did some tests and when making quicktimes, there's no effective way (that I found) to remove the 2:3 from an edited sequence. Doing one take is easy enough, but when you set an A frame in cinema tools to reverse telecine a sequence of shots it only does the first shot correctly. The rest in the sequence exhibit incorrect cadence removal.
The workaround I'm going with is:
1 - Capture 1080i60 HDV in FCP
2 - Convert clips in Compressor to Pro Res 422 @ 23.98p and applying Reverse Telecine (per this article: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2410).
3 - Import Pro Res 422 23.98p clips into FCP.
4 - Edit in a 23.98 sequence.
5 - Exported 23.98 QTs can be used to create NTSC DVDs (with 2:3 added) or downconverted to another QT format for web/desktop (without cadence/interlacing issues).
Does anyone see any potential problems with this workflow (besides the added drive space considerations)? I did some A/B tests between the original HDV and the Pro Res files and there appears to be minimal loss in quality, if any. Any thoughts?
Re: FCP HDV Capture Question (from an Avid guy) by Mike Fay on Sep 16, 2009 at 2:59:56 pm
Just to follow up I figured what the issue was. The V1U camera was shot in 24p mode (as opposed to 24A) so the only way to reverse telecine it is with the method I used above, so it seems like I'm on the right path.
