Progressive Field Dominance vs Lower Field Dominance

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Level 1

8 points

Progressive Field Dominance vs Lower Field Dominance

I am putting a project together in FCP 5.1.4 Most assets are NTSC QT clips with lower field dominance. I have some PAL assets with Progressive field dominance. I am using a slow-PAL conversion method outlined here:

http://www.macworld.com/article/49306/2006/02/marchcreat.html

I just want to make sure my workflow is appropriate.
If I use Cinema Tools to convert frame rate to 23.98 and then Compressor to change aspect ratio, and finally FCP to add frames back in to arrive at 29.97 NTSC . . .
DO I NEED TO change the progressive field dominance to lower field dominance at ay point?
I will ultimately be outputting to DVD which may be viewed on either computer or video monitor.

Powermac Quad G5 2.5GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Aug 20, 2009 5:00 PM

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Answer 1

Aug 20, 2009 5:38 PM in response to dosmonkeys

Pardon my ignorance, but exactly what is "progressive field dominance?"

-DH

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Answer 2

dosmonkeys Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 20, 2009 6:08 PM in response to David Harbsmeier

From my rudimentary knowledge I believe that as opposed to upper or lower field dominance, the source asset was recorded as "progressive scan", which I assume means NO field dominance.
What I do not understand is, if I import assets into a FCP sequence that has a lower field dominance, then what happens to these assets in the timeline when I export them out of FCP to either mpeg2 for inclusion in a DVDStudioPro. Or as a compressed quicktime for a streaming video on the web.
I am concerned that progressive scan assets mixed with lower field dominance may cause weird interlacing artifacts when I ultimately playback the end project.
Don't know whether I'm overthinking this, but want to avoid hours of work in the wrong direction.
Help?

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Answer 3

Aug 21, 2009 2:52 AM in response to dosmonkeys

Progressive SCAN means that there are NO FIELDS ... just frames.

if I import assets into a FCP sequence that has a lower field dominance, then what happens to these assets in the timeline when I export them out of FCP to either mpeg2 for inclusion in a DVDStudioPro.

They'll still be interlaced as they should be.

Or as a compressed quicktime for a streaming video on the web.

You can choose to deinterlace when exporting for web delivery.

-DH

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Answer 4

dosmonkeys Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 21, 2009 8:33 AM in response to David Harbsmeier

thanks for the clarification

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