I shot some video in SD 4x3 on a XDCam EX camera. Using a Sony SxS memory card USB reader, I moved it into FCP. They show up in a bin as 29.97, 720x480, DV/DVCPRO - NTSC for the compressor and NTSC - CCIR 60 as the pixel aspect. When I built my sequence, it says it has all those features and when I drop my footage in, it plays, but the corners all look pixely and not crisp. I feel that I have a setting wrong somewhere along the line.
Any suggestions?
What's it like when the playback is paused does it still show poorly. When you transcoded from the EX3 files to FCP what software did you use (XDCAM Transfer tool or FCP internally) and to which codec did you transfer to?
All the best
Pi Digital
When paused it's a little better. The clips just looked better in the camera. As far as transcoding, I just plugged in the reader and used "Log and Transfer" in FCP. The only import settings I could see was did I want audio and video. Once I had them loaded into a bin, i dragged one onto the timeline and it asked if I wanted to change my timeline to fit the clip (timeline was as Apple ProRes 422) and I said yes. It gave me the above settings.
Ah, ok, I see what you've done now.
You are going to need to reimport your footage. Do the following:
That should sort it. You will still see a bit of a reduction in quality during playback and this is down to your RT setting and sequence settings. I can give you more info if you need it
Pi Digital
I should try them in a new ProRes sequence right?
Yeah. When you add it too any new sequence it should let you know what format the clips are (as I'm sure you already know). It's definitely the safest way at this stage of your process even if you have already started chopping up your clips on the timeline. It'll save you more grief later.
Pi
Ok, I'm pretending like this is a whole new project. I went to Easy Setup, chose NTSC, and one from my drop list for 422. Then I opened up the log and transfer, made sure my setting in the preferences was 422, and reimported. They still come in with DV/DVCPRO - NTSC as the compressor. I put them into my ProRes timelime. Even after rendering, it still looks pixely. What else can I try? And thanks a bunch for this help!
Oh, I forgot something, I'm sorry.
Goto your Audio/Video settings and change your capture preset to either an XDCamHD or ProRes (whichever you prefer - I recommend ProRes only because of it's quality). If there isn't one then create a new capture preset.
That should help
Pi
I have tried and tried but it is just not going to work. I have set everything to be ProRes since I do have those as Presets and still no success. The clips still come in as DV/DVCPRO with the size as 720x480 (which I guess is what they were shot as) and no matter what I do I can't get their compressor to be ProRes and dropping them onto the timeline, even with their native codec, just looks junky. In my Easy Setup and A/V settings I have tried different variations of the ProRes and just regular NTSC. I have an AJA Kona LHi card and breakout box and I've even tried those settings, even though I didn't think that would affect this since it's coming straight thru USB.
On a whim, I took the clips and captured a couple into my old as the hills Premiere system. They look ok on that timeline. I wonder if this is telling me to make any 4x3 SD stuff on my old system and just keep my brand new Mac for the HD stuff...
I love computers... I love computers... I love computers... 😀
XDCam footage
