I have supplemental footage that is both H.264 and prores (square pixels) that I need to add to an NTSC 601 DV (720x480 anamorphic) timeline . I can resize/distort the images manually but I'm worried about quality loss on the export, what should I convert them to? Or rather shoudl I convert my DV footage to accomodate them?
Final Cut Pro 7
I would not worry about degrading the image by adjusting Distort (to correct for the difference in Pixel Aspect Ratio) as it is negligible considering you are placing (what I assume to be HD source material) into as SD timeline.
What is the codec of the SD timeline your are editing?
MtD
The h.264 and prores material is actually 640x480 high speed footage, so I will be upscaling and cropping to match the rest of the footage. The sequence codec is prores 422 (this is because I deinterlaced the dv footage in compressor before).
I'd use compressor to convert the h264 footage AND distort. I'd also advise that you change the frame rate to match that of the sequence (if there's a difference) and remember that 29.97 and 30 fps are NOT the same thing. Be sure to enable frame controls and set resizing and retiming to "best." I've noticed a big hit in quality compressing DV to square pixels if I don't set the resizing filter to best. It's particularly noticable in titles.
As far as setting your sequence to square or DVanamorphic pixels, what's your end use? If it's dvd, stay with dvanamorphic (rectangular) pixels as that's what you need for authoring dvd's. If your end use is internet, it might make sense to work in square pixels. Not sure how well fcp works with standard def square pixels in terms of real time effects, etc. I'd test this with a few shots before diving in.
When I upscale the footage from h.264 640x480 to prores 720x540 (custom 4:3) Im getting a lot of aliasing. Is this standard when upscaling? Will I have to rely on the compressor anti-aliasing or is there another workflow?
Your problem is most likely the H264 is 30fps and like Micheal said it's not the same as 29.97fps.
30p is for viewing, 29.97 you can edit in. Run it through Compressor or Streamclip.
No all the footage is 29.97, I've double checked in compressor and quicktime inspectors...
so you're doing the upscaling in compressor? And you've set the resizing filter to "best?"
How are you viewing the footage when you see aliasing? Make sure you're viewing at 100%
A few things need to happen here:
a. Your 4x3 picture (the H264 clip) needs to conform to 16x9 picture.
b. Your 16x9 picture needs to conform to anamorphic DV NTSC.
Also, is there any chance that the H264 clip was exported from a source clip with better compression (you're taking a hit just for using H264 instead of Apple ProRes 422, Animation or Photo-JPEG at best). If so, use that instead.
It might be easiest to create a custom 16x9 Sequence with Square pixels at 640x360 with ProRes compression. Add your 640x480 and nudge it up or down if needed. Also, apply the Deinterlace filter if needed. (If it's 480i30, do this. If it's 480p30, skip it).
Add the custom 640x360 Sequence to your DV NTSC Sequence, adjusting the Scale and the Distort values as needed to get the picture to fit tha 720x480 anamorphic frame size. You'll have to open the nested Sequence as a clip in the Viewer to make these adjustments (control click the nested Sequence for this option) under the Motion tab.
-Warren
square pixels in an NTSC DV timeline
