Convert 1080i/50 to 1080i/60 . . ?

Hi Again Andy,

Interesting you mentioned the highlights... I have noticed an increase in the white levels when I bring footage from 1080i50 to PAL.

Do you use the "toolbench - video scopes" to check these and correct. If not you might give them a try. Check the footage in 1080i format to see if there is excess luma. Then you can check the converted footage as well.

In my case I found a broadcast safe filter set to "very conservative" seems to work. Weird thing is the scopes declare the 1080i footage to be legal, then when I plop it on a PAL timeline it shows many levels above 100 so they are not legal. I have never noticed what I would call "blown away highlights" though. There may be somehing more going on here. Do you use the "show excess luma" display to check legal white levels?

Also it seems like you are doing an extra process by writing the project to the camera and then downconverting. Did you do this just to try to fix the highlights? If now you might as well let FCP do the 1080i60 to NTSC conversion...

Paul

I've yet to venture into the world of Video/Vector
Scopes (sounds like something from Star Trek)
so any advice would be most welcome.

Before you go asking Mr Scott for more dilithium I would try the scopes. Both Histogram and Waveform Monitor will show how much of your footage is in the "hot" zone and which is over 100 percent (also referred to as Superwhite).

Either way, I'll certainly give them a try.
Previously, I've tried using the 3 Way Colour
Corrector to reduce the highlights
(drastically) and found that it has no effect
whatsoever. This seems to back your observations of
the Video Scopes.

The colour corrector can certainly help with footage that is over dark or light but again best to adjust it with the aid of the scopes and a good monitor if you have one.

My 1080i/60 footage is definitely OK with the Excess
Luma check but I've never checked the NTSC as it's so
obviously blown out.

Again I don't think we have really found the cause of the problem yet since very blown out footage shouldn't happen if it started OK in HDV. Sorry I don't have more suggestions.

Maybe take a peak at this article on colour correction. Down near the bottom it details the scopes...

http://www.kenstone.net/fcphomepage/cc_legalfcp4.html

I know you're under a time crunch but maybe it would be helpful for next time...

Best luck

Paul



Dual 1GHz Mac OS X (10.4.6) 1.75GB ATI9800, FCStudio

Here's another thought on luminance. Have you perchance checked the settings in Sequence / Settings / Video Processing ?

Not sure what might happen if you had selected "RGB" or "Superwhite". Basically are both sequences set the same way? Your HDV sequence and your final DV clip?

Paul

Yes, sounds like an FCP white handling issue. You've got to be careful with this kind of thing.

Dropping 50i video in a 60i sequence produces pretty rubbishy results though. It might be fast, it might be sharp, but motion is awful.

Graeme

I captured the 1080i/50 footage and then dropped it into a 1080i/60 timeline. Then I printed to video with the Sony Z1 set for

1080i/60. After a lengthy Conform process, it printed to video perfectly.
I then Downconverted to DV NTSC 4:3.

I have yet to try dropping 25fps material into a 30fps timeline with HD material, but I know for a fact it does NOT work satisfactorily with SD material. What you end up with if you drop a SD PAL clip into an NTSC timeline and render is that every fifth frame is simply repeated to get to the 30fps. No frame blending of any kind is employed, and the results is an unpleasant judder, in effect a 2-frame freeze every six frames.

Maybe FCP is more intelligent with HD timelines but are you SURE this is not happening in your 1080i60 timeline?

I bunged it on DVD - and guess what?? The footage is pin-sharp but the highlights are blown > away - just the same as the other PAL to NTSC
conversions.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but sounds like this has been introduced with your DVD encode and not with the "standards conversion" or downconvert as such.

What settings are you using to encode your DVD?