Horizontal lines on 720p HD video

Question

Horizontal lines on 720p HD video

Hi guys,

I would be incredibly grateful if you could help me finally get this project finished, which I have been working on for months. I have read lots of other threads trying to solve this issue but either do they not solve my problem or else they'reout of my depth technically, so I require a step-by-step explanation.

I have the dreaded horizontal lines on my final cut pro timezone preview as well as my rendered finalized video. I have never had this issue before and I have been using the same camera as always (Sony HDR-CX130).

I have read about de-interlacing, but my clips already appear to be 720p rather than i.

Some additional information:

This is what the problem looks like (especially visible in the area around the boat, everytime there is horizontal movement):

These are my settings:

This is what I see below my time line:

Another problem I haven't had before and that might or might not be related to this is that rendering the project suddenly taking forever. It jumps from 0% to 5% immediately and then sits at 5% for hours before moving on. To give you an idea, rendering a 23 minute project took about 7 hours today.

Thank you so much for your help and time!!
Audrina

Final Cut Pro X, Mac OS X (10.7.5), Sony HDR-CX130

Posted on Feb 16, 2014 1:10 PM

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Answer 1

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

150,986 points

Feb 16, 2014 1:22 PM in response to LaDulceLocura

Open one of the source files into the QT player and post a screen shot of the inspector.

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Answer 2

Feb 16, 2014 1:37 PM in response to LaDulceLocura

Yes, view in QT Pro 7, MPeg StreamClip. You will be able to use the inspector to see if indeed the clips are interlaced or not. What their "native" is. Are you allowing FCP X to set the properties on import?

This LINK explains about the different settings on your camera, its sensor characteristics and behavior in "busy" compositions.

Perhaps JES Deinterlacer may work for you?

Please post back as to what you determine....

Good Luck

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Answer 3

Feb 16, 2014 2:10 PM in response to LaDulceLocura

Thanks so much to both of you for the quick replies!

I don't have QT Pro7 (my version is QT 10.1 (501.29))

and it's 20 GBP, so is there any way around it? I assume you are referring to inspector within QT Pro7?

If you don't, this is a screenshot of what I see in FCP inspector:

Babylonslim, thanks so much for your patient explanations and the link, I will definitely have a look at it. What still confuses me is that I have not changed any settings or equipment and I've never had this problem before. Yes, I let FCP do all the work when I import events.

Thanks again!
Audrina

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Answer 4

Feb 16, 2014 2:12 PM in response to LaDulceLocura

How about opening it in QT Player X & posying what the inspector says? It looks inlerlaced but may be that you utilized the 44X Digital Zoom when you shot it. Need to know if original is interlaced or progessive, also is what you posted the original frame size?

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Answer 5

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

150,986 points

Feb 16, 2014 2:15 PM in response to LaDulceLocura

No the QT player. You don't need pro.

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Answer 6

Feb 16, 2014 2:17 PM in response to LaDulceLocura

okay, found the inspector in QT:

A bit lost about the frame size, sorry!

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Answer 7

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

150,986 points

Feb 16, 2014 2:25 PM in response to LaDulceLocura

That's 25fps standard definition PAL. It's interlaced. You can't put that in a 1280x720 60fps project. The interlacing is scaling up enormously. It's going to look horrible.

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Answer 8

Feb 16, 2014 2:27 PM in response to LaDulceLocura

I am starting to notice that, hence my post :-D

I have spent months and months on this project, its nearly two hours long, so is there anything I can do to fix it?

And how do I avoid this problem in the future?

Thanks :-)

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Answer 9

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

150,986 points

Feb 16, 2014 2:34 PM in response to LaDulceLocura

Is all your media SD PAL like this?

Then make a new project that's 720x576 25fps and copy and paste everything into it.

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Answer 10

Feb 16, 2014 2:49 PM in response to LaDulceLocura

Yes, I think all of the media is the same. Like I said though, never had any problems previously, so I'm not quite sure where this problematic format comes from this time. However, I think I might have used an older version of FCP previously and before that I had imovie.

Could you talk me through how to fix it in a little bit more detail, please? How do I set the new project to be 720x576 25fps? These are the settings I see:

What about audio and render properties?

Thanks a millionnnnnn! :-) :-) :-)

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Answer 11

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

150,986 points

Feb 16, 2014 2:52 PM in response to LaDulceLocura

Cmd-N. The sheet drops down that gives you the options in the second image of your first message. First popup is PAL SD. Second popup is 720x576. Third is 25i or p if you want to remove the interlacing.

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Answer 12

Feb 16, 2014 2:54 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Thanks very much, it's getting late here now but I will try this tomorrow and let you know how it went! Goodnight!

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Answer 13

Feb 16, 2014 3:06 PM in response to LaDulceLocura

tried it alredy, but no joy unfortunately :-( still extremely stripey:

These are the QT inspector settings of the original media:

These are the QT inspector settings of the finalized clip after rendering:

These are the settings I used for the new project:

Wish I'd had a more positive reply :-(

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Answer 14

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

150,986 points

Feb 16, 2014 3:53 PM in response to LaDulceLocura

What are you showing in the first image? Is that the FCP Viewer? Where's the clip that you're showing? In the browser?

I just noticed the mp2v codec and also realized the frame size. Where did this come from and how did you get it into your computer? That's a delivery codec.

The camera you mention in the first message is an AVCHD camera. The media should be in HD. What have you done? Did you shoot SD in this camera? Why?

Whatever. It's also anamorphic so the project setting isn't right. It should be PAL Anamorphic.

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Answer 15

Feb 16, 2014 4:09 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

The Clip I'm showing is the finalised master file in QT player.

After that you are losing me I'm afraid. What exactly are you referring to by frame size? Do you mean the resolution?The clips came on my computer by inserting the camera's SD card into the computer and FCP importing its contents as events.

I don't know what anamorphic means. I can edit videos ok but when it comes to formats, codecs and things like that I really don't know what I'm doing. :-( really want to fix this and understand it for next time. I have a few other files imported from various cards that I want to edit and I worry they will cause the same issue.

Thanks again!

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