Importability and workflow for 1440 x 1080 (60i or 50i) using FCE HD

Question

Importability and workflow for 1440 x 1080 (60i or 50i) using FCE HD

Hi All

Migrating from iMovie HD, I have been using my old DV handycam for short clips using FCE HD (4.0.1) on my Mac Pro for at least 5 years now. All the clips I make need to be and are turned into 4:3 VGA or QVGA at 30 fps.

But, the camera is getting to the end of it's life. Looking at new cameras, I see specs that I fail to understand... The closest thing I see is that some cameras can output format 1440 x 1080 (60i and 50i), a 4:3 format which can be generated by for instance the Sony FDRAX53.

Can this type of video be imported into my old version of FCE HD? If so, is there something I need to know about the workflow? If not, are there other cameras that can natively give me a 4:3 format that can easily be imported?

Thanks in advance for any input.

John

PB G4 15, 1.25 Ghz 10.4.11

Mac Pro (Mid 2012) 10.6.8

Posted on Feb 14, 2016 2:20 AM

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Answer 1

Meg The Dog

Level 6

13,561 points

Feb 15, 2016 1:52 PM in response to John Ransdell

This is, unfortunately, a lot more complicated than you would think.

In as few words as possible, if I understand your mission is to get a new camera that maintains your present workflow, you should look for a new camera that has the option of recording DV.

There are a couple that still do, although they may be out of the price range you are looking in such as the Sony NX3:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1076768-REG/sony_hxr_nx3_1_nxcam_handheld_ camcorder.html

where one of the options for record format is DV 4:3:

The 1440 x 1080 frame size you have seen is a method of recording HD via an anamorphic frame ( the pixel aspect is compressed during recording and normalized during playback) that was used when Sony created the HDV tape format.

If you were to get one of the new file based cameras that record DV, you should be able to import the files directly into FCE (no loading from tape).

MtD

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Answer 2

Feb 21, 2016 1:33 AM in response to Meg The Dog

Hi Meg

Thanks for the response. I did in fact notice that camera.

On reading many posts here I did make some progress. I found out about the program Streamclip, downloaded some videos from my iPad, cropped them and converted them to DV-PAL 720 x 576 and then cut them in FCE HD (4.0.1). The problem that got me indeed seems to be the anamorphic pixels that make the people look stretched.

What I don't understand about the spec you gave me above "SD" is that 720 x 480 would be an aspect ration of 1.5. But, the formats given are 16:9 and 4:3. This does not make sense, unless of course here it is again the anamoprhic pixels? Also, does 16:9 and 4:3, mean that you can select either or?

This whole excercise let me into the mess of video formats that I had no idea existed... :-) I will consider this camera now knowing that it will at least do what I am trying to do right now...

Thanks lots, John

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Answer 3

Mar 5, 2016 2:34 PM in response to John Ransdell

So, I thought I would close this topic. I figured out the general approach to convert the clips for cameras that might not be DV PAL compliant. As an example, I used the video on my iPad Mini 3, which I sent to FCE HD for editing and exported to my iPod Classic. Here is what I did:

1.) Downloaded a program called Streamclip

2.) Opened the iPad Mini 3 clip which is an H.264, 1920 x 1080, AAC, Mono, 44.100 kHz clip

3.) Selected DV exporter and selected the following options:

DV25

PAL, 720 x 576

Ratio, 4:3

Interlaced Scaling

Crop Source

Left 221, Right 221

4.) Then pressed "Make DV"

This gave me a clip that looked just like my PAL DV camcorder, compensated for the anamoprhic pixels in DV and worked fine in FCE. Some things still make me wonder:

1.) The DV clip is about 50% bigger than my the iPad Mini Clip, which is I suppose due to the fact that H.264 is more highly compressed than DV.

2.) The workflow from the FPS side is this: 29.98fps for the iPad Mini Clip -> 25 fps for the DV clip -> to 30fps required for the iPod classic. This does not seem very clever to make this many conversions, but, oh well, it worked. 🙂

My next step will be getting a new camcorder though, because without an optical zoom, the iPad Mini is not really a great video device. I suppose I can apply the same type of approach to any new camcorder I get. But, it will be easiest to take a camcoder that just shoots natively DV PAL for me. Thanks to Meg, looks like I'll be heading for the Sony NX3...

Cheers,

John

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