Clips displaying low resolution

My question in a nutshell: my AVCHD footage looks low res in the Event Viewer, no matter what display settings I choose (or at least I can think to try). Does FCPX have a problem with AVCHD footage? Anyone else had this problem?


Specs: I've imported test footage from a Canon C100 into FCPX 10.3.4. It was shot AVCHD PF 29.97 at 24 Mpbs LPCM, 1920x1080. So it's HD. I'm running a 2013 MacPro with OS 10.12.5 and 64GB RAM and an AMD FirePro D700 graphics card. So I should have plenty of firepower.


But in the Event Viewer, no matter what setting I choose (View: Better Quality, Original/Optimized), it displays as low res. Here's a crop of a screen grab from within FCPX:

User uploaded file

Note the overall blurriness and jaggies.


But oddly, when you export a still from that same clip, here's what you get:

User uploaded file


In other words, the true resolution. If you open up the clip in Quicktime it's the same: high resolution as you'd expect.


So what's happening inside FCPX? I've tried generating an Optimized version of this clip, but that didn't change anything. I tried placing the clip on the timeline and rendering; still jaggy on screen. Some setting in FCPX I'm missing, and if so, where? Is this a bug related to AVCHD, perhaps?


An added twist: the same target shot with the same lens at 1080 on a Canon 5D MarkIII displays just fine...


Thanks for any insight you might have...

macOS Sierra (10.12.5)

Posted on Jun 24, 2017 6:20 PM

Reply
4 replies

Jun 24, 2017 10:42 PM in response to Alchroma

Thanks so much, Alchroma. It is indeed displaying as 1080i HD 29.97i, even though it was shot progressive. Show Both Fields did indeed help make the image a bit better, but still not true resolution.


But your suspicion about PF made me dig around about it and discovered that, yes, it's 30P in an interlaced wrapper, and then elsewhere, that you can override the default interlaced display in Inspector > Settings > Field Dominance Override. Once I changed the default from None to Progressive, the footage looks like it should.


Anyway, thank again!

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Clips displaying low resolution

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