Deinterlace in FCPX 10.4.3

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Deinterlace in FCPX 10.4.3

Is there any way to get deinterlacing to work correctly in FCPX 10.4.3 on High Sierra? I'm shooting with a Canon G20 and a Canon Vixia. In previous versions, I clicked deinterlace on the project and everything looks great. Now it looks like junk.

The camera is shooting in 29.97fps 1080i. I'm importing with EditReady because I've had this version of FCPX damage files (put slight garble in the top of the frame!), then link to the file in FCPX.

My video is just me waving my hand in front of the camera.

I then create a project as 1080p @ 59.94p rendering in Apple ProRes 422. I get lots of weird shadows that look like FCPX is trying to deinterlace.

I've tried upper/lower first Field dominance, checking or not checking the Deinterlace box. Then I tried a 29.97fps project with the same result.

How are you folks getting your deinterlace to work with camcorder footage? I have no problem with my point and shoot camera because it shoots in progressive but virtually all non-pro (read $$$) video cameras shoot in interlaced.

Thanks!

Final Cut Pro X, macOS High Sierra (10.13.6), iMac i7 40GB memory

Posted on Sep 23, 2018 12:55 PM

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Answer 1

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

150,992 points

Sep 23, 2018 4:09 PM in response to aaronlin

Not sure what you're expecting. I dropped the clip in an automatic project and it created naturally a 29.97i project. I changed the project properties to 29.97p and it looked deinterlaced with motion blur like this

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Answer 2

aaronlin Author

Level 1

11 points

Sep 23, 2018 1:40 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

The options are: 60i, 30p, 24p.

The video sample is in this dropbox link:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/k6dcj3705fyp9r1/AABMeVl4m_AKF-j_4E7dwGbZa?dl=0

I shot in max resolution, MXP (24Mbps) at 60i, the best the Canon G20 can do. The footage was imported with EditReady using rewrap so there's no initial conversion out of the camera.

I've had this problem with other cameras, too. We figured out how to make this look good in previous versions of FCP but this latest has thrown us back into problem land.

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Answer 3

aaronlin Author

Level 1

11 points

Sep 23, 2018 8:46 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

I see that gray blur on the right side of my hand. Are those artifacts as good as it gets without shooting progressive with a different camera?

I never see motion blur with TV shows that looks like this and I know outdoor adventure shows shoot cameras similar to mine, either Canon, Sony, or the like (Survivorman-type).

It would be sad/funny/annoying that the progressive footage off my point and shoot will always look better than with a higher-end camcorder.

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Answer 4

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

150,992 points

Sep 24, 2018 4:33 AM in response to aaronlin

You might see something similar in progressive where there’s motion blur within the frame. You have to go to higher frame rates and high shutter speeds to reduce motion blur, but then you often get an unpleasant jerkiness that you see in some sports action.

Television stills supports interlaced playback which computer screens never have.

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Answer 5

aaronlin Author

Level 1

11 points

Sep 24, 2018 6:38 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

The motion blur is totally expected. It's that weird gray that shows in your image, over the pinky side of my hand.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/k6dcj3705fyp9r1/AABMeVl4m_AKF-j_4E7dwGbZa?dl=0

The Handbrake converted files are in there with labels in the names.

I found a program called Handbrake based on other's suggestions. I took the video I posted in the above dropbox link, then ran it through Handbrake on their Fast 1080p30 conversion and also the HQ conversion. The deinterlace looks great! No weird gray bands on my hand. Is there any setting in FCPX that'll make a deinterlace that looks as good as handbrake?

Nearly all of my video goes onto Youtube and Amazon prime, so it's all progressive. If I get a TV show from my work, then I'll bet someone will have better tools, but I can't believe that FCPX can't do this properly. There have to be 100's of thousands of camcorder people that edit in FCPX, so they must all have the same problem, right?

I'll have to try filming in progressive 30fps. I can't believe that camcorders and editing for online just don't match or there's not a "right" way to do this.

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Answer 6

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

150,992 points

Sep 23, 2018 1:16 PM in response to aaronlin

Hard to tell about specific cameras. Anyway you can post a clip somewhere it can be downloaded? Not a fan of using 59.94 because of the resolution loss.

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Answer 7

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

150,992 points

Sep 24, 2018 2:14 PM in response to aaronlin

Handbrake doesn't rewrap it recompresses the file, and preprocessing the interlaced video is most likely the best way to go. Your camera might shoot even better progressive.

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Deinterlace in FCPX 10.4.3

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