Capturing HDV and output to SD
 

Hi.
I am using HDVSplit to capture A1 60i HDV footage. The HDV footage looks great.
I import the video into an SD 16:9 timeline and render out to SD 4:3 AVI. Upon viewing the footage I notice that every time the subject moves there is a banding (zebra stripe effect).
I figured the renderer must be trying to interlace so I turned off interlacing and re-rendered.
Still the same problem
I've tried every setting available and it still occurs.

Has anyone seen this and if so is there a filter or setting in the render engine so that I can get rid of the banding?

Thanks
Jim

Problem was mismatched fields
 

After reviewing the footage I noticed that the HDV footage was upper field first and the timeline was lower field first. I updated the timeline to UFF and all is good and right in the world.

JB

I usually shoot in HD and edit in HD. Then export to SD MPEg-2 for DVD authoring. The output is better than shooting in SD or down convert during capture.

I've not actually done this yet, since I'm still waiting on an HD camera to arrive, but my guess is that your footage looks like cr*p because you're importing HDV on an SD timeline. Import your footage to an HDV timeline and edit in HDV, then export to SD to your DVD authoring software.

David,
Once I fixed the field order the footage looked fine - even in SD.
I will try it in an HDV timeline and render to SD 4:3 - I have to use this footage with other SD 4:3 footage.

Jim

If you capture in HDV, you can then start an SD 4:3 timeline and drop your footage into it. Make sure to use a 23.98 frame rate sequence setting. FCP will automatically change your HDV clip into the proper aspect ratio, and all you have to do is use the Motion tab to size it properly.

One interesting thing you'll discover when doing this, the HDV resolution is so good compared to SD that if you want to zoom in tighter on a shot, you can do so (up to a point) and it will still look just as sharp as your original SD footage, if not sharper.

Bill,
Thanks for that information. I use Vegas 8 but the same applies. I had to crop the image to a 4:3 frame. I rendered out 4:3 best with lower fields and the image looks very good - has that film look which I think I will also apply to my SD 4:3 footage.

To do that I have to create a SD 4:3 double NTSC timeline and drop the 4:3 footage into it.

Thanks again.

Jim