blurry text
 

System:

Dual processor G5 1 gig ram
Final Cut HD

Problem:
After rendering, my text becomes noticeably blurry as I play a clip--before rendering the text is crisp and after there is a distinct difference. When I keep the playhead still the text becomes crisp, but as soon as I play the clip it becomes blurry again. I've played it on a television and it still looks blurry. I have tried different fonts. I import text from powerpoint or livetype and it's still blurry. I don't remember this problem happening before, and it seems odd that it became a problem all of a sudden. It's stumped everybody that's looked at it.

Any suggestions?

Michael

I'm looking forward to an explanation because that has happened to me several times and I can't figure it out either.

I think it's a bug. I always noticed it too and thought it was the DV codec that was softening it, BUT, then I was enlightened.

If you use the X,Y under the motion tabs rather than just grabbing the crosshaired picture and moving it, the text will remain crisp. So, after you put in your text, go under motion to move it and you should be good.

Hope they fixed this in FCP5.

KW

I figured that one out a while ago. I don't know why it does that either. You would think that moving the text on the screen shouldn't differ from one function to another.

I think the problem that Michael brought up is a different issue though. His issue was when you bring in a text slug over top of a video clip and in the pre-rendered still clip it looks fine, but once rendered the text will appear blurry. It's happened to me with text, graphics, other video clips, etc. It doesn't happen all the times, just once in a while.

Thanks for the replies. Just to clarify the text becomes blurry without any motion applied--only after rendering. So I don't think the X, Y solution would apply. Also, the blur problem happens all the time, not just some of the time for me. Do you know if anyone at apple is working on this?

Thanks,

Michael

Along the same lines, I am having the exact same problem with my whole canvas picture. Press play, picture appears blurry. Press pause, picture appears crystal clear. I have discovered that there is a direct relationship between the size you are viewing the image and the blur. For instance, if you make the picture 100% and drag your window size out so that you can see the whole picture with grey around it, the blur problem occurs. If you make it so that it is still just as big but the blue slider bars appear to the right and below the picture, the blur does not occur. Does this have anything to do with the RAM? I have the G5 with Dual 2.5's and have 2.5 gigs of RAM.

Has anyone still had the same problem after authoring to DVD? If it is not a problem on the DVD, than I will chalk it up as a minor annoyance. I have not made any DVD's yet as I have just gotten my G5 and am working on my first few projects.

hello
 

i am having similar issues with final cut 5, did anyone have any answers to this?

We are familiar with this issue and it seem that once you write the video and burn a DVD the problem with blur on the text is not there. It is annoying and wish they would come up with a fix for it. We are operating Mac G5 / added 2.5 gig RAM and use 2-23" cinema displays. Thought maybe it might have been a distortion caused by the displays but I don't think that is the case. Do a test burn on a DVD and see what it looks like on a good monitor or TV.
John

Check your render settings in the "Sequence" pull down menu and on the timeline! Don't use "unlimited RT" unless you know what you are doing.

A dark green line in the timeline indicates that the computer should be able to playback in full resolution. A bright green line means that the computer can only playback in "Preview" or half-resolution hence the "blur". Check the "Render All" & the "Render Selection" commands so the program will render Preview areas if you want.

Compressor will render preview areas while creating files but these aren't saved.

A word on titles. When using the Final Cut titler I always use the crosshairs in the control tab of the titler window to place the title in the proper place on the screen. I never have a problem with jittery or unsharp titles. Never drag the title frame around on the Canvas! It can set the titles in fractions of a pixel which plays havoc with the rendering.

Well, text and DV don't mix. It isn't a bug, it is the nature of DV. DV is compressed 5:1. Add text to that and the text will incur the DV compression and look horrid.

You're best bet is to lock you edit, then drop your sequence into a DV50 timeline and render, or uncompressed 8-bit. Some higher resolution format. Then your text will look much better.

This will work if you are outputting to DVD or uncompressed format, but if you are going back out to DV, then this won't work.

Cleaning up Text over DV footage
 

Found this Free filter on Nattress.com which may help you solve you text over DV problems. The effect is called "G Low Pass" may clear up some of your problems.

Here's a direct link: http://nattress.com/Free/freeFCP.htm

Here's 2 things that fixed this for me:

1) I only shoot and edit in 30p now. (until I get a 24p cam). I have not seen this issue since.

2) Before that (when working with 29.97/60i), once I moved the text. and lets say the X, Y was 120.34 x 100.56 (made up numbers, just an example), if I got rid of the decimals to just 120 and 101, it corrected it.

Just my 2 cents. Hope it helps someone.