HELP! SD to HD edit

[Langdon Rodda]

Any help or advice for this problem greatly appreciated...

I shot the preparations at a wedding last year with the Canon 7D, at full HD and at 24fps (have since changed to 25fps).

The files were converted to standard (PAL) .dv files with MPEGStreamclip and edited in Premier, and the DVDs produced, all good.

BUT... the couple also want a BluRay of the edit.

We've done this in the past by creating a new HD project, importing the SD project into it (re-directing each dv file reference to the equivalent HD file), creating a new set of HD sequences, then copying and pasting the complete set of clip references from each SD sequence into the relative HD sequence.

Are you with me?

This worked for the footage from our Sony Z7, and looks fine in Premier - but when exported, there are noticeable artefacts whenever there's any movement in the new HD file. - sort of like what you see when there's an interlacing issue (but the Canon footage is P, not I.. !?!)

We've tried 'interpreting as 25fps'. Still no luck. We've spent hours and hours on trying to produce a usable HD version of the edit, so far without luck.

Any thoughts, anyone?

Many thanks,

Langdon

Life in Motion
Melbourne, Australia

[Sareesh Sudhakaran]

Have you exported to Bluray and checked? Or are the 'artifacts' only visible from your timeline?

[Langdon Rodda]

Hi Sareesh,

the artefacts (shaky video bits) aren't visible in the timeline at all - only when exported to the BluRay file. Then, they're obvious on both the computer screen and when played on the TV.

Thanks for any ideas...!

Langdon

[Sareesh Sudhakaran]

It's going to be tough without specific information, but I'll take a stab at it:

What are your SD project settings? The one that works and goes out to DVD?

What are your HD project settings? When you import the SD project into the HD project, how do you interpret the 25fps dv file? PAL can have two pixel aspect ratios depending on whether the footage is 4:3 or 16:9. Furthermore, you can have 16:9 letter-boxed within a 'permanent' 4:3 aspect ratio. How have you gone about it? When you link the files back to their original H.264 7D files, how do you go about it (24fps in 25fps)?

What are the Bluray encoder settings? Are you using Encore or another authoring software? If exporting from Premiere, it would write out a temporary H.264 file before writing it on to the disc. Play back this file: does it have the motion artifact issue? Render out a simple H.264 MP4 or AVI (30 seconds or so): Does this show artifacts?

The idea is to eliminate each step one by one. One test you can run quickly is to take the 7D footage (unchanged - exactly where the artifacts pop up - 30 seconds or so), put it on a timeline that has the same HD project settings and export to the H.264 file. Does it still show artifacts?

If you absolutely certain about your final encoder settings and your source footage, the issue would definitely boil down to the HD project settings and the way you have interpreted those files to match your SD timeline.

An honest question: Why haven't you edited the footage directly in HD? Why the triple transcoding from H.264 to DV to MPEG-2?

[Langdon Rodda]

Thanks so much Sareesh, your time is really appreciated.

I'll have to get back to you with all the settings (and who knows, we may discover something obvious along the way that's the answer to the problem).

Why the multiple encoding/replacing of formats? Our main editor's machine wasn't up to editing the HD files at the time (he works from home) so we left the HD BluRay encoding to our fast(er) editing computer at our studio, after he'd completed the SD edit at his place.

The process I've described isn't really triple encoding (though it sounds like it) - when the SD dv file references are replaced in the HD edit with the mov files, we're going back to the original source files from the camera in the sequences.

We've done plenty of other edits with the Canon mov files (even some shot in 24fps) without the jagged movement problem. So I can only think it's something to do with the way Premier originally worked with the dv files - something that's carried over to the HD edit with the 24fps files. (?)

Anyway, I'll do some investigating and report back.. thanks again.

Langdon

[Rainer Listing]

Originally Posted by Langdon Rodda

We've done this in the past by creating a new HD project, importing the SD project into it (re-directing each dv file reference to the equivalent HD file), creating a new set of HD sequences, then copying and pasting the complete set of clip references from each SD sequence into the relative HD sequence.

Sorry if this sounds obvious and therefore silly, but if you still have clip references to your original footage, could you just make a 24 (p) fps Blu Ray from your original material? Assuming your client's player and TV were capable of 24fps, which I understand they mostly are nowadays.