Conversion 720p -> 1080i
 

I was wondering if anyone explored the options for convering the HD100 native 720p 30fps to 1080i. I might need to do that with small chunks of footage (max. 10 min). It needs to be delivered in native file format including sound, either as HDV tape or a file burned to a DVD.

Thank you for any suggestions.

Apple's Compressor does a very good job (since the FCP5 update) of scaling and converting between formats.

If you can deal with Quicktimes, it's a cheap and good way to go.

FCP5 itself can do a good job too, but you have to check your work. If you export/convert in one fashion, it'll do a good job, but if you do it in another it'll be not-so-hot.

Nate, does using Apple Compressor mean that the footage will be compressed? (I am an Avid guy...) And, what format will it convert to? The transport stream?

You can convert to all sorts of codecs/formats...

What I'd do if it needed to be HDV format ("HDV tape or file burned to DVD") would be to:

1-Capture the 720p30 as native (not AIC) in FCP
2-Convert the captured Quicktime file (which is native HDV inside a QT file) using Compressor to 1080i60 HDV.
3-Import that new file back into FCP and "Print to Tape"

That flow, if compressor converts correctly (and I think it should), only causes one generation of recompression loss.

The only thing that would be tough on the Mac would be to get it back to native m2t...although maybe Lumiere can do that. None of the Apple products deal in m2t yet.

Thanks Nate, I will try that.

Are you saying that it is possible to print 1080i back to the HD100?? or would you need a 1080i cam/deck to print to?

You need a 1080i deck/camera. The HD100 won't record 1080i.

Nate,
I have been able to export .m2t streams from Compressor. Use the MPEG2 option and then under extras select the option to create a transport stream. You can also select the compression level that you want. Works pretty good. You could use DVHSCap to put the file back to tape.

Dan Weber