Adobe Media Encoder interlacing issues Sony XDCAM MXF to ProRes files
 

Hi folks -
I guess my question is mainly - 25i or 50i?

Am working in the UK on a Mac Pro suite with 10.7 OS and working in FCP 7. I'm having a weird issue getting Sony F5 footage into FCP 7 - the footage has been shot in XDCAM format to make it easier for us this end and I have been using Adobe Media Encoder CC 2014 to convert all MXF clips to ProRes 422 for the edit.

My issues is: XDCAM native format is 1920 x 1080 50i - I have been converting to ProRes 25i - which seems fine in FCP 7 until you load it into the viewer and then it looks dreadful (see photo hopefully attached) however on timeline /Canvas and on broadcast monitor it seems fine.

I went back to AME and converted to ProRes 50i and so it comes in FCP 7 with 50 frames instead of 25 - the footage looks better across viewer, canvas and monitor (freeze frame is less 'interlacey' on monitor) but my timeline is saying in needs rendering- presumably due to the 50 fps.

Which one should I be using?! They both look fine on the monitor - although 50i looks better on freeze as mentioned. All my footage is now at ProRes 25i and I have 8 rolls of media. Ideally I'd like to not have to redo and rename all of these but as it's for broadcast, it's got to be right.

Any help much appreciated!
Thanks in advance
Em

Re: Adobe Media Encoder interlacing issues Sony XDCAM MXF to ProRes files
 

Little update on this - for some reason FCP 7 is reading these clips as progressive. Not entirely sure why.
I have changed within FCP and it has corrected the problem. When I drag the clips into a media reading program it tells me they are interlaced, so I think this is ok.
Finding AME a not entirely easy way to convert media. Shame it isn't more intuitive with reading original media settings.
Any thoughts welcome...

Re: Adobe Media Encoder interlacing issues Sony XDCAM MXF to ProRes files
 

Not a Mac user so not sure what the problem is, however I would like to point out that 25i and 50i refer to the exact same thing. There are 25 FRAMES of interlaced video, and there are 50 FIELDS in those 25 frames. Sometimes referred to a 25i, sometimes 50i, but it's the same video format. Depends who is listing the spec, the camera maker or the NLE, they all have their own idea of how to list it.

Same thing for NTSC users, it can be called 30i or 60i, but it is the same.

If you get into progressive video, 1080p or 720p, then there are different frame rates.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers