getting much sharper SD results from your HD footage
 

Downscaling HD footage using Avisynth | Fohdeesha Media

came out wayyy longer than it should have been. But oh well. Hope you all get as sharp results as I do!

It'd be interesting to see a comparison between this and Lanczos3 resizing that's available in VirtualDub. That's what I've been using to downconvert my EX1 videos to SD.

I was using Virtualdub to downrez my EX1 footage until the following method was posted online. This method works with every NLE that supports nesting that I've used:

1-open your HD footage as the appropriate HD type in your NLE. Save the sequence(no need to render, just save the sequence file, in Vegas it's called the .veg file)
2-start a new project in the SD format of your delivery media
3-open your HD sequence in the SD project
4-render

This method works great.

Using FCP I edit in HD sequence then open a SD sequence and transfer the whole project. So far this has been the best results for me. You can take either to Compressor for output.

Hey Paul

What are your settings for your SD project. There are so many choices in FCP I'm not sure which one to use. Thanks

Mick Haensler
Higher Ground Media

It varies project to project depending on what the client is looking for with regard to output.

But you should look at DVCPRO50-NTSC Anamorphic quality 100%. But then again I have also had excellent results in Compressor bringing in the XDCAM EX1 then going to DVD settings. When you do this you can refine your choice and do a custom setting. I just sent out three DVD's this way to a client and they thought it was HD and I told them no it is DVD quality. Does not mean they know what they are always looking at but then again a very happy client.

Also H.264 has given great results. There are so many options to choose from. I suggest you experiment with a clip you like the quality and just go for it. From my experience it is worth the time.

There's a point where sharpening to SD goes too far and you get buzzing, ringing, moire patterns etc. Hard to expect incredible sharpness and clarity from 720x480 pixels. :)

Noah

Sharpness has never been a problem for me. If anything I have had to add some softening to avoid jaggies and aliasing. I normally render out from FCP using compressor.

Lanczos3 is also available in avisynth, but spline36 is a couple steps up. A good description of all the algorithms is here - AfterDawn.com: Guides: Using AviSynth 2.5 (page 9/12): Resize Filters

Thanks Paul

I also use the HD timeline to SD timeline and render way in FC. Had great results. We used a DV timeline to be able to make a DV master. This was then brought to the TV station and broadcasted. Looked great when I watched it at my 42" Plasma at home (broadcasted, digital SD signals)

I've been struggling with this problem SO much as many of my clients want my footage delivered to them in SD (AND in 4:3) as they want to edit their own stuff. Some of them want .avi while others can use .mov. I'm getting such sketchy results that maybe I'm missing something really simple. It seems like there are so many ways to screw this up and I've found most of them!

Dave,

The key I have found is to make sure you start with progressive footage! It always looks bad when you go from Upper Field first HD to lower field first SD. If you have HDV in 1080i instead of progressive, then here is what you need to do:
1) Take your edited HD sequence in FCP.
2) Create as others have said an SD sequence, but MAKE SURE THE FIELD DOMINANCE IS SET TO NONE!!! It usually defaults to lower field first!!!
3) Drag your HD sequence to it, render and output.

If the SD sequence is set to lower field first then it will look HORRENDOUS! Try it out...make one lower field, drag an interlaced HD sequence into it, you'll see all sorts of weird jaggies and bad interlaced artifacts. Then click "Sequence settings" and then make it "none" for field dominence. You'll then need to click on the timeline somewhere and it'll "snap" into great clarity!

It took me a LONG time to figure this out! Now, I give you this knowledge for free!! :) Seriously, this may not be the issue your having, but it was for me!

Paul you make an excellent point.

"2) Create as others have said an SD sequence, but MAKE SURE THE FIELD DOMINANCE IS SET TO NONE!!! It usually defaults to lower field first!!!"

How do these settings look on a broadcast monitor? Computer monitors are one thing and they all look better with progressive (i.e. non-interlaced/field dominance) settings but not on an interlaced CRT monitor.

That's my lowest common denominator when it comes to video output and my experience has been if it looks great there it will look great anywhere.

I have an AJA Kona card, I output from FCP to a Sony CRT XBR 34" HD monitor. It looks GREAT! It's the only way I've been able to get it to look great on a real TV! I've also made DVDs using this method and played them on other monitors. Again, it looks nice and clean, no exagerated jagged edges to everything.

Give it a try with a short clip or two!

From FCP I just export to ProRes and drag that file into compressor. Drag one of the standard Dvd settings onto it and you get beautiful progressive anamorphic video that many people think is HD. Played on a progressive scan player hooked up the right way its just amazing.

Nathan, I've never exported as ProRes. What file format is it....mov?

Yeah, they come out as .mov files. Its essentially an Quicktime codec but the quality is fantastic (even if you don't use the HQ setting) just watch out for the file sizes, they are huge! something like 60gigs an hour at the non-HQ setting

So many people have flat panels now I've just started sending out nothing but anamorphic Dvd's. I put a little explanation in there with the Dvd in case someone's Dvd player isn't set right...

HD tO SD with animation
 

Most of the times coming from HD (XDCAM 25P) to SD (DV) , taking all the files In FCP from the HD Timeline to the SD one, I have to resize most of the animation, graphic layers (adobe), etc.... How do U manage that ?
Sometimes, in fact I'am doing two times a part of the job in HD to deliver DVD and in SD to deliver DVCAM tape.

Bruno

I do what several people have adviced: Edit in HD - create a DV sequence with codec ProRes 422 (HQ) - drag the HD sequence to the DV sequence - export to a QuickTime movie (not self-contained) with item settings - transcode with Compressor with Best DVD-setting. For the first time I am content with the result.

However, a small amount of sharpening is still benificial. Right now I am testing the sharpening filter in Compressor: 2,5 ; 5 ; 7,5 ; 10. More than 10 is already ruled out.

Result is almost as HD, at least in on my 1280x720 plasma screen on normal watching distance.

Hi Bruno,
Huge mistake. You need to just drag the sequence from the browser into the SD timeline. Don't copy and paste the clips etc.

Thanks !
 

It's may save me a few hours of work on my coming project !

I am going for the sharpening filter at 5 %.

Are you others using this filter?

Thanks Paul. I'm a little confused about number 3. If I am making a DVD do I need to output a self contained Quickime movie to put into compressor or can I just export directly from the rendered SD sequence?

Kevin,

I always make a self contained QT movie. Mainly so I have that as a MASTER SD file. Then I drag that into compressor and make my MPG. I've read that you can output to Compressor from the FCP SD timeline, but it always takes longer to export via Compressor from FCP.

Kevin, just wanted to thank you (and others) for your suggestions. I had a 2 hour "clip" that I had to export to a SD DVD and the conversion went fine. This was a legal-type recording session so I had to lay some faux timecode into the corner of the screen which is easy to do in Compressor. While I realize that this is a HD to SD downconversion, I was still a little unhappy with the sharpness of the resulting file. I created a 16:9 anamorphic version of the file and made the SD DVD 16:9 as well. If I wanted to add some sharpening to this downconversion, would it be applied to the original timeline or could I add it during Compressor's work?

Add it in Compressor. I set sharpening to 5.

MPEG Streamclip
 

One of the best scalers I've ever used is included in MPEGStreamClip which is available both for Mac and Win here: Squared 5 - MPEG Streamclip video converter for Mac and Windows . Free :-)

Workflow: Export your HD Cut (selfcontained not mandatory), open that file in MPSC,
choose codec for target file (ProRes or the likes, MotionJPEG is also a good candidate),
choose target frame size (e.g. 720x576 for PAL), save and import that target file in
compressor.

Hope this helps, Pe.

Peter,

Never occured to me to use MPEG STREAMCLIP!! I'll try it out as I use it all the time to extract files from DVDs.

Thanks for the idea!

Anyone actually tried this on Vista?

To open an m2t(v) file, MPEGStreamClip complains that my Quicktime MPEG-2 Playback Component is missing and advises to replace my current, official Quicktime support installation with some 1.81 Alternative...

Would like to try this workflow, but will all my other apps depending on the Quicktime components (like Vegas Pro) not suffer?

Quicktime MPEG-2 Playback Component
 

Piotr, the Quicktime MPEG-2 Playback Component is an additional component to all others you have as it is an additional feature. Does not replace anything afaik. I do not understand quite well, however, why you want to scale down an m2t(v) file. I always scale down the original edit file and encode that to mpeg2. or did I miss something?

Best pe.

I still don't see why you don't just edit your HD footage in an SD-sized sequence in an SD timeline, then export at SD. Alternatively, you could just edit in HD, export as Quicktime and smoosh that down in Compressor.

I have never seen those "muddy and soft looking" results that the article talks about.

I Agree. I edit in HDV and drag the HD sequence into a new SD timeline. I get excellent results. Or I edit HDV in an SD timeline. The main thing is to downconvert in the timeline rather than make a Quicktime movie on export from HD to SD. That will give you bad results. Simple,.. just dont do it that way. I work mainly for TV broadcast. If I am burning to DVD I export to Compresser from the timeline via the SD choices and get amazing results.

Mpeg Streamclip ...
 

I extract this way all the time and it works very well. You simply drag the VOB onto your desktop and open Streamclip and choice the VOB. It will repair linkage of the files and from there you can choose in and out points to make that segment a separate file or export the whole piece to another format. Works brilliantly!