HD>SD downconversion Win/Premiere only

Paul R Johnson · December 29th, 2008, 07:02 AM

I've been fighting for weeks now getting HD material in AVCHD into premiere, and have been trying all sorts of up/down conversions - all either took forever or compromised image quality and made mixing SD and HD material impossible. The very first post in this topic mentioned the import HD into an SD project and then right click - scale to fit. I didn't know this function existed, and for what I'm doing has just saved me so much time and effort I really appreciate it! (Even if it hasn't solved the original question posed here!)

Thanks!

Vincent Oliver · December 29th, 2008, 07:09 AM

Glad I have been of some help to you Paul, it all seems like such a long road. I have a major project which I need to start on the 6th January and at the moment I may have to dust off my Canon XH A1 - even though I wanted to shoot this in NTSC - this was one reason for purchasing the EX3.

I am trying out some of the suggestions made by Perrone at the moment, and so far it has taken about 10 minutes to render a 1 minute file - and I am still only half way through it. My production is going to run to 120 minutes, using VirtualDub may take me a few days just to render.

Perrone Ford · December 29th, 2008, 08:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vincent Oliver

Glad I have been of some help to you Paul, it all seems like such a long road. I have a major project which I need to start on the 6th January and at the moment I may have to dust off my Canon XH A1 - even though I wanted to shoot this in NTSC - this was one reason for purchasing the EX3.

I am trying out some of the suggestions made by Perrone at the moment, and so far it has taken about 10 minutes to render a 1 minute file - and I am still only half way through it. My production is going to run to 120 minutes, using VirtualDub may take me a few days just to render.

Sorry Vincent, I should have mentioned that this stuff DOES take a while. However, you'll note that this is why Hollywood takes stuff to post houses with render farms! We're talking dozens of high speed computers to do what you are trying to do. And at about 2-2.5 hours per movie, about the same length of material!

When I have big renders like that I just let them run over a weekend. I am trying to find a faster way. That said, we are going to need to find you a faster and more efficient codec to use under the AVI banner. HuffYUV may be the answer.

-P

Vincent Oliver · January 3rd, 2009, 08:06 AM

Having spent many hours experimenting the best results I have achieved so far are by shooting in SP 1440 x 1080 60i (my project will be in NTSC). Dropping the footage straight into the Premiere timeline and then using Adobe Media Encoder output to MPEG2-DVD using NTSC Progressive Widescreen, Field order is set to None (Progressive).

The quality of output is outstanding. I shot the same sequence on my Canon XH A1 in SD mode and created a DVD, then compared the two and the Sony EX3 was far superior. I also tried setting the Field order to Lower and had problems with Moire patterns on blinds in the window, fence etc. I also ran the same footage through VirtualDub, and although a still capture showed the VirtualDub image to be better, it didn't show a marked difference on the actual footage. I can see why some people have recommended this, but for me it is just another process that gets in the way of my project.

ex3

p.s. using Field Order set to None (Progressive) produces a still that is identical to the VirtualDub image, i.e. the pixelation that is evident on the top shot leaves has now gone.

I also spoke with Sony UK yesterday and asked them what was the best method for converting to SD. They recommended shooting everything in HD (1920x1080) and use ClipBrowser to Export as an AVI file. Then dropping the AVI into your timeline. THis produced a horrid result, certainly not doing any justice to the EX3/EX1 camera.

For the time being dropping MPEG footage straight into the timeline as described above will produce a great looking movie. I will try some other techniques later on, but for now I will shoot my next DVD using this technique.

Thanks for all the help and advice.

December 29th, 2008, 07:09 AM	#17
Vincent Oliver Trustee Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Chislehurst, London Posts: 1,724	Glad I have been of some help to you Paul, it all seems like such a long road. I have a major project which I need to start on the 6th January and at the moment I may have to dust off my Canon XH A1 - even though I wanted to shoot this in NTSC - this was one reason for purchasing the EX3. I am trying out some of the suggestions made by Perrone at the moment, and so far it has taken about 10 minutes to render a 1 minute file - and I am still only half way through it. My production is going to run to 120 minutes, using VirtualDub may take me a few days just to render. __________________ Eyes are a deaf man’s ears. Ears are a blind man’s eyes

January 3rd, 2009, 08:06 AM	#19
Vincent Oliver Trustee Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Chislehurst, London Posts: 1,724	Having spent many hours experimenting the best results I have achieved so far are by shooting in SP 1440 x 1080 60i (my project will be in NTSC). Dropping the footage straight into the Premiere timeline and then using Adobe Media Encoder output to MPEG2-DVD using NTSC Progressive Widescreen, Field order is set to None (Progressive). The quality of output is outstanding. I shot the same sequence on my Canon XH A1 in SD mode and created a DVD, then compared the two and the Sony EX3 was far superior. I also tried setting the Field order to Lower and had problems with Moire patterns on blinds in the window, fence etc. I also ran the same footage through VirtualDub, and although a still capture showed the VirtualDub image to be better, it didn't show a marked difference on the actual footage. I can see why some people have recommended this, but for me it is just another process that gets in the way of my project. ex3 p.s. using Field Order set to None (Progressive) produces a still that is identical to the VirtualDub image, i.e. the pixelation that is evident on the top shot leaves has now gone. I also spoke with Sony UK yesterday and asked them what was the best method for converting to SD. They recommended shooting everything in HD (1920x1080) and use ClipBrowser to Export as an AVI file. Then dropping the AVI into your timeline. THis produced a horrid result, certainly not doing any justice to the EX3/EX1 camera. For the time being dropping MPEG footage straight into the timeline as described above will produce a great looking movie. I will try some other techniques later on, but for now I will shoot my next DVD using this technique. Thanks for all the help and advice. __________________ Eyes are a deaf man’s ears. Ears are a blind man’s eyes

December 29th, 2008, 07:02 AM	#16
Paul R Johnson Inner Circle Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Lowestoft - UK Posts: 4,016	I've been fighting for weeks now getting HD material in AVCHD into premiere, and have been trying all sorts of up/down conversions - all either took forever or compromised image quality and made mixing SD and HD material impossible. The very first post in this topic mentioned the import HD into an SD project and then right click - scale to fit. I didn't know this function existed, and for what I'm doing has just saved me so much time and effort I really appreciate it! (Even if it hasn't solved the original question posed here!) Thanks!