Converting SD footage to HD footage

This is probably a common question on here but this is all new to me. Can I use my old jvc minidv camcorder to record regular footage, then use adobe cs3 to convert it to hd footage to make the quality better and/or burn blu ray discs? I have tried lookin on youtube for guides but nobody seems to answer the big question I have. I have used cs3 to make many personal video projects, but I am never happy with the picture quality. Even if I can not convert the footage to HD, is there anything I can do to sharpen it up a little to make it look somewhat better. Keep in mind I don't know anything about formats. Thanks.

>make the quality better... I don't know anything about formats
You can't make something out of nothing... or, UP-rezzing SD to HD is just going to make a blurry picture
The SD video from an SD camera is not going to be any more than you can do for DVD

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How to convert avchd footage when it's on your hard drive in your computer?

hey guys, I have a problem. I have a Sony Hdr-sr7 hard drive avchd camcorder and I can convert the footage to pro res just fine when i plug in my camera via usb. but when I download the avchd files (.mts .mt2s) to my mac hard drive I'm not able to convert then in the L&T window in FCP. Can you help me here? I have never been able to figure it out.
Thanks.

For L&T to recognise the AVCHD files, you need to preserve the full directory structure of the camera when you copy the footage to your Mac i.e. don't just copy across the folder which contains the AVCHD files.
Assuming you have the full directory structure in place on your Mac, point L&T to the top level directory.
There are also alternatives to L&T which don't require the full directory structure to be in place.
Toast9/10
Voltaic
VideoPier
Frank

Converting DVD Footage for Editing

It is always best to start the editing process with the highest quality, least compressed video format you can obtain. However, sometimes the only source you have for footage is from a DVD*. But since DVD footage is highly compressed and specially formatted as VOB files in order to meet the DVD-Video specification, the files on the DVD must be converted if you plan to edit them in Final Cut.
There are many apps available for converting DVD footage, but it is extremely important that you use the right tool for doing this if you plan to edit the footage. Beware that some apps, like Handbrake, are not designed to convert to an editing format. Using the wrong app can mean wasted time, unneeded quality loss due to multiple conversions, needless rendering in FCP and just plain frustrating.
The two recommended apps for conversion to an editing format are DVDxDV and MPEG Streamclip.
DVDxDV – http://www.dvdxdv.com/NewFolderLookSite/Products/DVDxDV.overview.htm
MPEG Streamclip – http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html
Nick Holmes has prepared an excellent, step-by-step tutorial on how to do this using the freeware application MPEG Streamclip which can be found here: http://www.secondchairvideo.com/?p=739 (thanks, Nick!). Be sure to read both parts.
-DH
* always make sure you have proper rights and licensing from the copyright owner when using any footage other than your own. DVDxDV and MPEG Streamclip should not be used to convert footage from commercially released DVDs.

Welcome to the Forum.
Search is your friend. Surely you jest about "can't find it anywhere". Just scan the posts for the last week or so. Also, read the FCP manual about what format can be edited within FCP.

I'm a bit confused. Since my original camera format was 720/60p, and I converted the footage to Pro Res422 in order to edit in Final Cut Pro 7, should I convert back to a higher quality format before sending the file to DVD Studio Pro?

I'm a bit confused. Since my original camera format was 720/60p, and I converted the footage to Pro Res422 in order to edit in Final Cut Pro 7, should I convert back to a higher quality format before sending the file to DVD Studio Pro? If so, which Compressor codec is best to use in order to preserve the original 720/60p? How do I maintain the highest quality?

No...ProRes is a high quality format. Finishing format. Many TV networks take that as a final deliverable.
BUT...DVDs aren't high definition...they are SD. You cannot make a 720p60 DVD with DVD Studio Pro. Any DVD you make will be SD...720x480. The only HD DVD format out there is BluRay, and for that you need a BluRay burner.
As for making a high quality DVD...using the BEST QUALITY settings in Compressor will work:
#42 - Quick and dirty way to author a DVD
Shane's Stock Answer #42 - David Roth Weiss' Secret Quick and Dirty Way to Author a DVD:
The absolute simplest way to make a DVD using FCP and DVDSP is as follows:
1. Export a QT movie, either a reference file or self contained using current settings.
2. Open DVDSP, select the "graphical" tab and you will see two little monitors, one blue, one green.
3. Select the left blue one and hit delete.
4. Now, select the green one, right click on it and select the top option "first play".
5. Now drag your QT from the browser and drop it on top of the green monitor.
6. Now, for a DVD from an HD source, look to the right side and select the "general tab" in the track editor, and see the Display Mode, and select "16:9 pan-scan."
7. Hit the little black and yellow burn icon at the top of the page and put a a DVD in when prompted. DVDSP will encode and burn your new DVD.
THATS ALL!!!
NOW...if you want a GOOD LOOKING DVD, instead of taking your REF movie into DVD SP, instead take it into Compressor and choose the BEST QUALITY ENCODE (2 pass VBR) that matches your show timing. Then take THAT result into DVD SP and follow the rest of the steps. Except you can choose "16:9 LETTERBOX" instead of PAN & SCAN if you want to see the entire image.

Converted 7D Footage to ProRes422(HQ) - But still choppy, Image freezes

I'm working with Canon 7D footage.
I've converted the footage to ProRes422(HQ) using Compressor but when I try to play it back in FCP 7, it the image freezes a few frames into the clip. Audio is fine.
Isn't this the right codec? Is it a setting in FCP that I am missing?
Please help.
L

ProRes422 (HQ) is overkill for the highly compressed H264 format that this camera shoots.
Transcode to regular ProRes or even ProRes LT. Going to HQ will not make the footage that you shot any better than it already is.
http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/resources/whitepapers/L342568A_ProResWP.pdf

FCE4 - can I convert HD footage to Standard Definition to put on a DVD

My Panasonic HD camcorder will only record in HD, with no option for Standard Def.
Can FCE4 convert HD footage so I can convert it as if SD and then transfer to DVD (rather than Bluray Disc).
Many thanks
Matt

You say that when you tried iDVD earlier you got jerky footage.
This sounds rather like the problem I discovered 18 months ago with my HDV camera.
Still shots were reck solid but any subject or camera movement (panning) resulted in unacceptable judder and shimmer.
There are 2 workarounds I eventually came across.
1. Use your camera to down-convert to DV-PAL as you capture and edit it as DV. However, if your camera can't down-convert you will have to use method 2.
2. Edit your AIC in the timeline. Then create a new DV-PAL (NTSC) Anamorphic sequence. Copy your edited HDV/AIC to the new sequence. Do not alter anything. Render the sequence ..... this will take a long time - up to twice the length of the project. Then File>Export>QuickTime Movie (Not Self-contained).
However, if you use the QT Movie in iDVD you will get a squashed 4:3 movie, so first of all you must make QT stretch it out to its proper 16:9 dimensions like this:-
a. Open the exported movie file in the QT Pro player.
b. Go to Window>Show Movie Properties.
c. Select the "Video Track" and in the "Visual Settings" panel uncheck "Preserve Aspect Ratio".
d. In the "Scaled Size" box set the width to 1024 pixels for PAL.
e. The "Video Track" will have turned grey, so click it to make it blue again.
f. The opened movie file will jump to 16:9.
g. Close it with the red button and click Save.
If you haven't got QT Pro you may be able to export using QT Conversion to DV-PAL, changing the output size to 1024x576.

Converting iPhone footage though MPEG Streamclip for FCE4

I'm trying to get the right settings to convert my footage from my iPhone4 to FCE4.0.1. I'm using the following settings when exporting to Quicktime in MPEG Streamclip:
Compression: AIC
FrameSize: 1280x720 (HDTV 720P)
Frame Rate 29.97
Frame Blend and Better Downscale on
Interlace Off
It seems to be stretching the footage a bit. I don't need HD, I don't think (would I notice a difference in Final Cut 4.0 anyway?). But I don't see another option that looks right. I tried this forum before and was recommended to do 1280 x 720 unscaled, but that option doesn't pop up in Streamclip (though it used to). Is that because I'm now using a different iPhone?
I'm using a MacBook Air with a USB connected external drive, 250 GB, with 70 Gig free. Formatted Mac OS Extended.
Any help much appreciated!

Read my article in this magazine...I talk about how to do this:
http://www.lafcpug.org/nabsupermag08.html
Shane

Converting SD footage edited in HD back to SD

Hi, I'm a FCP guy and have never used iMovie before. A colleague of mine edited a video using iMovie HD and brought it to me.
The problem is she shot her footage in SD, but edited it in HD. I'm not sure how, but she managed to edit her entire project without noticing that her SD footage had been stretched to fill an HD window.
I would like to convert this footage back into SD, without having to reedit everything. In FCP, I would simply change the sequence settings from HD back to SD using the DV NTSC codec. I am not sure how to do this in iMovie.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
-Alexi

+I am quite sure its HD (she used iMovie HD).+
Versions of iMovie 5 and 6 are both called iMovie HD. That does not mean that the footage was edited in HD; that is just the name of that iMovie version. The setting for HD has to be selected when the movie is created. Ask her if she did that or not. The default is SD, so if she did not change it, it is not in HD.

Can you Up-Convert SD footage to HD in Compressor? Question in 2 parts

Hi guys, this may sound silly but I have to ask if this is possible.
My question is in 2 parts!
1. I have SD Footage, shot with XL2 at 60i and I am trying to achieve best picture quality to burn in DVDSP.
Can I up-convert it to HD in Compressor 3? If so, which preset would I use?
2. If it is possible to up-convert SD footage to HD,
Can you still burn the up-converted HD video on a regular SD DVD in DVDSP if it fits on a single or dual layer disc?
Thank you,
Z

For starters, you can't make SD turn into HD. It's just not possible. Something was shot at a resolution of 720x480 which means it will never become 1280x720 or 1920x1280. That being said, there are hardware solutions called line doublers which can upscale for you, but those are expensive and not really what you even asked about so nevermind. Upscaling DVD players add pixels by interpolating info in between real pixels and adding what it think might go there. After this, filters are added to blend and soften and then some sharpening is added. I have seen DVD players that do a really nice job of this and others that don't.
Anyway, you can blow up your footage in compressor but not upscale as far as I know. The best quality footage however is going to be 720x480 since that is your source. This is especially true if you are playing back on an SD TV which only has a resolution of 720x480.
Did that help? I think I rambled a little.

Cheapest way to convert Pal footage from mini dv tape?

Hello All,
What is the cheapest way to convert PAL footage, I have a NTSC camera and believe I need to purchase a camera that plays/accepts PAL tapes. IAm I correct? Any suggestions? Thank you, Maria

As Michael notes, Compressor is the cheapest way to go.
There is an alternative from Graeme Nattress called the "Standards Converter" .
http://www.nattress.com/Products/standardsconversion/standardsconversion.htm
It sells for $100 US and is reported to be the best software converter out there.
x

Converting PAL footage to NTSC

I'm new to FCE and as I'm in the UK my work is PAL based. However, I've just filmed a wedding and one of the guests lives in the US. They'd like a copy and I want to find out how I could convert the footage over to NTSC.
Any advice? Is this possible in FCE?
I know that Final Cut Pro comes with Compressor 3 but this comes bundled.
Is there any other software out there?
Thanks.

you can do it in final cut, i have done the other way ntsc to pal and sent videos to england and ireland.
You just need to adjust your export to proper frames, i think we are 29.5 frmaes/ sec and screen size
then when you open idvd set new projects for ntsc then open a new project. i think it has to be a new project.
it will work. i have done it. There is some help in the help menue of idvd i think, it gives you the proper #'s

Converting .mpg footage

I have some very valuable footage that I was given in the .mpg format. The only app that could open it was VLC.
I tried to import it to FCP(6), but no dice, wouldn't take it.
Would like eventually to import for use in an apple prores timeline.
Any suggestions as to how to handle/convert this footage?
Many thanks,
MP

on OSX lion or later, quicktime X includes mpeg2 functionality. that is why you cannot buy - you own it already.
nevertheless, streamclip needs the component.
since i always have owned quicktime pro and still have quicktime 7 on my system, i never ran into that problem.
but many people do - there is some help on the square5 website. i found the text below in a forum post, it is from square5. just check whether this is correct for your version of streamclip.
good luck!
Apple states the component is unnecessary in Lion and Mountain Lion, however MPEG Streamclip still needs it.
To install the component in Lion or Mountain Lion, please download MPEG Streamclip 1.9.3b8 beta above; inside the disk image you will find the Utility MPEG2 Component M. Lion: use it to install the MPEG-2 Playback Component in Lion or Mountain Lion.
The original installer's disk image (QuickTimeMPEG2.dmg) is required.
The current versions of MPEG Streamclip cannot take advantage of the built-in MPEG-2 functionality of Lion and Mountain Lion.
For MPEG-2 files you still need to install the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component, which is not preinstalled in Lion and Mountain Lion.  You don't have to install QuickTime 7.

Best workflow for converting HD footage for broadcast?

I've been banging around the forums for a while tonight looking for someone who's been down this road before, but to no avail. Here goes...
We shoot a weekly "Top 20" show using a Sony XDCAM EX-1 @ 1080p. It's a Top 20 video countdown show, which means that along with my footage (a DJ in a studio as your Top 20 host), I incorporate graphics and music videos ripped from DVD's. The final product from all of this winds up on a local cable channel, which broadcasts SD.
I use the Sony XDCAM Xfer software to convert the data from the SxS card to QT files. (So far, so good.) I open up FCP and place these files into my project. Once I drag one of these clips into my timeline, I'm asked by FCP if I want to change the sequence settings to match the clip I'm putting onto the timeline. I answer "No" (because I've preset the FCP sequence settings to 720x480, since the cable channel broadcasts in SD. Could this be where I'm screwing up?) I bring everything into the timeline (including the ripped videos) and get everything edited nice and tight. But wait...
I've been staring at my Mac monitor this whole time. When I play the project back and look at it using the broadcast monitor, well...it looks sorta sick. Certainly not what I would expect from HD-to-SD footage. Everything looks pixelated and sorta blurry. If it looks this way in the studio, you can imagine what it looks like when it airs on TV. It's not pleasing to the eye.
I would ask about what the best way is to deliver a show like this to a cable channel, but since the stuff on my broadcast monitor looks so crappy, the problem's gotta be home-grown. What am I leaving out?

If you know you are going SD why film in HD at all?
Its not like you are going to be re-airing your shows down the road in HD,
Most likely, the video's you are ripping from DVD are not HD either...
Depending on the deck you are exporting your show to, some of them have a down convert feature, mine does Sony HVR-M25U.
I have a weekly show I do, but I do it all in SD until the channels it broadcasts on will take HD footage.
Though if I am doing a commercial, I usually shoot it HD and leave it HD

Is it Possible to Convert 60i Footage to 24p?

I was wondering if it's possible to convert footage shot in 60i to 24p and if it'll look good.
Like, if I took 60i footage and put it out at 24 FPS in progressive scan through compressor, would it take out the correct frames? Or would it look all weird?
Just curious if it looks good and if there's a good way to do it.

Probably your best bet would be http://www.nattress.com and his standards converter. Moves 60i to 24.
Good luck,
CaptM

Possible to convert video footage to slow motion?

Long story but I'm filming a short video in the style of the Intel TV ads (link below). Is there a way of converting footage I shoot into slow motion?
Have read discussion threads for other versions of iMovie, but not '08.
Thanks for any advice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqLPHrCQr2I

Yes. This feature is built in to iMovie 09, but for iMovie 08, you must pre-process with an external app such as JES DeInterlacer.
If you do a search of this discussion, you will find some posts that link to Karsten Schluter's web site where he gives detailed instructions.

Converting SD footage to HD footage

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