Hdv sequence present - field dominance

Hi,
I captured HDV footage in FCE using the easy setup: HDV - Apple Intermediate Codec 1080i50. The footage was shot in PAL with a Sony HVR - 1P.
Now when I define sequences using the preset: Apple Intermediate Codec 1440x1080i50 and add the captured footage, I get a message about matching sequence and clip settings.
Turns out the clips have Field Dominance set to None and the sequence to Upper (Odd).
What do I need to go with? Keep it as Upper (Odd) or match clip and go with None.
I also dont understand why sequence preset has it set to that? I know its to do with interlacing and PAL starts at the first line. But I haven't had to do anything before with this when editing DV.
thanks

Clip properties
Vid Rate: 25fps
Frame Size: 1440 x 1080
Compressor: Apple Intermediate Codec
Data Rate: 2.8 MB/sec
Pixel Aspect: HD (1440x1080)
Anamorphic:
Field Dominance: None
Audio: 1 Stereo
Aud Rate: 48.0 KHz
Aud Format: 16-bit Integer
Sequence properties with easy setup -> Apple Intermediate Codec 1440x1080i50
Vid Rate: 25fps
Frame Size: 1440 x 1080
Compressor: Apple Intermediate Codec
Data Rate:
Pixel Aspect: HD (1440x1080)
Anamorphic:
Field Dominance: Upper (Odd)
Audio: 2 Outputs
Aud Rate: 48.0 KHz
Aud Format: 32 - bit Floating Point
Ignore the PAL in my comment. The footage was shot in HDV and the setting on the camera was 1080i and 25fps.

Similar Messages

Exporting from After Effects (field dominance issues?)

Hi all,
I created a FCP DV/NTSC sequence with field dominance set to none (I'm working with still images, this improves the quality a lot). I then export that sequence as a quicktime movie file and import that movie file into After Effects.
The problem is after I'm done working in After Effects, I can't export a quicktime file without it looking really poor quality. When exporting, I preserve all the original FCP sequence settings, except the field dominance settings(doesn't seem to be an option in After Effects for this?).
So pretty much I am trying to get a sharp picture when exporting in After Effects, so I can take it back into FCP. Please assist.

Your workflow is quite limited by the DV NTSC sequence. If your sequence is all stills, you are not necessarily tied to that setting at all. Do you need to output to a VTR via FireWire ultimately? What is your final output?
A better sequence choice might be DV50. You would export a QT movie, current settings. You don't actually export from After Effects. You render by adding your comp to the Render Queue. Good render settings would be DV50 (this would not require rendering in FCP), Animation, or perhaps ProRes 422 HQ if you have access to it. You would choose not to render fields.
If it's all stills, it would be better yet to simply start in After Effects.

HDV to DVD-Change Field Dominance Or Not?

A search I did recently pointed to this article:
[http://www.larryjordan.biz/articles/bkhdvconvert.html]
The author claims that when exporting an HDV sequence from FCP to Compressor, he changed the default field dominance from Upper to Lower, resulting in a better quality DVD, smoother motion, etc.
There wasn't anything wrong with my HDV exports using the default upper dominance, but I decided to try it, just looking to squeeze out any improvement I could.
The results were terrible; awfully jerky motion, dot crawl across the top of the image, etc., so I went back to using the default.
But then I thought, I wonder if the improvement the author saw was because he exported an HDV Quicktime Movie first, then put that into Compressor and switched the field dominance . . .
I usually export my HDV timeline right out of FCP to best quality DVD in Compressor, without the in between step. Just wondering if anyone else has tried it the way it's mentioned in the article, and if it's made a difference for them.

Wow, this thread was way back there;
Anyway, I use a Sony V1U, and shoot 1080i60, and I had been getting acceptable results, but was just looking for a bit more detail.
After reading the article, I sent a finished project to Compressor both ways; 1st with the default upper field dominance, and then again changing it to lower, as the article recommended. The default upper file looked pretty good, but the 2nd time with it on lower looked terrible; all kinds of motion displacement.
I've been using the default since, and have not tried it the other way since that first time. When I get time, I'd like to try exporting a QuickTime movie first, then put that into Compressor with the switched lower dominance to see if there's any improvement that way. I usually just export directly to Compressor from the timeline.
I appreciate the comments, and I'm always interested in any setting changes that might squeeze out some more detail when going from HDV to DVD.

Will setting sequence field dominance to "NONE" effect resolution?

First, thanks all for the title help. It looks like i might have it licked. From this point however comes a new question.
The only way to keep my titles clear and free from flicker is to set the imported livetype .mov file's field dominance to "none" and place it in a sequence that also has a field dominance set to "none". Great. now i need to put the title sequence on my master time line (project time line of 1hr 20min) which exists in a sequence set to the standard field dominance of "Lower" and which is made up of an hour and a half worth of clips that are all set to "lower" as well.
My question(s) is this-
While i understand what field dominance is doing as an upper and lower, what does none do?
Currently the project (under the settings above) is rendering as i have changed the master sequence's FD setting to none. I haven't changed the individual clip settings to none due to my ignorance on the issue, only the title sequence has the same settings. Put another way- I'm currently rendering a sequence that has its field dominance set to "none". On this sequence, i have several clips that have their field dominance set to "lower", and one clip (my livetype title clip) has its field dominance set to "none". I've done all this in order to prevent flicker on my livetype scrolling titles.
Q: Should i do this?
Q: Will i suffer a loss of resolution on the clips that have a field dominance that is different from their sequence?
Q: Will keeping them different effect the export and eventual dvd burn of the project?

Your better off NOT making a movie from LiveType, but importing the LiveType project file and rendering in FCP. Leave your field dominance settings to match your clips. If you set to NONE, that is for Progressive scanned footage. You will lose clarity on your clips. But don't just ask and listen here... do it. Change the sequence from Lower to None and look very closely at a still frame. You will see that you have lost the "jaggies" but at the cost of edge clarity.

Field Dominance Question for Sequence

I shot my video in DVCPro50 format at 30p. I have edited my video in a DV50 sequence. I am ready to take to a production house to be transferred to BetaSP. In the past with other videos I take the finished sequence and nest it into a Uncompressed 8-bit NTSC sequence and that is what I give to production house. In this Uncompressed 8-bit sequence should I select Field Dominance: None or Field Dominance: Lower (even)?
Thanks for your help!

If someone could help me out to confirm this. I would rather do this right than find out when my commercial is broadcast that I messed up the field dominance.
My final sequence is being transferred to BETASP. I take to the production house an uncompressed 8 bit NTSC sequence.
If I understand this correctly my uncompressed sequence will have a field dominance of lower if the original footage was SD.
If my original footage was HD than my uncompressed sequence should have the field dominance set to upper.
So the uncompressed sequence that is transferred to BETASP has a field dominance set by the original footage?
Thanks for taking the time with this.
Darrin

Is there any way I can see field dominance?

I have been working on a project shot in HDV1080i50. Now I need to make a 14by9 PAL master in DigiBeta format. So I create an umcompressed PAL sequence and drop the final AIC 1080i50 version of the program into it.
Sending the uncompressed file off to be printed to DigiBeta the bureau says the fields are reversed. My problem is that I can't find any way to see the final project to see if I have got the field dominance right. Does anyone know of a tool that would let me look at the fields in the final Uncompressed print I generate. (when I play it on the computer screen it appears to play fine since computer monitors don't do interlaced)
thanks,
Paul Shard
Dual 1GHz Mac OS X (10.4.3) 1.75GB ATI9800, FCStudio

Hi Paul,
I've been battling these same issues, making DVD's from HDV footage, I didn't go via AIC, or out to a bureau, though.
I found that, the uncompressed codec, when dropped into compressor, is defaulted to a different field dominance than a DV codec, even though they were both lower field dominant in the FCP sequence.
I needed to manually change the dominance of the uncompressed movie, to lower, before I created an MPEG 2.
Can you tell the bureau to do the same ? That your footage is correct (lower first) but that they are not treating the uncompressed file as such.
What are they using, once you have given the file to them - compressor ?
The shift field filter is right. But the whole thing is quite confusing, and I found the default field dominance in compressor was different, if I printed an uncompressed file out, or exported directly from FCP to compressor (which is very slow, but does not require the uncompressed file).
However, regardless of the default compressor set, lower field dominance was correct, and the saved movie was correct for lower field.
Hope this helps.

Why Would Upper Field Dominance Change The Quality Of My SD So Much?

I did a shoot in SD and edited it as such of course. The thing is when I was done, all of my slow motion looked echoy (a plague of mine if you're not familiar with my posts) and generally looked a bit lower quality then even SD usually gives. So I freaked out (finally) and found a guy on line that suggested changing the field dominance to Upper and to make sure that I have my Video Processing set to "Fastest Linear". Now this was a guy that has had this posted for a couple of years, so it wasn't like he actually told me this directly.
Well, it worked. The video looks good, slow motion is nice and smooth. Just for fun, plus the fact that I don't have a clue what I'm doing, I decided to see what it would look like leaving the processing the to Fastest and change the dominance to lower, and behold, the cruddy video plague of mine returned. It seems like everywhere else I look, people say not to do this, but it worked. Why? I do know what the dominance of upper and lower are, I'm just not smart enough to know why it worked and I want to learn this badly. For example, would I do this same dominance for HD?
Thanks again guys,
Crayton

I filmed it in SD on my Sony HDV-AU1 camera. What is killing me is if I choose upper then the footage looks fine, but then what I have done is add some jpeg images that I created in photoshop on a PC. they are simple images of text that say "Round 1" or "Round 2" in between the fights. I have them spin into view using one of the transitions in FCP, but when I get it to dvd, they look horrible, echoy, just like the footage looked like before I changed it to upper field. So as it looks now, I can't have both look good i guess. This doesn't make sense to me!! It is incredibly frustrating especially since I'm out of money and almost out of time on this project (it has to be done by next week). I keep re-doing the project, re-building it, re-setting it in one type of sequence after another and it's not looking good at all. what am I doing wrong?

Basic Field Dominance question

In Tom Wolsky's FCE HD3.5 Editing Workshop book (xlnt), he mentions setting Field Dominance to None when working in 24p, but I'm unclear what this does and whether it applies to my situation:
I'm shooting 24p HDV on Canon HV20, exporting to QT movie, burn in iDVD. DVD to be played on generic DVD players - not going to Sundance.
Also, if I should be setting Field Dominance to None, when should this be done - before rendering, before exporting to QT, or ???

Most consumer cameras don't shoot true 24p. They shoot pseudo 24p recorded at 29.97. The material is still interlaced with a pulldown cadence. Pull the canvas up to 100% and step through the video at a point where there is some motion. If the HV20 uses the normal 2:3:2:3 pulldown you'll see a cadence of two frames without interlacing, then three frames with interlacing, then two without and so on. That's how movies are mashed onto television; four frames of film are spread over five frames or 10 fields of video. Changing the sequence field dominance to none doesn't affect the captured material in any way; it only affects how anything that needs to be rendered in the sequence is rendered. It should render it without interlacing.

HDV sequence settings???

This is my first HDV project and I've digitized all my footage (HDV 1080i) BUT need to know the correct settings for my sequence.... this is what I have so far and would like to know if this is correct?
Frame Size: 1920x1080 Aspect Ratio HDTV 1080i (16x9)
Pixel Aspect Ratio: NTSC, anamorphic 16:9 is checked
Field Dominance: lower even
Editing Timebase - 29:97
QuickTime Video Settings
Compressor: HDV 1080i60
And the rest is fine except should the Depth be at 16-bit or 24-bit?
Thanks!!!

"Will the Pro Res give me the BEST HDV output"
Generally, it is accepted that it will provide the best quality while maintaining efficiency.
But not to "output from Compressor", instead, output from FCP to Compressor.
There have been plenty of discussions recently about this workflow. It'd be more efficient to use "Search" than for someone to spell it out again.

Workaround for compressor HDV to DVD field issue?

I need a work around for the field issue apparent when down-converting HDV to DVD.
The Bonsai method <http://www3.telus.net/bonsai/Welcome.html> will not work, as there is too much motion and a side effect of the "fastest" conversion is that it gives a 3-d ghosting effect on fast motion in the frame.
I can not convert to 720P60 or 480P, as FCP converts it to 30P and then doubles the frames, and the motion is jittery.
I could dump it to camera and then down-convert in camera, but I have heard this is not a great method either.
I have seen in another forum to save the HDV timeline in FCP as a HDV quicktime movie, and then import that into DVD studio pro and have it down-convert, but DVD studio pro says this is an "incompatible file".
How do I get 1080i HDV footage onto a DVD so that it looks acceptable?

I had a similar problem with HDV (1080i shot on Cannon HV-20) footage, looks great in post and terrible when converted (herringbone lines and too many artifacts.) I’ve successfully used the Bonsai method on another piece I did but the footage was shot on a HVX-200 at 720 24p and there were no “action” shots. I wasn’t as successful using the method using 1080i footage and it definitely didn’t help with the fast motion shots. I did a search in this forum on HD to SD and there are a lot of helpful hints and methods. I experimented with a lot of the suggestions but in the end I was able to produce very nice and acceptable results by doing the following:
1] I didn’t create an SD sequence; I exported the footage as a Quicktime movie (self contained) straight from my HDV sequence.
2] I dropped the Quicktime file into Compressor and selected 90-minute DVD Anamorphic Best 2-pass VBR. Running Compressor from Final Cut ties up your system as well as there seems to be a delay between the handoff from Final Cut to Compressor (running the latest 5.x version and 2.3.) Creating a Quicktime file frees your system and it’s debatable if you actually compress faster or take a hit on quality. I’ve tested both from Final Cut and using a Quicktime file and didn't see any real difference in quality.
3] Change the field dominance from Top to Progressive in the tab where you see 2-Pass VBR Best and also in the encoding tab (not in front of my system so I can’t recall the name or order of the icons). In the encoding tab you will notice it says “same as source.” The pull down will show you Top, Bottom, Progressive, Automatic…I tried them all and in various combinations and anything other than progressive in both tabs produced undesirable results.
4] The options for Fast, Good, Better and Best in the other encoding pull down sections are a matter of preference and patience. Selecting Best in all categories takes a really long time to compress (36 hours for a 9-minute piece using a Mac Pro 3.0GHz dual-core Intel with 4GB ram.) I ran tests using different combinations and found that selecting the default settings is decent and stepping each category up to the next level helped but not enough to warrant the long compression cycle to stick with Better across the board. When you do your testing, it’s best to use as little footage as possible or you will find yourself waiting too long to see the actual results. I used a 1-second (29 frames) shot of a girl twirling around, hair flying everywhere, and girls next to her using hula-hoop’s.
5] Use the sliding bar in the viewer to see the impact of your choices before submitting the job. To the right you will see the “original” footage and to the left you can see the results of your selection. You can move the bar across the footage to see (approximately) the end results.
6] One thing I did notice is that no matter what settings I use, the output is slightly darker (reds were deeper, skin tones were warmer and not as smooth), but hey, you are going from HDV to SD so it’s not going to be perfect.
Hope that helps and good luck.
Kenny

Field dominance

Hi,
I recorded some HDV footage. It was recorded as 1080i50 with 25p.
Googling around, I found that it means its scanning the same frame twice. So there isn't a motion change between the odd and even lines.
Now the clips were captured as AIC with field dominance none. The sequence preset I used for HDV AIC is with field dominance Upper.
Is it correct that it does not make a difference whether I have field dominance set to None or Upper? None would obviously be correct as that is what the clip is set to but it should not matter, right?
thanks

I thought the field dom is simply telling which field to scan and display first (and even with none, if burning to DVD and viewing on a television, the footage will be displayed as interlaced).
Also the effect is added to clips which have field dom: none so shouldn't it be applied uniformly to the clip?
I'm a little confused.
The only effect I have added so far is smoothcam. Other than that, I have been sending to Color for grading.

Field dominance problem?

Hello:
When editing DVcam footage into a dv sequence with Livetype graphics, which field dominance (none, upper, lower) should be chosen in seq settings?
I take it LT graphics should be created with the same FD? Currently, my seq is LOWER fd, as are LT graphics, but this one LT billboard push transition (moves from up to down, revealing incoming shot beneath) strobes and even seems to have the "double strobe" burnt into it. I have a screen snap I could send if someone needed to see the problem.
Thanks much
KB

lower (even) is the correct field dominance for any DV based sequence (excepting HDV)
i'm assuming you're seeing this strobing on your external TV/Broadcast monitor
obviously the first thing to do is simpy run a couple of tests yourself. try changing your field dominance to None
going further, you might try using moving the whole LT compostion up/down a pixel in your FCP sequence ... its been known to help with Text Generator Crawls and Rolls.
worth a try i should think.
hope it helps
Andy

Any Experts on Field Dominance?

There are a lot of threads on these forums concerning HDV footage turning out really bad footage when outputted to DVD (worse than using an SD source). The problem seems worse for those working in PAL. Here's my theory as to why PAL users seem to be suffering with this problem more:
HD is upper field dominance, PAL SD is lower. So a PAL based conversion from HD to SD involves resizing AND field shifting.
If you export a HDV sequence from FCP to Compressor (using any method), then compress using default settings, Compressor outputs an upper dominance file still. This must mean DVD SP (or Toast, etc) are converting from upper to lower before it burns the DVD.
We all know DVD SP does a crap job at compressing anything remotely hard, so why are those of us in PAL land trusting is to do field conversions? Is this conversion actually hard, or am I worrying about nothing?
Starting out with HD definitely makes worse PAL DVDs than starting out with SD footage, so which conversion/step is causing the problem?
If I set compressor to output a lower dominance field, the DVD ends up with unwatchable flicker in the movement, so I tried conforming the clips to a new lower dominance HDV sequence, meaning FCP is doing the field conversion. Movement is 100%, but the quality is still down a little (jagged edges). I might have to turn Frame Controls on in Compressor and let is spend 12hrs compressing a sequence already converted to lower field by FCP.
So, I think I may have deduced that FCP is crap at downconverting. Compressor and DVD SP are crap at converting to lower field dominance. Compressor is crap at downconverting unless it's set to PAINLFULLY SLOW (ie frame controls on with Resize Filter set to better quality).
Anyone got any comments or thoughts? Am I remotely on track or way off?
Cheers
Dav

Sorry, I haven't had time to read your post carefully as I am dashing out, but I came across the problem over 2 years ago.
Here are some notes I jotted down at the time, mainly with reference to using iDVD as the problem more or less disappeared when encoding with Compressor.
+1. Edit your HDV/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 or 853 for NTSC.+
+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.+
+2. This method is fast. Set your HV20 to "Locked DV" which means that FCE/FCP will capture it as anamorphic DV and edit it as standard definition anamorphic DV. (Use Easy Setup ... DV-PAL (NTSC) Anamorphic).+
+You can then Export>QuickTime Movie to be used in iDVD and use the stretching technique mentioned above.+
+An alternative to clicking the grey video track is to simply enter "576" in the height box and this should make the opened video file jump to 16:9, whereupon clicking the red button of the video should give you the window allowing you to "Save".+

FCP Field Dominance Error? 1920x1080p displayed as interlaced!?

Can you answer this?
Why is a video file in a 1920x1080 progressive format said to have Upper (Odd) field dominance in the Final Cut Browser, which implies that it is interlaced, not progressive?
Here's the details.
(A)Video shot in HDV on a Sony Z5U at 1080p30 (1440x1080) is transcoded in Compressor to Photo - JPEG in 1920x1080p30, that's 1920x1080 with square pixels with progressive frames.
(B)The video is reopened in Compressor, which reads that it is, in fact, 1080p30 (1920x1080).
BUT!!!(C) When the video is opened in Final Cut's Browser, it reads that it has an Upper (Odd) field dominance, implying that it has an interlaced frame.
My Plea.
I can't figure this out, and I need to deliver some video. I have every reason to think my video is leaving Compressor in 1920x1080p30, but the field dominance info in Final Cut is holding me up.
If I remember right, Final Cut Studio 7 isn't able to handle 1920x1080p, only 1920x1080i and 1280x720p. Is this what's going on, maybe? Does Final Cut just not even know about 1920x1080p?
I very much appreciate any help.

Wow, such a quick answer and exactly what I was looking for. All problems solved and ready to deliver.
I always assumed most programs interpreted files as they loaded them into RAM, or something like that, which is when they would determine something like if a video file is progressive or interlaced. Knowing that Final Cut, instead, looks to a table of standard values when opening a file is great to know. Thanks a lot.
And lastly, about the sequence settings, I'm ready to deliver - the Compressor export to Photo - JPEG was the last step. I was only opening the file in Final Cut to confirm the right final format.
Thanks again for the help.
Matt
Epokhe Cut Media
http://www.epokhecutmedia.com

HDV Sequence Problems

Hi,
Im editing a Sequence with HDV and DV material. (The DV material was shot 16:9).
I have edited them both in a Sequence but i am having problems outputting with the correct look. When I export using Compressor, I use the 16:9 setting. When I take it into DVDSP & burn a DVD it has large Black Bars on the top and bottom. Even if you watch it in DVDSP in 16:9 format it still has bars on top and bottom. What am I doing wrong here. I've edited sequences like this before without a problem, and I thought I had all my settings correct but i must be missing something. Any suggestions?
Here are my Sequence Settings:
Frame Size: 720x480 NTSC DV 3:2
Pixel Aspect Ratio: NTSC - CCIR 601 / DV 720x480
Field Dominance: Lower
Anamorphic: NO check mark.
I would appreciate any help.
Thanks,
Mike

Some footage that was shot XDCAM later transferred to HDV and captured into the computer still has Black Bars on the top and bottom ... Here is what I have for capture settings on the clips giving me trouble: Compressor: DV/DVCPRO - NTSC, Pixel Aspect: NTSC-CCIR 601
It seems that when you transfered these files you downconverted from XDCAM HD to DV and did not have the downconvert settings correctly set to SQUEEZE (which would have created 16:9 Anamorphic DV footage) ... instead you had the setting set to LETTERBOX, and hence the letterbox is now baked in. Either that, or when you ingested your HDV dub of the original source, you had the HDV deck set to downconvert on output. again with the LETTERBOX mode enabled on that downconvert, resulting again with the letterbox asked in.
Thats a long way round suggesting that for whatever reason the letterbox you're seeing is from the masterclip. For those clips you that have the letterbox baked in you need to change the Distort > Aspect ratio to 33.33. You can do this on one of these clips and the "Paste Attributes" (Option V) to all the other instances of the same problem clips that exist in the timeline.

Hdv sequence present - field dominance

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