Rendering DV/DVCPRO - NTSC w/ alpha?

I tried exporting my DV/DVCPRO movie with "Lossless with Alpha" and the background still remains. When I export it out as an Animation with that setting, it works fine but it pixelates my movie I lay it on top of in Final Cut and the movie itself renders out very pixelated.
Either way, I'm not getting what I want which is just my moving image with no background. What am I doing wrong? Thanks for the help!

Thanks for the help. Still, some questions though.
The problem could be related to how the FCP timeline, if set to DV, re-encodes the video to DV (as expected).
My timeline is set up for DV as all the rest of my video is set up for DV. Because of this, I put in the Animation video file and I have to render it. Before I render it, it's actually at a high quality but once I render it, the quality degrades horribly.
Have you chekced the rendered file, or used an external video monitor?
I have checked the rendered file and it was high quality. Unfortunately though, I am working on my work computer and they do not have a video monitor for me to work on (and my videos only go on to the web anyway).
As far as PNG and JPEG2000, are you referring to a PNG Sequence or JPEG Sequence? If yes, I will give those a shot. Again, thanks for the help.

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Converting CODECS TO DV-DVCPRO-NTSC

Need advice on converting formats and compression systems to work in FCE without constant rendering. I'm not sure I understand how this all works. As far as I know in order to work “efficiently” (i.e. without rendering all the time) all clips need to be imported into FCE using MOV format with DV-DVCPRO-NTSC compression.
I have video from a Canon G-11 digital camera that downloads automatically into iPhoto. When I drag a clip out of iPhoto it’s in MOV format but with a codec of H.264. To get it into DV-DVCPRI-NTSC compression I have to open QT-7, open the clip then “export” it with options set correctly…then I import the clip into FCE. This is not so bad but I can only do one clip at a time. I literally have dozens! I must be missing something. Is there a better way or is there a way to batch convert in QT-7?
I’m using FCE 4.0.1 on a MacBook Pro with OSX10.8.4. Thanks for any information.

Thanks MtD and DH,
Sorry for the delayed response. First, thanks MtD for the tip on Streamclip. It works!! I can now batch convert. However, I'm embarrassed to admit I do not know what "Are you editing on a DV timeline?" means. I have no idea!. But I guess it doesn't matter since I'm back in business.
DH, I'm mixing SD video from 1st generation Flip camera with SD from a Canon camera...so no HD. However, I am clicking anamorphic on the item properties screen and using the wide screen format. This may be wrong when I export the final sequence from FCE...but I'm taking a chance it will play properly when I burn it to a DVD.
Again, thanks to you both.

Question on exporting out to DV/DVCPRO - NTSC

I am trying to conform footage to my Easy Setup in Final Cut Pro and for some reason, it won't. My Easy Setup is based on the DV/DVCPRO - NTSC setup with the aspect ratio being 720x480. When I export the footage out, it gives me 720x480 (640x480). That's fine.
So I switch it to NTSC 720x480 4:3 and it still exports out as 640x480.
I try the custom option and type in 720x480 and it still exports out as 720x480.
What am I doing wrong? Is it trying to conform the aspect ratio to what the original video size is? Thanks.

What am I doing wrong? Is it trying to conform the aspect ratio to what the original video size is?
You are confusing the rectangular pixel encoding matrix (720x480) with the square pixel display dimensions (640x480). You must remember that DV was historically developed as a broadcast compression format to more closely reflect the rectangular pixel presentation of older CRT televisions having 720x480 rectangular pixels to display the equivalent of a 640x480 square pixel image.
So I switch it to NTSC 720x480 4:3 and it still exports out as 640x480.
I'm not quite sure what you saying you want to do here. If you were to display 720x480 rectangular pixels on a square pixel device (e.g., a computer monitor, HDTV, etc.), then at 720x480 square pixels the image would look somewhat squat with people and objects looking shorter and fatter than they should be because you have changed the aspect ratio from 4:3 (640x480) to 720x480 which would then have an actual square pixel aspect ratio of 1.5:1 (or 3:2) rather than 4:3.
As an aside, a 16:9 anamorphic DV file would also encode to the same 720x480 data matrix but (as long as the flag is not lost) actually play back at either 640x360 or approximately 853.3x480 depending on the application in use and you would see an entry of 720x480 (853x480) or 720x480 (640x360) on the player Inspector or Info window.
So, unless you are saying that your file has lost its anamorphic value (which can happen in some workflows), it sounds as if everything is working correctly.

Compression diff. btw "video" and "DV/DVCpro-NTSC"?

Hello,
I would like to export a sequence in FCP as a quicktime file. My source material is mini-Dv NTSC and was captured as such. What is the best compression setting for me to use in export--> using Quicktime conversion, in order for me to retain optimal quality. I guess I would have put compression to "none" but I don't have that option under settings --> compression settings. I am wondering between "video" and "DV/DVCpro-NTSC", I also notice that they take diffrent amount of time to export, does this have anything to do with the quality? I will be outputting to DVCAM and making transfers to BetaSP.
Thanks alot,
Lela

It's really just a habit I got into back when I was having trouble playing back long, heavy composite projects. It worked, and now, because it doesn't usually take alot of time (gotta go out for coffe and a smoke anyway) I still do it.
As for the archiving. My stuff goes to most clients on Betacam and I do make a DV copy. I just like to keep the show around for a bit, till I'm sure they aren't going to ask for another Betacam copy for a while. So maybe "archive" wasn't the right word.
Have fun
rh

Blurry footage when using Apple DV/DVCPRO - NTSC

I'm working on a 30 second spot that I need to upload to the cable company and they only accept .mov files. It's SD footage. It was shot and is being output as 720x480i. I tried sending them an uncompressed .mov file but they said they couldn't use it (wouldn't open with their conversion system). The guy at the cable company is telling me to use the Apple DV/DVCPRO - NTSC codec to compress it, but when I use that the footage looks pretty blurry compared to the uncompressed version.
I even took it home and checked on my Mac, which looked a little better, but still blurry. I tried exporting it using the h.264 codec and it looked better (still not quite as good as the uncompressed, but pretty close). The strange thing is the the h.264 compressed file was only around 50MB while the DV/DVCPRO - NTSC file was around 100MB.
Is the h.264 codec just that much better that a file can be half the size, but still look better? Or am I just seeing the blurriness because I'm watching them play back on a computer monitor and if I were to send him the DV/DVCPRO - NTSC compressed file it would look fine on TV?

Well, my guess would be that you're witnessing the artifacts of displaying interlaced video on a progressive display. The DV codec is interlaced by its nature, and your computer screen is progressive by its nature. Typically, interlaced video will not look its best on a computer screen, and that's why you'll always hear recommendations of previewing your interlaced material on a properly calibrated NTSC/PAL display. It's just too difficult to judge problems with interlaced footage on a computer screen.
I imagine that the difference you're seeing between the DV export and the H.264 export is that the latter was deinterlaced, and therefore looks "better" on a computer screen. That said, it's not going to look good on a television, which is the intended output. And, I'd bet dimes to donuts that your cable company would scream bloody murder if you sent them an H.264 encoded video in an MP4 container--they just won't know what to do with it. Believe me--I've tried. Send them that DV MOV, and your life will be much better :)

No Dv/DvcPro- NTSC codecs?

Hi i apologize if this a stupid question or has been asked before - but what happened to the dv/dvcpro-ntsc codec in Ae CS5? Has it changed to something else like dv25 or dv50 and i'm just not familiar enough with the codec to know the difference?
Thanks!

In previous versions of After Effects, the imprecise names of the codecs as supplied by QuickTime were used. In After Effects CS5, the more precise names of the codecs are presented in the UI. For example, 'DV25' is what is usually meant when people say 'DV codec', even though it's just one of many DV codecs.
This is also being discussed on this thread:
http://forums.adobe.com/message/3038136

DV/DVCPRO NTSC Compression not working

When I export a sequence to QT movie using DV/DVCPRO NTSC compression (either directly to a QT movie or using QT conversion) I get what looks like a solarized effect (maybe 6 colors total) and the colors are all off - mostly browns and dark tans with hard lines between them, grainy.
If I export with no compression, it looks fine.
It also looks fine in FCP itself during edit and playback, etc.
If I take this project and clips to another machine, it exports into DV/DVCPRO NTSC with no problem.
This just started happening. It was working fine for months with the same settings.
I've tried archive and reinstall the OS system as well as trashing and reinstalling FCP. No change. Using OS 10.4.11, FCP 5.1.4.
I don't know what else to do other than wipe the drive completely. All suggestions appreciated.
Thanks
Paul

Hi Paul
in your first post you said that exporting without compression was fine, now you say that it also has issues and that exporting on another machine is ok.
1. Given that you want to go back to tape, export at your sequence settings to maintain quality; actually selecting the same settings as the sequence settings should see no difference in quality. If you are outputting the finished product back to the same tape that the footage originated from there is no need to change codec, you are better to leave it the same.
2. The fact that the export is seeing problems on one machine and not another suggests that something is wrong on machine one. Trash the prefs for FCP, run some system maintainence on it as well, eg. Disk Utility.
Tony

DVCPRO NTSC PROBLEM

Hi - I am trying to capture a DV tape recorded in the DVCPRO NTSC format.
I have always worked in PAL as I am UK based and now when I look for a DVCPRO NTSC setting in final cut there is nothing. But there is a DVCPRO PAL setting.
The tape plays fine in the player and I can monitor the picture on an external monitor, and the audio signal is coming into final cut ok. But the preview is disabled and when I try capturing, fcp aborts with an error that there is no video signal.
The system all works fine as I regulary capture DV and DVCAM footage - both NTSC and PAL.
I have tried setting fcp to all the available NTSC presets in easy setup and nothing works.
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Thanks
Casey

Try DVPro50. I think that's what you're looking for. If you look at the compressor used for dvpro50 it's DVCpro50

DVCPRO-NTSC 720x480 won't import

I have a 1.58G QuickTime Movie - 720X480 Integer(Big Endian, DV/DVCPRO - NTSC, channel count 2) that FCE (easy setup DV-NTSC, Sequence preset: DV NTSC 48kHz, Capture preset: DV NTSC 48kHz, playback output video Apple FireWire NTSC 720X480) *refuses to import*.
It seems the file I'm trying to import and the easy setup are compatible. I cannot seem to understand why this is happening.
Any help would be most appreciated.

Have repaired permissions and restarted the computer. Checked the file permissions and they read:
- You can: read and write
- Owner: read and write
- Group: read and write (I've changed to read and write before repairing permissions)
- Others: read and write (I've changed to read and write before repairing permissions)
Still no import! This is baffling!

Animation vs DV/DVCPRO NTSC Codec

I'm tring to run my project down to a DVD via iDVD. Inside the project I have various Photoshop graphics and text I created in FCP. When I export my project as a straight QuickTime movie using the default DVCPRO Codec. All my text and graphics are low res. When I export the project as Animation all the graphics and FCP text is perfect but all the video footage is interlaced. I've change my seq. settings to Animation and exported the mov. as Animation as well but it's still interlaced, why?
Thank you,

Never judge quality based on what you see on the desktop.
To see that you will get on the DVD, you need to have an external monitor (TV) connected to your computer while you have FCP open.
#8 External Monitor Viewing.
Shane's Stock Answer #8:
A simple path is mac > firewire > camera or deck > rca cables > tv
Then start up your camera and tv, then open fcp.
Then go View > External video > all frames
Video playback should be Apple firewire NTSC (If you are using an NTSC set)
Audio playback should be Audio follows Video
Techinially, this should send synched video to your TV
If for some reason you can't view your timeline on your external monitor, there are a few things to try:
1) Make sure that the camera/deck is connected and powered on BEFORE you open FCP.
2) In the Final Cut Pro menu select AUDIO/VIDEO Preferences and make sure your signal is being sent out thru Firewire DV.
3) Go to the menu and select VIEW>EXTERNAL>ALL FRAMES.
4) Click in the % box above the image and select FIT TO WINDOW.
5) Go to VIEW->refresh A/V devices
6) Make sure the Log & Capture window is closed
If you want it to play in both the canvas and the external monitor you need to go to the FINAL CUT PRO menu and select AUDIO/VIDIO settings and make sure MIRROR ON DESKTOP is selected under the PLAYBACK OUTPUT section
Shane
"There's no need to fear, UNDERDOG is here!"

Slow rendering from DVCPro-HD to MPEG2-DVD?

I have a home built PC with a quadcore 9450 chip, 8GB ram, Vista-64 Business, Mercury rendering (GTX460) - so it's not a particularly slow machine. My current project is 2 hours, 45 minutes long, shot on DVC-Pro HD 720-30P. It is one continuous take from a concert. I've added chapter points for each song, but otherwise have not edited it (besides mixing the audio levels.) With CS5, to export to MPEG2-DVD (VBR-one pass, quality level 5) takes about 16 to 17 hours. A friend with an i7 computer (which I built for him) says I need to contact Adobe because it should not be taking that long to render. If I import the Premiere sequence directly into Encore, that render takes only a few hours (not sure of the exact time) but the quality sucks. My 17 hour render looks pretty awesome for such a long project. With CS4 and a similar length project, it was around 7 or 8 hours with the same machine. Is something wrong, or is it normal for such long render times?

If I understand it correctly, your time-line is 2:45 (hh:mm) long and takes around 17 hours to export. Correct?
That is pretty good for a Q9450 with 8 GB RAM. Those systems are on average around 15 - 20 times slower than a fast system with MPEG2-DVD export, so it would take a fast system around 1 hour. Now that looks like a perfectly acceptable figure. You have to keep in mind that with hardware MPE you can only compare that with CS4 export times with MRQ (Maximum Render Quality) turned on, and my guess is that you are comparing it to CS4 times WITHOUT MRQ.
Have a look at the PPBM5 Benchmark and notice where the Q9450 systems are. They are all pretty close to the bottom of the list.
Seeing those results, one can argue your statement.
so it's not a particularly slow machine.
Of course much depends on your particular time-line, but if I take my benchmark results (with a lowly i7-920) versus another Q9450 system, I guess that my export times with your time-line would be around 1:06.
Maybe not the reaction you were looking for, but I can't change statistical results.
@ Colin: The OP never said he has MRQ enabled. Where do you get that from? He said he had hardware MPE enabled. And with his timeline, setting MRQ on would not influence his export times, since there is nothing in his single track time-line to profit from MRQ and it is all handled by the MPE engine. At least in this case.

Rendering targa sequence with only alpha

Can I render a targa sequence with only alpha channel (RGB transparent, not black)? So that if I open a frame in Photoshop the RGB channels are transparent and only the alpha channel has content.
I'm going to use the alpha channel in another software as a mask (but it has to imported as a image sequence, can't choose only alpha). That means that if there is anything in the RGB channels I'll see it on screen where the alpha is...

I don't quite follow. Alpha cannot exist without RGB pixels, as in technical terms it's not transparency, but the blending amount between foreground (pixels in the image) and background (other pixels that will be placed below). If exporting the Alpha as a b/w matte does not serve your needs, then apply the Alpha to a black solid in a black comp and export that.
Mylenium

Avi file, DV/DVCPRO-NTSC

i have some avi files encoded with DVCPRO and when i try to play them using quicktime two things go wrong:
1. the aspect ratio changes so that the image is flattened (for instance a circle becomes an oval) but in visual settings it says the aspect ratio is 720 x 480 which is what it should be. these files play back fine on windows media player.
2. on the larger files the image is grainy even though the source material isn't.
i would appreciate any help because i can't fiqure out what i'm doing wrong.
p.s. i am using quicktime 7.0.4 and quicktime pro
dell Windows XP

A DV (.dv) file dimensions are 720X480. To view these
files using QT Pro (without the square pixels versus
rectangular) use the Movie Properties window and
change the dimensions to 640X480. Your "circle" will
become a circle again.
The QT Player preferences can also be adjusted for
"High Quality" playback. This may help (not always)
the visual appearance during playback.
thank you Kirk, much obliged. changing the dimensions to 640x480 works perfectly. i already had the preferences set on "high quality" so i'm thinking maybe the file is too large for my machine to handle. thanks again
dell Windows XP

Rendering to ProRes 4444 with alpha channel

Hello Everybody,
I have question? I have a green screen project finished. But when i render my footage to ProRes 4444 with aplha i got a mega file more then 5gb. In the specifications I found out that I have a bitrate of 203,57 Mbit/s. How can i lower the bitrate in the rendersettingd for this codec?
I hop to hear some of your suggestions.
Kind regards,
Gowan Genis

What Andrew said.... Production codecs are all going to have high data rates. That's why we use them in production. Storage is so cheap now that it shouldn't be a problem for anyone that is making a living making movies or for anyone with enough budget to support a movie making hobby. My first 4GB Ultra SCSI drive array cost nearly $20K, I just bought a 1.5TB drive for $89... It wasn't that long ago that I was paying $1 / foot to shoot, process, work print and sync 35MM film. (98 feet / minute @ 24 fps).
If you want a smaller file size you'll have to go to a delivery codec. Just be sure you know what to use when...

MOTION SO SLOOOOOW - SIMPLE PROJECT TAKE 1 HR to render!!!!

I have a simple :30 spot that I am making for a local law firm, pretty straight forward, talking head for 30 seconds, shot on P2. I have added a simple rectangle lower 3rd along the bottom of the screen (typical) with a phone number, website, and " The Law Offices of Joe Smith" all text was created inside motion 3, and also has a gradient overlay instead of solid color.
This is a frickin 30 Spot!, and it says it will take 1 hr 5 mins to render.. ***? anyone have any ideas why this is taking this long? I am rendering to DVCPRO NTSC, Standard Def, I have motion blur on, the only thing that is animated is the text slides in at the beginning, other than that it is still for the whole spot...
I am using motion 3, computer specs listed below

Patrick I have a question about motion blur, maybe you can help...
Lets use the same example, where the text slides in from the side, but it only takes maybe 15 frames to do this, if I enable motion blur, does it only calculate on these 15 frames? shouldn't it know that this is the only "animated" element in the project? the rest is just a video layer, nothing moving (as far as motion is concerned)
OR
does motion do this calculation to every single frame, regardless if there are any parameters animated later in the project?
Thanks in advance for any help!

Rendering DV/DVCPRO - NTSC w/ alpha?

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