Uncompressed 8-bit Field Order?

Hello!
In FCP, I'm working with an Uncompressed 8-bit sequence with the field dominance set to "None." After having done a bit of research, I realize that choosing "none" was fruitless since Uncompressed 8-bit is an interlaced format (right?). Anyway, when I export my sequence to a QT file for compression, Compressor sets field dominance to "Upper First." Does that sound right? First of all I've got my sequence set to "none" for field dominance. But if I'm right that Uncompressed 8-bit can't really be set to "none," shouldn't Compressor at least recognize it as "Lower" aka "Bottom First?"
I've read several posts about this but nothing to do with Uncompressed 8-bit specifically, so sorry if this seems like a repeat post.
Thanks for any help!
Cameron

I was looking for some posts concerning interlaced source material and came across this thread. I have to say I don't think it's accurate to say that almost everything other than DV is upper (odd) field dominant. For example, the uncompressed codec AJA uses is lower field first, as well as the Avid codec.
The most important thing is to tell your encoding software what field dominance the SOURCE material is. It can then interpolate and output correctly.
Also, don't judge anything interlacing-related on a computer monitor - look at it on a tv monitor. You won't notice some interlacing problems until you see them output NTSC.
I have had MAJOR problems when importing interlaced source material into Compressor. Number one, it almost always guesses the wrong filed order on import. Number two, at least when bringing in D1 resolution material from Final Cut and cropping in Compressor, the resulting files flicker when played on tv. I actually haven't used compressor - but a great alternative called BitVice by Innobits. It handles interlacing with ease - like it should.
I bring this up because I have never heard anything official from Apple that addresses problems with interlaced source material, and after thinking for a long time that I was missing something, I now realize it's not me - it's them. Try BitVice. It lacks the user interface of Compressor but it's a great (and dependable) encoder.
If anyone can point out posts that address these issues that I've missed, please let me know!
Dual 2 GHz G5 Mac OS X (10.3.7)

Similar Messages

Field order issues after export to DV Pal from uncompressed

We are experiencing some difficulty exporting clips from FCP to our Omneon Server for TX.
We are capturing 8 bit uncompressed (AJA and Blackmagic) from digibeta for our edit and all editing stays in uncompressed until final output. Our transmission system demands DV PAL files so we export finished items as DV PAL in FCP and drop onto the server
Our problem is that on playback from the server, the field order is incorrect. Although the exported DV clips properties show lower field order, the clip is obviously playing upper field first. If we capture and edit in DV and export the DV file to the server, then we have no problems. I have tried
exporting uncompressed clips to DV via Compressor and changing the field order in frame controls but no success. It seems that when a clip is captured and edited in upper field it hangs onto that status even after conversion to DV!! Any thoughts greatly appreciated!

when you drop one of your 8 bit uncompressed source clips into your DV PAL timeline, is FCP correctly adding the Shift Fields filer to those timeline instances?
do you edit in 8-bit uncompressed and then export direct to DV PAL or do you nest your 8 bit uncompressed sequence into a DV PAL sequence first and then export as Quicktime Movie w/ current settings? if not the latter, try it (and make sure your nest has the Shift Fields filter applied)

Field order errors from Color

I onlined a job recently that had been done in 10-bit uncompressed (PAL). The final edit an hour-long documentary) had been sent to Color for grading, and I was picking up the job to finalise it (adding captions, titles etc. the usual stuff).
The colourist had rendered the clips, but hadn't sent them back to FCP. When I opened the projects in Color it had lost the reference to the rendered files, so I couldn't send them to FCP, so I imported the folders containing the rendered clips into FCP, and layed them back into the final edit as a new layer.
All ok so far.
When I came to play the clips, they were flickering as if they had the wrong field structure, and I had to add a shift fields filter to make them correct. The original clips, the rendered clips from Color and the sequence were all set to 10-bit uncompressed, upper field, so I'm perplexed as to why I had to do this.
I checked Color and it's set to render out in the original format.
I had to render the entire timeline because of the shift field filter, which took 3 hours! Can anyone shed some light on the problem and a solution to prevent it happening again?
I've posted this in the Color forum as well.
Cheers
Steve

I've encountered an issue similar to this with NTSC DV coming back with reversed field order. It may just be in the nature of COLOR to assume that all media is odd/upper HD. You used to be able to buy Final Touch in three variants: SD, HD and 2K. They were individually built to make the field dominance issues moot, but now that there is only "COLOR", there may still be a few old prejudices lingering. This app does not do well with interlace, and a giant problem with it is only a flick of the wrist away.
It was probably not a good idea to render the media out of COLOR without creating a new FCP sequence.
jPo

Field Order When Capturing

Hi all,
I have a slight issue when capturing in Premiere Pro CC. I am capturing NTSC footage from a VHS via the Blackmagic Intensity Shuttle for Thunderbolt. The capture process goes smoothly, in general. However, I have a slight issue with the field order.
When I capture the video through Blackmagic Media Express, the video captures lower field first, which should be correct, right? But when I capture in Premiere Pro, it captures as upper field first.
I have checked my capture settings within PP - it's setup for Blackmagic capturing. I'm capturing NTSC 4x3 at uncompressed 8-bit 4:2:2, which is the same that the Blackmagic software is capturing at. I cannot find an option for field order. I know that I can reinterpret the footage, but I prefer to capture correctly.
Can anyone shed any light on this?
Thanks in advance.

Gotcha. The catch, for me at least, is that any videos I capture through Premiere will not play back on my NTSC monitor through my blackmagic device when played in Premiere. However, if I import footage captured in Blackmagic and drop that in a sequence, it plays back through the NTSC monitor fine.
Oh well,
Thanks for the help!
PS - Are you saying I should leave it as upper field first, rather than reinterpret to lower first?

What are the 3-bit field choices for Hw_Arm_Sel in PCI-6601

Hi,
I am programming our own driver to operate the PCI-6601. For our application we need hardware arm option. I know it is possible to use 2 counters for that, but NI-TIO should support also hw_arm. Although it is not explained in the registry document at all, after some tedious check in the DDK examples I found that this bits are located in the Gi counting mode register. I know the position of the HW_enable as well as the position of the 3 bits for pin sellect options. What I do not know is What are the 3-bit field choices for Hw_Arm_Sel . I contacted NI support but got no support. How can NI sell boards and when a customer who is not using LAbview or Measurement Studio or DDK, but is implementing his own driver is then so arrogantly turned down from NI? Also, how can NI publish just part of the registers the board support, and when a customer contacs and asks for some registers get not at all support? I can not foretell the missing registers, and it is pretty unprofessional to document just partly the registers of 660x devices. And on request you got nothing.
I hope someone from the community know about this Hw_Arm_Sel 3 pin options. Otherwise, there is just an option of error and trial. Or simply throw the board in the garbage.
Dr. Kirco Arsov
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hi Kirco,
I have some more information for you :-)
I haven't been able to speak to the developer who is the most familiar with TIO programming since he's out of the office, but I have come across his notes from when he was writing support for the DAQmx driver.
As I described earlier, the HW_Arm_Sel bits don't select a connector I/O pin, but an internal trigger signal. There are seven internal trigger lines, and the HW_Arm_Sel bits map directly to the internal trigger signal: 0b000 - 0b111 map to 0d0 - 0d7. In order to route an I/O pin to an internal trigger, you must also write to a few more registers.
From what I've read, there are two more register families that need to be programmed: TG_x_LevelEdgeReg and TG_x_CombinationReg, where x is the internal trigger number. In your case, you only need one pin from the I/O connector to be your arm start trigger, so TG_0_LevelEdgeReg and TB_0_CombinationReg will suffice for your application.
TB_0_LevelEdgeReg :: Offset 0x660
TG_0_LevelEdgeReg is only 8 bits wide, and maps as follows:
7..6: EdgeMode
5..0: LESel
LESel selects the I/O connector pin to use as the source for the internal trigger signal. 0d0 - 0d39 will select the I/O pin of the same number. NB: behavior for TG_x_LevelEdgeReg is more limited for triggers 1-7, and only a small subset of the I/O pins can be selected for those trigger signals. Trigger 0 can use any I/O pin. Setting these bits to 0d63 forces the trigger source low, and can be used as a way to 'unroute' it when you're finished with your program.
EdgeMode determines whether the TIO will detect an edge of the incoming signal, or just pass the signal level straight through. When detecting edges, it will latch the signal and generate a single TIMEBASE3 pulse instead. 0b00 sets level mode; 0b01 sets rising edge; 0b10 sets falling edge; 0b11 sets either edge.
TG_0_CombinationReg :: Offset 0x6A0
TG_0_CombinationReg is 32 bits wide, and has three fields of interest:
19..16: CombFunction
5..4: CombTypeB
1..0: CombTypeA
CombTypeA controls which trigger subsystem to use as the source for the trigger signal. Since you're coming from an I/O pin and using the edge/level subsystem, you must set these bits to 0b01.
CombTypeB is similar to CombTypeA, and although you won't be using trigger B, set it to 0b01 to be safe.
CombFunction performs a simple logic function on A and B. Since you're only using a single I/O connector, you only need the A output, so set these bits to 0b1100.
All of the other bits should be set to 0b0.
Unfortunately, I'm unable to test these statements since my test machine is currently being used for another research project. Please let me know what happens if you decide to test.
Joe Friedchicken
NI VirtualBench Application Software
Get with your fellow hardware users :: [ NI's VirtualBench User Group ]
Get with your fellow OS users :: [ NI's Linux User Group ] [ NI's OS X User Group ]
Get with your fellow developers :: [ NI's DAQmx Base User Group ] [ NI's DDK User Group ]
Senior Software Engineer :: Multifunction Instruments Applications Group
Software Engineer :: Measurements RLP Group (until Mar 2014)
Applications Engineer :: High Speed Product Group (until Sep 2008)

Need to setup Premiere CS6 sequence for two file types with different field orders

I have a client who has shot video for me using two cameras, one camera was set to progressive, and the other to interlaced upper field first. I need to use both file types in the edit and have been struggling to set up the sequence to get the best look for the end product, a DVD. I have several videos to do for her that were all shot in the same way, so I need a solution!
I would appreciate help figuring out how to set up this work flow from beginning to end.
Should I convert one of the files from the beginning so they match field orders before going into a sequence? Or do I just need to do some adjusting of the files once they are in the sequence? Is it just as simple as changing the transcode settings to favor the upper field first? I'm definitely having issues once the video is transcoded in Encore and you can see a lot of jagged edges and lines especially during movement. My client isn't happy and I've tried several workarounds, but to no avail.
Here are the two file types I have:
File extension: .MOV
H.264, 1920x1080, Linear PCM, 16 bit little-endian signed integer, 48000 Hz, stereo
FPS 29.97
No Fields: Progressive Scan
File extension: .MTS (my Mac finder can't read these files, but they are read in Premiere)
Image Size: 1920 x 1080
Frame Rate: 29.97
Source Audio Format: 48000 Hz - compressed - 6 channels
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.0
Upper Field First
I am using Adobe Premiere CS 6.0.2
Encore 6.0.1
Media Encoder 6.0.2.81
I am running it on an iMac 27-inch, Mid 2011
with Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5
Processor 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7
Graphics AMD Radeon HD 6970M 1024 MB
I've just been setting the sequence to match the .MOV files since they look much better than the .MTS files. I've done the opposite as well, setting the sequence to match the .MTS files and it doesn't seem to help. I've also changed the field order of the files once they are in the sequence by changing the field options and have tried converting the .MTS files in the Media Encoder, but nothing I've done has worked.
Any help would be so appreciated! The client I have is a photographer, so she wasn't aware of this issue when she first shot these videos. So I have 10 videos with these issues I need to get back to her, hopefully issue free! I'm struggling as an editor because my last job I was using FCP and was working with videographers who knew what they were doing, so I've never faced such problems before. Plus I'm new to the Adobe software. Not a good combination. Please forgive me if I didn't give all the information you need. I will happily respond with whatever more information you may need to help me out!
~KTrouper

I wonder if you could do your edit ignoring any visual issues of the interlaced footage but keeping the different sources separate ( checkerboard edit Vid 1/ Vid 2 )
Lock it down then export the interlaced part of the edit as a Digital Intermediate.
Maybe Export the other source as well to the same codec. DI
Bring them back together in a New Sequence. You wold have to deal with the black spacing.

Combination HD/SD and field order

Hello all -
I have a program which combines 1080i60 and 480i video in a 1080i60 timeline. The 1080i footage was captured through a Kona LHe, upconverted from 720p30 and 480i DVCAM by the JVC deck. The SD footage was captured as uncompressed SD from Beta SP using the same Kona.
My question has to do with managing the field order for encoding to SD mepg for DVD.
When I send the sequence to compressor, the mpeg preset defaults to upper field dominance (top first). I am used to specifying SD encodes as bottom first, but left it set that way for my first test, figuring this would correspopnd to the field order oof the source. What I seem to be seeing is that only the SD clips are winding up with reversed fields. I could be wrong, and I need to check it a little more carefully, since a lot of the footage originated as progressive anyway.
However, my question is, if in fact it is only these clips, which is the best way to address this:
- change the field dominance of the SD master clips in FCP?
- apply a field reversal filter to the clips in the sequence?
- de-interlace the clips in the sequence?
- change the field dominance in my Compressor preset?
I'd be interested to find out more about how the field dominance is managed by FCP when upconverting, downconverting, and combining formats is handled when capturing, editing, and exporting. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks -
Max Average

Upon further inspection (viewing the DVD on a CRT) it looks like the fields are ok after all.I wa seeing the fields in simulator, which is normal, but the field order looks correct on the final disc.
I am noticing one very strange effect on a clip that has been slowed down, however, where the fields seem to be getting interpreted in the wrong order, resulting in a back-and-forth motion. Again thie clip is interlaced SD in an HD sequence.

What field order when editing AVCHD in SD timeline?

Hi,
I have some AVCHD 60i footage which will be output to DVD. Reading different ways of editing HD I finally decided to edit the HD footage in an SD timeline since it will never be output to anything other than SD and I then have the ability to zoom around a bit more if needed.
I know I should be editing an interlaced timeline but when I select DV NTSC I get "Lower Field First" by default, whereas I have read that AVCHD interlaced footage is Upper Field First. I do know that DV and SD are different. If I just create a 720x480 29.97 upper field first timeline will I be ok or is the final m2v output expecting one field order of the other?
I will export my final timeline as a lagarith AVI which I will then have Encore encode for me.
Thank you for your suggestions!
-Stephen

Thank you both for your input. I also thought that having a smaller scale timeline would speed up rendering of effects, but maybe I'm mistaken.
I'm exporting as Lagarith AVI because I cannot, not matter what settings I use, get a crisp image when exporting direct to m2v. I always get noticable artifacting around the edges. The AVI appears to minimize this at least a little. I am using Max Rener Quality and Render and Maximum Depth.
But without getting on a tangent on those, it sounds like it IS ok then for me to edit the AVCHD footage (upper field first) in an upper field first timeline and then export (either m2v or avi) as an upper field first file?
I'll keep working on the encoding (been working on it for 2 days) to see why the artifacting is going on.
Thank you again,
-Stephen

BIT fields in database

How do I need to write an update query in order to insert / delete a database entry that includes a BIT field (Yes/No).
I tried:
"INSERT INTO table_name (string_field, BIT_field) VALUES('hello','true')"
and
"INSERT INTO table_name (string_field, BIT_field) VALUES('hello',true)"
as well as
"DELETE FROM table_name WHERE BIT_field='false'"
and
"DELETE FROM table_name WHERE BIT_field=false"
(I'm using Access database - ODBC).
What is the right way to write it???

How do I need to write an update query in order to
insert / delete a database entry that includes a BIT
field (Yes/No).
I tried:
"INSERT INTO table_name (string_field, BIT_field)
VALUES('hello','true')"
and
"INSERT INTO table_name (string_field, BIT_field)
VALUES('hello',true)"
as well as
"DELETE FROM table_name WHERE BIT_field='false'"
and
"DELETE FROM table_name WHERE BIT_field=false"
(I'm using Access database - ODBC).
What is the right way to write it???in access True, Yes and On are 1. False, No and Off are 0.
so for your queries like this...
to insert true
"INSERT INTO table_name (string_field, BIT_field) VALUES('hello',1);"or for false
"INSERT INTO table_name (string_field, BIT_field) VALUES('hello',0);"for your other query
"DELETE FROM table_name WHERE BIT_field=0;"

Compressor Saying Progressive on Upper Field Order Footage?

Hi all,
I have Upper field order 10Bit Uncompressed PAL footage in a proper timeline.
When I export it (not self contained) and open it in QuickTime or FCP, all is well.
So is it odd that when I add the file to Compressor and select it, in the Inspector the Field Order is set to Progressive? It is a drop down menu so I can select Upper, but then it asks me to save it which I chose not to do. If I add an MPEG-2 preset to it, it "auto" detects the file and says Progressive.
What's the deal? Should I simply modify the MPEG-2 preset drop down menu to Upper before I submit the batch?
Thanks,
Jason
G5 Quad 2.5Ghz, 30" Cinema HD Display, Final Cut Studio, CS2 Suite Mac OS X (10.4.9) Powerbooks, other Powermacs, iBooks, iMacs, etc...

OK, here you are,
Original footage :
Original Footage Interpretation:
Render Settings :
Output Module Settings :
Format Options :
Re-imported Footage :
Interpretation of re-imported footage :
The End and Thanks~~

HDV to DVD interlace field order - depends on export path!

Summary: Export... -> Using Compressor versus compressing an Export... -> QuickTime Movie file, produces different field orders in the resulting MPEG.
In Detail: Here is my HDV to DVD (MPEG2) process;
Create a DV sequence, and drop the HDV into it, it gets resized, and has a filter to shift the fields by +1 added to it, and is scaled to the correct size for 4:3 (letterboxed) or 16:9 (fills 720x480) - which is fine.
Set the Quicktime Video Compressor for the sequence to 'None', and set the Video Processing -> Motion Filtering Quality to 'Fastest (linear)' as I don't like what Normal or Best does to the image (makes it pixally, check in the canvas).
Now, if you Export -> Using Compressor, and setup a 2-pass mpeg 2 encode, you get a very good image, no via - DV artifacts. I also add the channel blur, set to 1 on all channels, if its too sharp - channel blur does not blur between fields, like flicker filter does, so the motion is not compromised, and looks excellent, but it stops sharp still images from flickering.
However, this is really slow, FCP is tied up, and for a 2 pass encode, any blur or colour filters get applied twice, its also harder to hand this off to a second machine to get on with.
So, logically, you would instead, Export... -> QuickTime Movie... -> Current Setting, Make Self Contained and then load that into Compressor, apply the SAME settings you did Using Compressor... At which point, the FUN begins.
I have finally narrowed down, that this changes the field order, although I nearly went mad discovering it - every time I thought my little 10 second test worked, (exported from the timeline) I would save the whole thing out and compress it, only to find, the interlace order changed, and now needed the field shift removed! And, because my little test worked, I would then do the whole thing, some 20+ hours later, only to find it was wrong!
Export... -> Using QuickTime Conversion... is the same as QuickTime Movie...
Anyone else with experience of this ? It was maddening! But I think I am over the worst of it now! Is there any solution for unifying this for all export methods ?
When it works DVD's encoded from HDV look amazing.
When it works.....
FCP 5.0.4
Compressor 2.0.1
PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Hi Ben,
Ignore the Apple-0 (zero) part - that's just the key shortcut for the sequence settings. (press the Apple Key, and a Zero key with a sequence selected)
So, from the top: (although I'm not in front of my machine right now, so this is from memory)
Create a new DV sequence, 4:3 or 16:9.
Drop the edited HDV sequence into the DV sequence.
De-select the HDV sequence in the DV time line, bring up the Sequence Settings Dialogue for the DV sequence. (make SURE it isn't the sequence setting dialogue for the HDV sequence)
In the sequence setting dialogue, change the codec from DV to None (note - not the same as Uncompressed). If it's currently HDV, you have the wrong sequence, leave it as HDV, close the dialogue, and bring up the setting for the DV sequence.
On the 'Video Processing' tab, for the DV sequence, set the 'Motion Filtering Quality' to 'Fastest (linear)'
Choose OK to close the settings dialogue.
If you want to, and it depends on your footage, add the following blur filter to the HDV sequence in the DV timeline:
Select the HDV sequence in the DV timeline, right click (or hold ctrl key, and click) on the HDV sequence in the DV timeline, and choose the top item in the pop-up menu, 'Open' (in viewer). Click the filters tab of the viewer, you will see the Shift Fields filter, set to +1, added by FCP, add the channel blur, above the shift fields filter. Set the blur to 1 on each channel. I prefer this to the Video -> Flicker Filter, as channel blur does not blur between fields, so it does not blur motion.
I discovered this by accident
Now Save, the following sometimes crashes FCP. Check it in the Canvas viewer, set to 100%, with the channel blur, around text and sharp contrast areas, you get a nice soft blur, turn off that filter if you think its too much.
On to the encoding:
The simplest step, is to choose the DV timeline, and export via compressor. Pick a 2 pass MPEG preset, that matches the 4:3 or 16:9 of the sequence, and submit. This takes a while, on slower machines.
The alternative, which can reduce the time, is to export the DV sequence as an uncompressed QuickTime file - this does not change the quality at all - but can speed things up, because FCP is quite slow at delivering frames to Compressor, compared to Compresser just reading the frame from an uncompressed file, Compresser has to read them twice for 2 pass MPEG encoding. However, you need a lot of fast disk space to store the uncompressed footage.
Hope this helps.
Keep the replies / mail on these boards, that way they stay useful to all!
It was great weekend in Vancouver, wasn't it ?
Hit the beach on Sunday, good times

Field Order Changes? Rendering from Color.

I received a project from a client that was run through color. I noticed their source files were lower field dominant (525/29.97) and their renders from color were upper or odd field dominant. This caused some strangeness in their sequences and it looks like they de-interlaced their clips and/or changed the field order of their sequences. I can't find anywhere in Color to set this as a pre-set, other than setting to de-interlace renders. Is it possible that Color is inverting the field order when it renders? This used to happen with Compressor, when I would export FCP for DVD's, sometimes Compressor would (set to Auto) guess wrong on the field dominance. Can anyone advise?
Thanks in advance.

If only it were that easy. Of course, you will want to set a "re-interlace" for export....
De-interlace seems to be poorly understood and not very well executed in a lot of file-based image processing. In COLOR, both the Geometry and COLORFX rooms display spectacular weaknesses in this regard. To even use the word as its applied in COLORFX is a bit of a misnomer, because the real thrust of the exercise is to "split" and flag the fields for proper dominance handling. The COLOR USER manual has a good illustrated example of how to do this -- the result is a "twin" effects tree -- split the frame into its components at the top, do your voodoo identically for each "field" stream, then correctly zipper them back together at the bottom. Its a bit of a secret process, not entirely dissociated from a Masonic handshake.
There is a notional similarity to SHAKE in this regard, although that application only needs the FileIn node and the GLOBALS render tab enabled appropriately.
jPo

Field Order/Dominance question

I've been noticing that spots I've produced that air on my local cable network appear to be having problems with jerky movement of elements created in Motion. I thought that maybe the field order was set wrong on my Motion projects. (I should add that I'm doing "the big no-no" by only monitoring these on my computer and not on a TV monitor. I know, I'll have to remedy that someday.) Anyway, I'm using the "NTSC Broadcast SD" preset and that means field order is lower/even. I'm definitely rendering these out with field rendering on (Apple ProRes, btw) as I can see the interlace combing when viewing the output file.
I thought I'd try an experiment by creating a Motion project that would expose interlacing problems in the worst way and then render it out of Motion three ways: lower, upper and none. I then encoded these to mpeg-2 using Squeeze and burned them to a DVD (in DVDSP) to view on my consumer DVD player and SD television. (Remember, that's the only way I can view them played back interlaced...) To my surprise both the upper and lower movies looked terrible and the one rendered with no field dominance looked the best.
What gives? Any ideas? Does this seem right?
Thanks!
--Kurt Cowling

Wow Iain, you know waaaay more about this than I do. In fact, I asked a question in the iDVD area of this board many moons ago regarding whether or not there was some sort of metadata or tag that let iDVD know if the incoming file was interlaced or progressive and the response was basically "I don't know for sure, but I don't think so".
Anyway, I can confirm what you say regarding the output of ProRes files. The content is interlaced, but when clicking the deinterlace button in the advanced area of QuickTime player nothing happens.
I tried as you suggested and opened the "Advanced..." area of the output settings in Motion and found that interlace was indeed not checked in the ProRes settings. When I output a file after checking that box I can also confirm that the deinterlace button in QT player did actually deinterlace the display of the file.
I normally output my Motion projects in several layers and bring them back into FCP (as rendered video, not Motion files) to composite them with the underlying camera footage. (Makes later changes and updates easier to deal with for my workflow.) I then export the composite out of FCP as uncompressed SD and then proceed to encode for FTP delivery from there (usually H.264). I opened a recent uncompressed file that was output from FCP and found that it suffered from the same problem, namely that the file was not tagged as interlaced, even though the content was interlaced.
I then opened one of the H.264 files that was encoded from the uncompressed master. Same issue again.
The one thing I haven't tried (yet) is outputting my test project from Motion as described in my first post (but with the files tagged correctly this time!) and see if the DVD that gets burned plays correctly. I will try this in the next day or two.
I don't know what happens to my files after I FTP them to the cable provider, but I assume they must transcode them from H.264 into their system. If the files aren't tagged as interlaced then their system is probably treating them incorrectly, as well.
This brings me to the final question(s) that may solve all of this for me:
Is there a way to change just the metadata/tag in an existing QuickTime file (so that it is tagged correctly as interlaced) without having to re-render from the beginning? Also, It appears that FCP may suffer from the same issue since it obviously uses QT to export, just like Motion. If I correctly tag a file rendered from Motion and then import it into FCP and FCP doesn't then pass the correct tag on output to uncompressed I still have the same problem. Or, if FCP tags the uncompressed file correctly, but QT doesn't pass this along to the H.264, I'm still screwed. Hence, my question at the top of this paragraph! I think I really only need the last file I handle before FTPing to have the correct tag, since the content has been fine all along.
Thanks so much Iain for looking into this! I would never have found this on my own. I'm not exactly sure if this is a bug or just a bad implementation, but this seems like a bad oversight for sure and not something that could be figured out from reading the manual.
--Kurt
p.s. I will try some more experimenting with this and hopefully can come back and marked this thread as "question answered" since a workaround seems doable. Iain, would you be willing to submit this to Apple as a bug report? You seem to have a much better handle on this than I do.

How to make a bit field (multiple bits selectable) structure?

I'm develping a program to communicate with an external device, and it has a specific protocol. Often times, I need to make structs/typedefs of specific type (u8/u16/u32) that have values defined by multiple selection. For example, the protocol asks for the following:
The field is a bit field structure (multiple bits can be set simultaneously) defined as follows:
typedef u_16 COMM_TYPES;
#define A 0x8000
#define B 0x4000
#define C 0x2000
#define D 0x1000
How would you recommend implementing this? I've tried looping through a listbox in combination with a text ring that has the name and value pairs, but its cumbersome doing for each unique typedef (see image below)

That's what I would do. Other than I might use OR instead of sum, but that shouldn't make a difference.
The other possibility would be to take the array of index values, to a 2^x where x the array of indices, then add that. This assumes that every index in the array matches bit for bit with the enum values. Nothing is missing, and array element 0 corresponds to bit 0. In your case, your order is reversed, but you can reverse the array. And all your values are in the highest nibble of the highest byte (hex ?000) So you'd have to do some bit shifting or multiplication to get the actual values.
But I think this would make your code that much more fragile. I would just do what you have shown.

Export QuickTime Movie shifts field order

In august I finished grading a project and made a QT Prores 422 master file for the client to have delivered on a hard drive.
The client has kept quiet until now about an issue - the field order seems to be wrong. I couldn't believe my ears when he told me that. The timeline is lower (even) while the QT file he had received is Upper (odd).
I selected 5 seconds of the timeline and exported using CMD+E, and it says "Setting: current settings". So I thought it would be lower field as the timeline - but no - it comes out as upper, every single time.
How does this happen? Do I really have to make a conversion through compressorr?!

The following settings are the same for the prepped timeline and the one that came back from Color
*Sequence settings*
720x576 PAL Anamorphic 16:9
Field Dominance: Lower (even)
Compressor: Apple ProRes 422
*Item Properties*
Frame Size: 720x576
Anamorphic: Yes
Compressor: Apple ProRes 422
Field Dominance: Lower (even)
However, I think I nailed it. Gonna do some further testing to make sure though... In the Export to QuickTime Movie window, I found that I can select some other setting, using ProRes 422 PAL Anamorphic for instance. And as far as I know - PAL is always lower field, and it seemed to work for the first test I did.

Uncompressed 8-bit Field Order?

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