Final Cut Pro, and strobed video

[Huntr777]

Hi all,

Recently I have started doing projects on Final Cut Studio 2. I have been taking footage of a local pro wrestling outfit, taking my ringside roaming cam and taking the school's hard cam and doing a 2 camera output with Multiclip. I have a Mac G5 1.6 GHz Tower, and am using a Sony SR-47 Hard Drive Camera for my roaming cam shots. I have noticed that the footage on the playback on the camera, as well as when I import it into FCP is fine. But when I output the footage through compressor, the fast action footage (which there is quite a bit of) seems to be very strobed. When the action slows down it's fine, but when it picks back up, there it is again.

I asked my Apple Store teacher about this, his suggestion was to mark where ALL of the actions shots are in FCP and mark them to be "less compressed". That will take way too long, and there is no guarantee that will work. So I come to everybody here, is there a way that I can stop this from happening? I don't think the length of the entire show has much to do with it, since it was only 90 mins or so, which I know can easily fit onto a 4.7 GB DVD. (My teacher said try using dual layer DVD's...have had nothing but problems using dual layer DVD's for anything else but data.)

The footage on the cam is MPEG 2, and I have been exporting it via Streamclip to make a .dv file, which is then imported into FCP. The footage is then edited, and exported through compressor to DVD.

So, any help? Thanks in advance!

Tom

[edDV]

Hi all,

Recently I have started doing projects on Final Cut Studio 2. I have been taking footage of a local pro wrestling outfit, taking my ringside roaming cam and taking the school's hard cam and doing a 2 camera output with Multiclip. I have a Mac G5 1.6 GHz Tower, and am using a Sony SR-47 Hard Drive Camera for my roaming cam shots. I have noticed that the footage on the playback on the camera, as well as when I import it into FCP is fine. But when I output the footage through compressor, the fast action footage (which there is quite a bit of) seems to be very strobed. When the action slows down it's fine, but when it picks back up, there it is again.

I asked my Apple Store teacher about this, his suggestion was to mark where ALL of the actions shots are in FCP and mark them to be "less compressed". That will take way too long, and there is no guarantee that will work. So I come to everybody here, is there a way that I can stop this from happening? I don't think the length of the entire show has much to do with it, since it was only 90 mins or so, which I know can easily fit onto a 4.7 GB DVD. (My teacher said try using dual layer DVD's...have had nothing but problems using dual layer DVD's for anything else but data.)

The footage on the cam is MPEG 2, and I have been exporting it via Streamclip to make a .dv file, which is then imported into FCP. The footage is then edited, and exported through compressor to DVD.

So, any help? Thanks in advance!

Tom

Describe exactly the camcorders you were using, the format and the capture method. Are you editing in DV format?

[Huntr777]

I am using a Sony SR-47 Hard Drive Camcorder, and I via Streamclip I am converting it to .dv to import into Final Cut Pro

[edDV]

I am using a Sony SR-47 Hard Drive Camcorder, and I via Streamclip I am converting it to .dv to import into Final Cut Pro

My guess is you're using a FCP DV format project default (lower field first) while your camcorder is using MPeg2 with top field first. Field reversal will cause the motion effects you describe.

[terryj]

If your footage is going into FCP fine,
if you play your outputted .dv stream file in Quicktime Pro and it is fine,
then I would agree with your FCP Teacher: You are using probably
a constant bitrate compression setting in Compressor, and
in trying to make it fit into 90mins, it isn't processing the fast motion
stuff very effectively.

What I would do to make sure Compressor isn't doing
anything else weird, is that I would make a subclip of a
section of an action sequence, in FCP, create a new timeline ( sequence)
and place the subclip of the action there. You only need like 10 minutes
of the action in the subclip.

I would then export that to Compressor, and instead of the 90 minute
compression setting you were using before, I would duplicate that
setting, but go in and change it from Constant Bit Rate to Variable
2 Pass bitrate. Then I would let Compressor do its thing, and then
play back the ouput from Compressor, when done, in Quicktime Pro.
If the footage is correct in the output, then problem solved.

[Huntr777]

I am using a Sony SR-47 Hard Drive Camcorder, and I via Streamclip I am converting it to .dv to import into Final Cut Pro

My guess is you're using a FCP DV format project default (lower field first) while your camcorder is using MPeg2 with top field first. Field reversal will cause the motion effects you describe.

Interestingly enough I called Apple and asked one of their FCP techs and he gave me the same answer you just did, but he told me to change the field dominance (which was set to lower) to "None", which I did. He also said to de-interlace the video in FCP, which could also cause the strobe problem as well...what do you think? Do you think doing both of those steps will eliminate most (if not all) of the strobe problems during the action parts?

T

[edDV]

I am using a Sony SR-47 Hard Drive Camcorder, and I via Streamclip I am converting it to .dv to import into Final Cut Pro

My guess is you're using a FCP DV format project default (lower field first) while your camcorder is using MPeg2 with top field first. Field reversal will cause the motion effects you describe.

Interestingly enough I called Apple and asked one of their FCP techs and he gave me the same answer you just did, but he told me to change the field dominance (which was set to lower) to "None", which I did. He also said to de-interlace the video in FCP, which could also cause the strobe problem as well...what do you think? Do you think doing both of those steps will eliminate most (if not all) of the strobe problems during the action parts?
T

I always archive my SD camcorder video interlaced and make interlace 720x480i DVDs. That way the progressive DVD player, progressive TV or computer media player can handle any necessary display deinterlace while interlace TV sets can display native interlace.

Software deinterlace will produce artifacts that can't be corrected with better display hardware. Interlace SD video works well with the new class of 120Hz HDTV sets.

In cases where deinterlace is necessary, such as for internet streaming or extreme compression, I do that separately.

[terryj]

Interestingly enough I called Apple and asked one of their FCP techs and he gave me the same answer you just did, but he told me to change the field dominance (which was set to lower) to "None", which I did. He also said to de-interlace the video in FCP, which could also cause the strobe problem as well...what do you think? Do you think doing both of those steps will eliminate most (if not all) of the strobe problems during the action parts?

T

You can also set the field dominance in your Mpeg-2 Setting in Compressor.
You'll need to create a new Mpeg-2 setting, which should do anyway, becasue
Apple's out the box cookie cutter settings don't always take into account
varying source material and or effects.

[Herve]

funny
edDV answer is cool
Apple support only talked as … an after-sales service (they propose to you to eleminate a lot of informations in your source file to avoid user concern )

So no deinterlacing,
just change field order from lower to upper in your project setting (see terry post)

...and next time, use a soft that is able to correct field order during conversion of your footage to DV (MPegStreamClip for example)

bye