HD to SD in FCP Updates?

Hi Ken and all,

Any new updates to resolve HD to SD in FCP. I re read: Outputting Standard Definition in FCP from the Sony XDCam EX1. Is this still a valid work flow?

I know there will be a resolve to happily use our HD gear in the SD world..Hopefully very soon.

Thanks Always,
John Harris

Hi John,

Last week we finished a commercial SD dual layer music DVD for Sony that was recorded using several EX1 and EX3s. I had no trouble whatsoever making an SD DVD from this format, so here's how we worked:

Captured the live show in 1080 i50 (5 genlocked cams, no live video mix was recorded, each cam just recorded to its own cards).
Sound was captured separately on 38 tracks and was re-mixed to stereo, dolby 5.1 and DTS in an audio facility, then sent to us as WAV files.

I imported the video from the 5 cams via Log&Transfer to ProRes 422.
I edited the show using multicam (Five 1080 HD streams without any hickups on an intel octo).
I graded each song in Color and sent the individual edits of the different songs as H.264 SD files via our server to the client for his approval.
Finally I exported the approved show (2 hours 15 minutes) in two parts as ProRes 422 SD.

I dropped the ProRes SD files in Compressor, used CBR 7.5 as my target bitrate and made the m2v files. Looked perfect.
I then made the different audio versions (stereo, dolby 5.1 and DTS) in Compressor, I created some animated DVD menus in Motion and imported all the assets in DVDSP where I added subtitles for different countries. Then I made a dual layer DDP 2.0 project file for replication.

I just received the replicated DVD and it looks great. So I think this is a good way to make an SD DVD from EX footage.

Best wishes,

Ronny

Ronny,

Many thanks for that recipe. I was nearly there with your format described. Previously I had the jagged edge syndrome and with Pro Res 422 was nearly satisfied. The ProRes SD files in Compressor, using CBR 7.5 a target bitrate to m2v files must be the answer. Here I go. Thank you for your time on this.

John

I'm not finding "ProRes SD" anywhere. Do you mean ProRes LT or HQ or just regular ProRes 422?

There are four.

ProRes Proxy and LT, both for off line work.

The ProRes (which we now call SQ standard quality)

ProResHQ

and ProRes 4444

In FCP, select File > Export > QuickTime Movie, then click in the Setting options. You will see some 60 or more different flavors of different ProRes codecs, including ProRes 422 PAL and NTSC. These are the SD codecs.

Best wishes,

Ronny

Good question. I haven't attempted Ronny's advice. Is there a ProRes SD?

ProRes 422 NTSC.. Will do!! Thanks.
John