Re: Upper / Lower field question

I'm capturing 35mm transfered to HDCAM and it's capturing Upper field dominance. Why would this be? Is it how it was captured or something about my project? Will this become a problem that it's upper dominant or is that ok?

Thanks!

Dave

Hi Dave,

What are your capture settings ?

The earliest HDCAM models could only record 1080 60i (1440x1080 non-square). The later HDCAM recorders also have 1080 24p, so you may have to check in the deck how the video was recorded.

If it was recorded 1080 60i then it will be interlaced anyway and in this case Upper field is correct. If is was recorded 24p and your final output is progressive (back to HDCAM 24p for film transfer), you will have to capture progressive (no field dominance).

Best wishes,

Ronny

The film was shot at 30fps, and I think the transfer was done at 1080i 29.97.

If the transfer was done at 1080i 29.97 there should be no problem. To which format are you capturing ?

Best wishes,

Ronny

I'm capturing ProRes 422. I guess HD is always Upper dominant. Does that mean I'll need to switch fields of SD footage in the same timeline? For now, anyway, the final format will be SD. I'm planning on cutting in HD and down converting. I'm worried about the SD in the timeline though, being in an HD timeline, then down converted back to SD. Any suggestions? I know there's about 3 questions in there, sorry.

If your final format is SD only, this is not a good workflow. You should work in an SD timeline instead. If your SD material is anything but DV the field dominance will be Upper as well, so this should not cause any problems. If it is DV, first onvert your DV footage to the same Apple Pro Res SD format and edit the whole thing in Apple Pro res 422.

It is an illusion to think that you can mix SD and 1080 HD in an HD timeline and output an quality HD video. Your SD footage will look too bad compared to the HD footage, even when you up-convert it with the most expensive converters. Unless your HD footage is really bad (-:

Best wishes,

Ronny

I thought SD was usually lower dominant.

The thing is, this will someday air in HD, so I don't want to edit in an SD timeline. But for now, while there is still SD footage, it will only air in SD. As time goes by, this SD footage will be replaced with newly shot HD footage. When all the SD footage is replaced, then it will be able to air in HD. Not sure what the best workflow for this situation is.

Apple ProRes 422 has a field dominance of "None".

--ken

Ken is right, Apple ProRes has no field dominance set as a standard, but field dominance in ProRes can be changed for interlaced footage. I guess it's your capture card that sets the correct field order. Upper Field is correct for 1080i: in the end you probably will go back to Digibeta master through your capture card for SD broadcasting (or HDCAM 1080i for HD broadcasting) anyway, and these are both Upper Field First.

I work in PAL world. PAL DV SD is Lower Field First, PAL broadcast SD is Upper Field First. NTSC SD is Lower Field First.

Best wishes,

Ronny

Hello,
I am about to transcode in MPEG Streamclip and I'm still confused with this UPPER or LOWER field.
I have attached 2 screen shots to see:

First screen-shot is my FCP Project's Browser Window where you can see the footage allrealy logged and transfered as PRO RES 422 1280x720 from my PANASONIC CAMERA (these 2 were shot at ->1280x720 25P).

Second screen shot is the settings I am now choosing to transcode the footage from a Cannon EOS 5D MK II.
The Cannon Footage is H.264 1920 x 1080 25FPS, and I want to convert this clip to match my settings.

As I see in my browser the 2 clips already logged and transferred as well as my sequence DO NOT SHOW a Field Dominance!
So what am I supposed to choose in MPEG Streamclip??????

Thanking you all in advance, all the best,
Suzana