December Blogwad

I seem to do most of my blogging when I'm at home sick. Well now that I've got a cold, here's a backlog of interesting links on the web.

MacWorld Review: AppleJack 1.5
This is a piece of shareware for servicing your ailing Mac. It's a command-line utility, that helps simplify running some commands that can help fix your Mac. Includes a copy of memtest, which does a thorough check of your memory that helps diagnose bad RAM.

MacWorld First Look: boxee
boxee is an application for accessing digital media that is on your computer and on the internet. It's in alpha right now (I've run into quite a few bugs). But it's a promising concept that illustrates well the future of TV. It's got a 15-feet interface, so you can sit back on your couch and control the app with your Apple Remote. Lets you access Hulu (watch The Daily Show, 30 Rock) and (just added) Netflix support. So you can use the boxee interface to navigate and watch Netflix video that's in your Instant queue (oh, that's something that NetFlix recently allowed on Mac's--you don't need boxee to do that.) boxee runs on Mac's, Linux, and on Apple TV. You can sign up to get into the alpha release or ask a friend for an invitation. I wish Apple TV had this functionality built-in--Apple needs to up their game if they want to stay competitive with hardware and software for entertainment in the living room.

Digital Rebellion: How to keep your job as an editor
This article cover some technical gotchas that will mar your work and how to fix/avoid them in FCP. It goes over my current pet peeve--incorrect field dominance. I've been seeing more and more of this recently. Unfortunately, DV video uses a standard, lower-field dominance, that is very rare in video. Most other formats, like HDV, are upper-field dominant. You can run into a lot of problems when you mix formats in a timeline like DV and HDV. All of this is made more complex because anyone working in HD is probably not using a display that is interlaced--so it's easier to miss these problems. That's one reason why I'm not going to give up on my CRT any time soon--you've got to be checking for interlacing issues.

AppleCare Articles
Convert MP3 and AAC audio files for compatibility before importing
I've run into some weirdness recently with 44 KHz audio files in FCP--if they get rendered then the audio is from a different part of the track then it should be. Solution: convert the audio file to 48 KHz as described in this article.
Creating an Easy Setup for capturing DV with 32 kHz audio
Speaking of audio issues... For those of us still working in DV, once and a while you'll run into some audio at 32 KHz, instead of the usual 48 KHz.
Restoring a DV device connection in QuickTime 7
Can't say I've ever done this, but I've definitely run into issues with DV device connection in FCP. Maybe this will do the trick for you.

A couple of good lists of video tools:
Final Cut User: My Compression Tools
The DV Show: Big List of Video & Audio Converters Mac, PC, and online applications and tools

slashCAM: HD Camcorder Comparison
Looking for a new camera below $10K? This is a great resource. A giant database of specs that you can access in a comparison layout. Also has test shots, and some review info.

Vincent Laforet: 7 DAYS, 7 SHOOTS - EOS 5D MKII
A very beautiful-looking video shot with a Canon digital SLR camera. I haven't been blogging about video on DSLR's--there are a lot of pitfalls to this approach. But check out the video, just to get a sense of how pretty low-cost video could look.

Larry Jordan: Fixing Fluorescent Flicker
This is a nasty problem that I've seen a lot in footage that comes from developping countries. It's caused by cheap fluorescent lighting (can't say I've ever seen it in footage from the States.) This solution won't fix every bad shot, but it could help.

Kensington Mice and After Effects CS4
Oh, we've got a copy of Adobe Production Premium CS4 in house. I'm excited to check out the new 3D features (including real 3D models). One new 3D feature relies on a 3-button mouse. This article helps you set up your current mouse to work as a 3-button input device.

Studio Daily Blog: Multiuser
This looks like a handy piece of software that will set up different user settings on the same computer.

FxFactory Freebies: Pan and Zoom
A free plug-in for FCP. Looks good for stills. I'd avoid applying this to standard-def footage, as SD footage looks like crap when it gets scaled up (especially if it's interlaced.) But I'm much more open to zooming in on HD footage. Just make sure that you capture your HDV footage as native HDV and that the deck isn't downconverting it over firewire. (Caveat: watch out for our old-frenemy interlace flicker if you put your HDV footage in a DV sequence.)

October Blogwad

"3D Objects from Photoshop in After Effects CS4"
Adobe CS4 is shipping. The thing that most interested me is you can have 3D objects in After Effects. There are a number of limitations on this. This little video shows you the basic of working with 3D objects and discusses the limitations in After Effects (the biggest for me is objects don't respond to lighting in After Effects.) More new features described here.

"Top 10 things you didn't know about the new MacBook"
New MacBook and MacBook Pro's were announced. Each model lost a Firewire 400 port. That leaves the MBP with one FW800 port, but the MacBook with no Firewire port and no way to add it. Some good things about the new laptops too (besides looking really slick.)

"Final Cut Pro: Free plugins to make all fonts available"
Why by version of 6, Apple still hasn't fixed this I don't know. But here's a text plug-in that is supposed to let you use all of your fonts in FCP.

"Final Cut Pro: My free Closing Credits plugin"
From the same guy who made the type plug-in above. The cool thing about this is that it lets you control the lines per second speed of your scroll. I basically almost always use one speed for credit rolls--120 lines pers second. (To know why read from Adam Wilt here). I do keyframe animation of Title 3D to do this, but it's a pain. This plug-in is an easier way to get the speed right, but you lose all the nice type editing features of Boris 3D.

"Build your own affordable SAN -- that works!"
Remember my crazy idea to use Jonathan's computer to build a SAN. This is where I got the idea. I'd still like to do it, but nobody wanted to give me $3K to play around with this, instead of letting editors use the computer.

"What to do if you lose your Pro App serial number"
Title says it all.

"Final Cut Pro Audio Filter Guide Part 1"
"Final Cut Pro Audio Filter Guide Part 2"
Bone up on FCP's audio filters with these helpful articles. Basically they describe what the various sliders do for the filters. However, if you're like me and not an audio person and you don't know what you are doing, then you will probably make your audio sound worse by playing around with filters. On the other hand, I learned the little I know about audio mainly by playing around with filters.

My current favorite filter is Soundtrack Pro's limiter. It works much better than the limiter in FCP. But it's a pain to export to Soundtrack Pro and reimport. It really makes sure that your peaks aren't out of control and cuts off all sounds at a consistent level without distorting it. I usually set it to -10 limit with a +10 boost.

"Another electronic slate for the iPhone"
"Finally a few timecode calculators for the iPhone"
Rejoice iPhone owners (and iPod Touch owners.) Video-centric apps for your iPhone.

"Anything Worth Backing Up…"
Good thoughts on backup strategies and technologies.

"All About Video Fields"
For extra credit, read this long, tech-y article on fields. Written from the perspective of a software engineer, but all the issues come up for video editors too.

24p vs. 30p

So we are moving away (slowly all be it) from interlaced video to progressive video. There are a number of framerates common with progressive. Here's a brief breakdown
24 fps--what's used on film
30 fps--half as many samples per second as regular TV (e.g., 60 interlaced)
25 fps--half the frame rate of regular TV in Europe (e.g., 50 fps)
50 fps--the samples of images per second used in European TV
60 fps--the samples of images per second used in North America TV ( which is usually interlaced)

So people generally prefer the slower frame rates in documentaries and dramatic material because it reminds people of film and the cinema--in short it looks classy. The faster frame rates look like TV and are a must have for sports where things are moving fast.

This post is primarily concerned with the technological differences (and not aesthetic) between different frame rates. (If you want to brush up on your basic knowledge of interlaced versus progressive, check out their definitions from this glossary from Quantel.) So let me outline a couple of the technical advantages of progressive video versus interlaced video:

1) Monitors are rapidly turning progressive--LCD's (both TV's and computers) and plasmas. These monitors can't natively display interlaced video. So some processing has to be done to de-interlace, and very often you end of losing resolution (and lots of it) when the de-interlacing happens. It depends partly on how good the hardware is that does the de-interlacing, but this happens at the consumer's end--so you never quite know how it will look. In short, a cheap TV will do a bad job of this.

2) Better effects work on progressive footage. Lots of effects, including scaling, require the video to be de-interlaced. Final Cut Pro does a lousy job of de-interlacing. If your footage is progressive (and FCP knows it), then it won't de-interlace to do simple things like scaling up the video. This past week, I had to include some letterboxed standard-def video in a high-def show. It looked super soft in FCP. So I used Compressor to do a very slow but very good de-interlacing of the footage, which I then scaled up (but again I didn't even scale this footage in FCP). It looked a lot better with the de-interlacing that Compressor does than the de-interlacing that FCP does.

3) Progressive distribution of video. Computer monitors were never interlaced--so anything for distribution on computers benefits from being progressive. Also DVD's will handle 24 fps. This is great if the video is going to a progressive display, e.g., LCD or Plasma. As mentioned above, interlaced footage needs to de-interlaced to be scaled, but progressive doesn't. So a 24fps DVD will usually look much better on a high-def display than a comparable 60i video.

Important note: DVD doesn't have a standard for 30 fps--it's either 60i or 24 fps. So your DVD player and your TV treat 30 fps just like 60i--if it gets scaled up then you could lose resolution (but not always--again it depends on the display.)

Now let me move on to outline some advantages and drawbacks of different framerates:

24 fps: So if you're going to make a film print, then you should shoot in this framerate. OK .001 per cent of anything shot by professionals will ever end up on film. But because 24fps has been very hot for many years (essentially the Panasonic DVX-100 set that off) there are a lot of post workflows for working with 24 fps. 30 fps is gaining ground though--there are now lots of setups in FCP for it.

24 fps is very close to 25 fps. So a general option for converting for a European master is to just speed up the movie by 4%. No elaborate and/or expensive standards conversion. I think Compressor will handle this 4% speed up for you. I recently did a post of a technology guide from Quantel and they recommend 24fps as a universal format because it is so easy to transfer across the Atlantic.

And it's important that your software knows that you want to work progressive. You can put 24fps or 30fps in a 60i timeline, but then you've lost all of the technological advantages of working progressive. Your editing software, your computer, your DVD player, your TV will treat it like interlaced video. So as a general rule, pick a frame rate and stick to it throughout post and distribution. Obviously this can sometimes be really problematical--what about archival footage that's 60i? Or you want to work with a shooter and they don't own a camera that shoots progressive. You can convert that to 24fps using Compressor, but it's a real pain. No easy answer for this one.

As or 30 fps, one advantage is that is has more samples per second than 24 fps. 24 fps can look kind of choppy--you especially have to be careful with panning quickly. 30 fps is no walk in the park in this regards, but you have 25% more samples of the image per second than with 24 fps--so definitely less choppy.

In general for cameras, especially with CCD chips, it is easier to create 30 fps than 24 fps. CCD's have been doing 60i for so long that a lot of cameras out there are still based around that technology. Namely, the Sony HVR-Z1, which Link owns. The Z1 doesn't do real progressive imaging, but with the Cineframe modes you can get video that has 24, 25, or 30 images per second. Basically the camera blends the interlaced video to get progressive-looking video. Apparently, the Cineframe 24 with the Sony Z1 is supposed to be really crummy. The Cineframe 30 is supposed to be better, as is the Cineframe 25. Basically the camera is capturing video in an interlaced manner 60 time per second and has to figure out how to make progressive frames with it. With all Cineframe modes, this means tossing out some resolution. The Canon XL-H1 also does a similar process to get progressive frame rates. But going to 30 fps from 60i is easier--basically is the image is moving than you throw about every other field. And the Z1 does Cineframe 30 reasonably but fails with Cineframe 24 (Caveat: this is definitely true for HD, but if you are downconverting to SD it might be OK.)

One option I saw discussed over at a great post and discusion, which talks about frame rates, at HD for Indies is to shoot with the Z1 Cineframe 25 and then slow it down to get 24 fps. I think the easiest way to do this would be with Compressor, but these Compressor workflows are a hassle. However, if quality is important than this is an option.

By the way, Sony is moving from CCD's to CMOS, and the CMOS sensors are much more versatile with frame rates. So the HVR-V1 chips natively captures at 24 fps, as does the new EX-1, the HVR-Z7 and HVR-S270.

One problem is that even if the camera can capture images at 24 fps (or 30 fps), the camera often actually records in video that is actually 60i. With 24 fps that is recorded in a signal of 60i, the camera adds pulldown (see the definition in this Quantel post I did). In post you need to remove the pulldown, otherwise your editing software just treats it like 60i and you lose all the technological advantages of working with progressive video. So to post at 24 fps, you may have to convert the footage to remove the pulldown. This can make post-production very complex. FCP has added a setup for version 6.0.2, which is supposed to automatically remove the pulldown from the V1's 24 fps footage. Newer gear from Sony like the Z7 and S270 are doing a native framerate of 24fps recording in HDV. Tapeless cameras like the Panasonic HVX-200 and the Sony PMW EX-1 handle progressive footage in a much more straight-forward manner.

One drawback with 30 fps is that it doesn't convert well to 24 fps or 25 fps. 60i is easier to convert to 25 fps because it has a lot more samples across time to work with. Basically when you are doing a major standards conversion, a computer needs to generate frames that don't exist by analyzing the image information that is available. The more samples of images, the better that this process can be handled. In short if you have to make 25 fps video or 50i video, than 60 images per second is much better than 30 images per second. (Remember that going from 24 fps to 25 fps can be done in a much easier way by simply speeding up the video by 4%.)

UPDATE
I thought I should add a caveat about the above comments on standards conversion. The workflow that I desribe for speeding up 24 fps to make it a European-friendly 25 fps is a workflow that I've only heard discussed as a step done in a computer, e.g., Final Cut Pro or Compressor. So you could convert the footage on your Mac--but you'd still have to make a master on a 25 fps or 50 fps format, usually tape like DigiBeta or if HD, HDCam or DVCProHD. The traditional way to do standards conversion is that folks just make an NTSC master of their program and then send it to a high-end dub house to get a PAL copy done. This is obviously easier than having to make a master on your own for formats designed to work in Europe. I don't know of a dub scenario that exists for taking a 24 fps master and speeding it up during a transfer to make it 25 fps. If you want a standards conversion done during a dub, then 24 fps may not be any better than 30 fps.

In short, there is no easy answer to this question. First you got to know your camera, know your post options, and know your distribution plans. From there, it's a matter of trade-offs, for quality, time, and money.

Interlacing

I spent 11 hours on Friday fixing a show, which was cut by an editor outside of Link, the day before air. One of the big problems with the show is that the editor didn't seem to have any concept of interlacing. For example, HDV and DV have different field order--HDV is upper field first, and DV is lower field first. You can't just throw them together in the same timeline without some processing. That processing is namely the "Shift Fields" filter. When editing HDV that's in the viewer into a DV sequence using the overwrite or insert command, FCP will automaticaly apply the Shift Fields filter with the correct setting--it also scales and distorts the video so it looks proper. However, I think if you just drag an HDV clip into a DV timeline, then FCP does not apply the filter, scale, and distort settings to the clip.

If you don't apply the shift field filter when you are mixing footage with different field orders, then you will got stuttery playback. Chris & Trish Meyer have a good write-up on fields along with all the particulars you need to know to handle interlacing in After Effects. Check out this article from ProVideo Coalition:
Field Order - Who’s on First?

I suspect that the show that I fixed was edited on an LCD monitor. FCP makes it easy enough to use a computer LCD to display footage that I think more and more people are doing without a video monitor. Some might even say that interlace is dead because 99% (not actual number) of new TV's are progressive anyway. Well, as long as you are delivering for standard-definition, then I think you have to got to look at your show on a CRT monitor that can properly display interlace (except for those rare cases, when you have a 24p show that is only going to DVD in standard-def.) There will be plenty of CRT TV's around for a long time, and plenty of broadcasters using 480i or DVD video encoded as 30i.