Pseudo 60p vs. 30p for Slow Motion

[kbrafford]

Here is a top/bottom demonstration of a 1/2 speed clip showing the difference between pseudo-60p (a term I just made up referring to using the odd lines of a 60i stream interpolated for 1 frame, then using the even lines of the stream interpolated for the next frame 1/60s later) versus a 30p stream generated by ignoring the even field.

http://www.embeddedexcellence.com/vid/60p30pSlowMotionTest.wmv

Theoretically there will be flickering issues in the pseudo 60p image in any part of the background that has vertical detail. In this practice shot the only issue I see is in the grill of the car right in the middle of the frame. And even then I had to look for it.

However when I tried to get Vegas to generate a mask for me for some special effects, the vertical effect was magnified, so one's mileage will vary when trying to use this technique to generate 60p video.

However I think I have shown that the technique is definitely useful for some pretty amazing footage. Slow motion should never ever ever be crappy with the HV20, as long as you get to plan your slomo shots and can switch to 60i mode :-)

BTW, here's what pseudo 60p video looks like slowed down to 40% playback rate in order to match a 23.976 frame rate:

http://www.embeddedexcellence.com/vid/60pSloMoUsedIn24pProject.wmv

[pascalbrown]

I think the 60p footage looks rather good. Good effort for taking the time to show us how it looks. I can see flickering also in the roof bars of the cars on the left, which detracts a little from the shot but the running looks good and that's what matters.

[skinnyboy]

Looks good, and gives me ideas...
Thanks for taking the time to demonstrate this!

What were your settings in camera?

[Mal]

That's quite impressive, really.

The 24p footage really shows how smooth motion can be using this technique; well done!

[jaelupo]

Great example of the slow motion capibilties of this camera (I love the split screen). I wish it had a burst mode like the Sony's which can shoot 160 Frames per second for a short period but the HV20 still looks good.

[kbrafford]

Looks good, and gives me ideas...
Thanks for taking the time to demonstrate this!

What were your settings in camera?

I believe I set the camera up with shutter priority at 1/2000 and with daylight mode.

[Critters]

The sony can only do it for 3 seconds, and at a reduced resolution, pointless!

[Mal]

What IS the resolution the Sony can do it at?

[Lunchbox]

kbrafford

good job... can you tell us how you achieve the result? What software you use? Can I do it in Premiere?

btw, is it you that was running back and forth? :)

Thanks

Taky

[kbrafford]

kbrafford

good job... can you tell us how you achieve the result? What software you use? Can I do it in Premiere?

btw, is it you that was running back and forth? :)

I used Vegas Video and simply set it to be a 960x540 project, progressive scan, and drop the m2t file into the timeline and make sure that it's set to "smart resample"

Vegas does the rest.

And no, that's not me...that's my buddy who can run faster than I can :-)

[toeth]

Thanks for the examples!

I've tried the 1/2000 shutter setting during some outdoor shooting and my results weren't quite up to your quality.

I used Vegas Pro 8 with project settings at 59.940 fps, progressive scan with a different setting of (HDV-1080 60i 1440x1080, 29.97), then rendering out to 24p. The results are very decent, though I see more motion blur than your video. I shot on normal HDV (non-24p) on my HV30 (which should be 60i). I haven't seen an option for "smart resample" in Vegas, perhaps that's outdated now.

Any suggestions for better slow motion results?