Hv20 footage looks soft (out of focus) in editing system but fine on tape.

[Evacproductions]

Hello everyone i am a new member but have been coming here to read posts for a while now. I appreciate you all.

Issue:
I shot a feature this summer using the hv20 (loved it). the footage looked great during shooting (I was the DP and often used the focus assist for my shots). However, when the footage was imported into premiere pro cs3 using the hdv preset the footage output looks soft and out of focus. I would think it was my shooting but i am a very careful when i shoot and as i mentioned, i often used focus assist. the footage still looks great when played from the camera but on the timeline and when output to an avi (uncompressed) it comes out soft and very...muddy (as to say clips such as ones shot in bright daylight which appear vibrant when layed on the camera appear like they were overcast). I am by no means new to video production, editing, or filming, and this has me perplexed. My initial thought is that it has something to do with interlacing or the capture presets but i have no idea. has anyone else experienced overly soft output? any suggestions?. thank you in advance for your responses. i will try to post a still or two so you can see what i mean but I'm pressed for time at the moment.


Shot the entire film in 24p cinemode with the vibrant preset and footage on tape looks crisp.

[Ian-T]

Not sure what the problem might be. I've read about this same type of issue before (in this forum) with others using Premier. Quick suggestion...try using the free application HDVSplit to capture and bring that into your NLE to see if there is a difference.

[SenorKaffee]

If that doesn´t work out you could also convert the video to an intermediate format. I don´t trust the MPEG2 decoder in Adobe products either.

[Kyleman]

I usually use uncompressed .Mov (Quicktime) and have no problems at all. Maybe you should try that.



-Kyle

[Lunchbox]

Do you mean the footage is soft when viewing it in Premiere timeline? Or after you export it to other format in Premiere?

[Jennzababe]

How do you know it looks great on tape? Have you output the camera right to a hdtv and watched the video to verify it? What looks sharp on the tiny LCD is often not in focus at all when seen on a bigger screen.

Just wondering how you confirmed that the video on tape is actually in focus and sharp looking.

[Evacproductions]

Do you mean the footage is soft when viewing it in Premiere timeline? Or after you export it to other format in Premiere?

Well it looks fuzzy in premiere period. if i watch it from the timeline it looks soft. If i export it to an uncompressed file it still looks soft. I initially thought it was because it was un-rendered but was sorely disappointed after it was finally rendered and still looked horrible. applying a sharpening filter helps, however some of the footage daytime still looks a little dark and there is of course the risk of little loss of quality with using a sharpening filter.

[franssu]

How did you import the footage in Premiere ? How did you do the pulldown to get the 24p back ?

[Lunchbox]

Premiere preview could be fuzzy but that's normal. It's a preview. Here's a few thing you can tell us,

- What's your source footage (60i, 30p, PF24)
- What timeline preset you use or you create your own preset
- Have you upgrade to Premiere Pro 3.2
- How did you export? What export settings (codec, frame size, frame rate, pixel aspect ratio, odd/even field or progressive)


You can also read about this thread

http://www.hv20.com/showthread.php?t=6075

The fuzziess was caused by the wrong timeline preset.

[Evacproductions]

How do you know it looks great on tape? Have you output the camera right to a hdtv and watched the video to verify it? What looks sharp on the tiny LCD is often not in focus at all when seen on a bigger screen.

Just wondering how you confirmed that the video on tape is actually in focus and sharp looking.

I know what you mean about the lcd and yes, some of the footage was viewed on an hdtv the day it was shot, kind of like viewing a daily if you will, and it came out very crisp. We didn't look at all of the footage from each day on that tv but enough to convince me that what i see out of premiere is not as good as the source footage. There were a couple of instances when we knew something was a little soft when i shot it but those clips just look even more out of focus than they are, in addition to the sharp images looking soft.

[Kyleman]

In Premiere Preview, did you Right-Click and select "Highest Quality"? Did you know that this also effects your rendering quality, also? By a small amount.


-Kyle

[Evacproductions]

If that doesn´t work out you could also convert the video to an intermediate format. I don´t trust the MPEG2 decoder in Adobe products either.

Thank you, and Ian-T. I was wondering if this could be an issue, i will have to try this and let you know how converting to an intermediate or using hd split may help. I'm not new to filmmaking but I am new to the hv20 and hdv in general, and am jut now starting to get a grasp of the workflow most people on this site suggest. I didn't know about these things until very recently so when i return from my trip i will see of that helps.

[Evacproductions]

Premiere preview could be fuzzy but that's normal. It's a preview. Here's a few thing you can tell us,

- What's your source footage (60i, 30p, PF24)
- What timeline preset you use or you create your own preset
- Have you upgrade to Premiere Pro 3.2
- How did you export? What export settings (codec, frame size, frame rate, pixel aspect ratio, odd/even field or progressive)


You can also read about this thread

http://www.hv20.com/showthread.php?t=6075

The fuzziess was caused by the wrong timeline preset.

Thanks for the link.
I shot it in pf24.
I used the "DV 24p widescreen 48Hz" timeline preset in premiere cs3 which states:
-For editing 23.976 fps footage shot in 24P or 24PA (24P Advanced) modes.
-Widescreen NTSC frame aspect ratio (16:9).
-48kHz (16 bit) audio.
-2:3:3:2 pull-up for playback to a DV device.
-progressive (no fields)

I haven't yet upgraded to 3.2. and as far as export I just exported a progressive uncompressed microsoft dv avi. since i didn't import the footage myself i am wondering if it could have been the capture settings which were the default for that project preset which seemed fine to me, any comments on that?

[Kyleman]

Are you meaning to edit in SD? Because that's an SD preset.




-Kyle

[Evacproductions]

How did you import the footage in Premiere ? How did you do the pulldown to get the 24p back ?

Hmm. i just used the default capture settings from the "dv 24p widescreen 48khz" preset and that may be the issue. if you believe so, could someone possibly explain how or why? thanks to everyone for their help so far. You all are so helpful and fast too. Ha, i luv u all.

[Evacproductions]

Are you meaning to edit in SD? Because that's an SD preset.




-Kyle

yes we were editing SD because we knew our output would be sd. In retrospect I would have tried to edit HD and export it SD somehow later. One thing is that the director (who's editing program/computer we were using) said he had no presets in the "HDV" folder when you start a new premiere project so that is why he chose the 24p widescreen preset. i raised a brow but didnt think much of it. Would that have potentially caused the disappointing soft look though?

[Kyleman]

Premire dosen't come with any good HDV presets. There is a 24p preset download (Official) Here.


-Kyle

[CycleWriter]

If you're editing it as SD then you'll be rendering SD to SD. You'll get better results editing HD and rendering it to SD.

[Kyleman]

If you're editing it as SD then you'll be rendering SD to SD. You'll get better results editing HD and rendering it to SD.

Don't listen to this man. He's crazy. But, he is right.


-Kyle

[Lunchbox]

You did everything wrong. If you shoot PF24, you will need to remove pulldown. Otherwise, your footage is 60i. Please read the FAQ

http://hv20.com/showthread.php?t=3058

You can also edit in HDV instead of DV 24p. You will need to upgrade to Premiere Pro 3.2 so there is a HDV 1080p24 timeline preset.

Here's another tips and tricks for Premiere Pro you can read about

http://hv20.com/showthread.php?t=7067

[CycleWriter]

Another newbie schooled on the benefits and wisdom of reading the FAQ and Stickies and doing a search first.