Little Frog in High Def by Shane Ross

If you are like me, when you hear a company say “hey, we mix and match formats and frame rates, all in real time and all at broadcast quality,” you ask, “how on God’s green Earth can you do that?”

I mean, how do you take a 1080i sequence full of 1080i XDCAM clips, then add a DV clip, and have it all play at broadcast quality.  WHAT broadcast quality?  Is the DV clip now XDCAM quality?  Or is it now playing DV quality out of the system?  And how does Media Composer handle the frame rate issue?  Not the way FCP does it with 2:2:2:4…oh please no.  And really?  Mix 25p and 1080i 29.97?  Really?  HOW!?

Well, I got to ask those questions.  And here are the answers.

Your sequence setting is what you tell it.  1080i, 720p, 525i…whathaveyou.  And whatever clip you add to that that ISN’T that format, gets scaled to that format…using a filter called a MOTION ADAPTER.  This add interpolation to match the sequence settings, and this is added automatically when you add new footage that doesn’t match.  And there are all sorts of interpolation modes…these are all user selectable. read more...