HDV footage on new Karat not looking good.

[Christopher6206]

I just bought a new Karat and am importing HDV footage via fire wire from my Cannon XHA1-s, The footage is shot at 1920 x 1080i and the settings for the project are as such. When I've imported the same way with my S-4000 pro it always looks really good. But this time the picture looks somewhat pixelated. This is a soccer game, well 4 soccer games and they all look the same. If the shot is still and the players are standing still it looks fine but as soon as they start running and the camera starts to move they look pixelated, even blurry. The feild itself looks this way too when the camera is panning particularly if it is a fast pan. Movement looks clean as in there is no jitter or stutter to the footage but clearly there is something wrong. And this footage was used a year ago with the S-4000 Pro and it made a great looking Blu Ray disc. The only difference is with the S-4000 pro, it is hooked up to the monitor via a DVI out converted to HDMI and then straight to the monitor. The Karat is hooked up via HDMI directly. Is this just a raw footage thing? Where I can make all my edits and render it, create the disc and or data file and all will look fine? Or is there something I am missing? Shouldn't this footage look just as good as the S-4000 pro does after importing? If I am just playing the footage and not recording it it still looks the same. Any suggestions?

[IanPearson]

Hi Chris
I do not know why your S4000 and Karat are reacting differently, but if you are importing via Firewire, you are not importing HD. Firewire is SD only. Therefore importing to a 1920 x 1080i project via Firewire does not make sense.

If you are shooting in 1920 x 1080i then yes import to a project set up in the same format, but for HD it will need to be a USB input.

Ian

[LouBruno]

Actually it can be HDV as well. I have two decks and they are tape. The file size would be 1440 for HDV. I use FireWire.

[JBrooks]

Chris,

I have experienced this while using both a Karat and an S-6000......I found that since HDV is Interlaced, it looks horrible on a Progressive monitor.....That's another reason I have not shot in Interlaced mode in several years.....everything I shoot and edit (unless it's for a local TV station) is 1920 X 1080-30p........all looks great then.

Joel Brooks-MIT Video
Macrosystem Americas Dealer
http://www.mitvideoproductions.com
817-771-8347

[Christopher6206]

So from my bad looking footage I created a .avi file, and a .mp4 at 1920 by 1080 and they both look fine. I had to use the youtube file format offered in media manager (I can never get PC DIrect MP4 to work in HD) for the .mp4. But both look fine. I also created a Blu Ray disc and it looks good too. When I press display on the Blu Ray player while playing the disc, it says it's playing 1920x1080p. So I don't know where the conversion is happening. I've read that TVs can de interlace Blu Ray discs on the fly and that the player can do the same thing. Or maybe Arabesk de interlaced it when creating the disc. I don't know. Does anyone else?

I still don't get why footage looks good with S-4000 pro but not on the Karat.

[JBrooks]

I use the PC direct .MP4 in media manager without issue....Make sure before you archive the footage into media manager, the MPEG Convert is NOT selected on....leave it unchecked. You will get maximum quality that way. It should export from any of media manager's codecs then.

Joel Brooks-MIT Video
Macrosystem Americas Dealer
http://www.mitvideoproductions.com
817-771-8347