Really, Really Confused- HDV Footage

mjroddy wrote on 2/8/2008, 10:16 AM
G'Day.

I shot an eagle the other day.
Literally, I video taped a eagle puppet in HDV. I shot it on both a Sony Z1U and a Canon XL-H1 because I'm experiencing problems.
All footage is digitized using HDLink in the Cineform codec (though, I get the same results digitizing straight to M2T).

The puppet is covered with very fine "fur" to make him look "feathery."
When I shoot the puppet stationary (no movement), he looks clean and sharp. But when he starts "talking" and bouncing around, he looks very blurry (I almost said, "fuzzy," but I don't want to cofuse anyone).
What's worse, is I experience the same results in After Effects (7) as I do in Vegas: Still puppet looks great, moving puppet looks bad.
To confuse matters even more, the footage looks great in Windows Media Player. Much better, in fact: the footage is more saturated and MUCH sharper in WMP.

I can't have a blurry puppet!
I thought it was an HDV issue with all that fine fur confusing the codec, but why would WMP look so sharp?!

My days overdue on my deadline because of this issue (it's for a cable commercial). Any help is greatly appreciated.

A sample of the spot can be seen at:
http://www.charterspots.com/EagleGlen_PaulHighlights.wmv

Edit: Probably doesn't matter, but I'm using Vegas 7. Thanks for any help offered!

Comments

mdopp wrote on 2/8/2008, 11:12 AM
Your WMV-video is progressive (30p).
What settings did you use to deinterlace the HDV footage?

Actually both options Vegas Video offers for deinterlacing ("Blend fields" and "Interpolate fields", see "project properties") are not really good.
However, for downconverting from 1080 to 480 lines, "Interpolate fields" should be ok. Don't use "Blend fields" though, as this will blurr your video - maybe this caused your problems?
Good luck.
Martin


mjroddy wrote on 2/8/2008, 11:17 AM
Thanks Martin.

The footage is actually blurry way before it gets to the WMV stage.
Taking the Cineform AVI straight into Vegas or AE, the footage looks "blurry" on the timeline or project.

I'm not trying to deinterlace it or anything. The final footage will end up as a DV AVI to be put on the cable networks. The WMV is just to show the client and, in this case, anyone willing to look at it to help me out. :-)
mjroddy wrote on 2/8/2008, 11:19 AM
Thanks Martin.

The footage is actually blurry way before it gets to the WMV stage.
Taking the Cineform AVI straight into Vegas or AE, the footage looks "blurry" on the timeline or project.

I'm not trying to deinterlace it or anything. The final footage will end up as a DV AVI to be put on the cable networks. The WMV is just to show the client and, in this case, anyone willing to look at it to help me out. :-)

All copositing is actully being done in AE and rendered out to an uncompressed AVI, then brought into Vegas for final editing (and CC of all non-composited footage).
In other words, only the eagle bits are AE, but the footage looks bad in AE and Vegas, while it looks good in WMP.

Thanks again.
Former user wrote on 2/8/2008, 11:25 AM
Have you done a test render to DV AVI to see if the blur is carried through, or is just an artifact of the preview window?

Dave T2
StormMarc wrote on 2/8/2008, 1:37 PM
Is your preview resolution set to half by any chance?
mjroddy wrote on 2/8/2008, 1:46 PM
Dave,
Still blurry... Grrr...


StormMarc,
I've tried just about every setting in both AE and Vegas.
I've literally been fighting with this for two days.

My frustration level is quite high right now...

Honestly, I thought someone would come back and simply say that fine detail like this is just lost in motion like I'm trying to do. That was my conclusion after all the tests I've been doing...
But... That doesn't explain why the file looks so good in WMP...
Laurence wrote on 2/8/2008, 2:12 PM
How are you watching it when it's blurry?
Udi wrote on 2/9/2008, 2:25 AM
In my opinion, the eagle is blury in WMP as well, it is not at the same level as the rest of the clip.

You can try to play with the de-interlace thing and maybe add sharpen and un-sharp mak. I doubt you can get it to a good enough level.
You can try creating jpg images and try to use photoshop to improve it.

And yes, if you have a closeup shoot of the eagle, with all the feathers moving, it will be blury. It is the combination of the interlaced, codec and bitrate. Maybe a longer shot where the eagle is taking a smaller part of the picture will provide better result.
Maybe eved a shoot at SD will be better.

Udi
MH_Stevens wrote on 2/9/2008, 4:44 AM
Have you got your camera shutter set right? What do you see when you look at an individual frame of the unconverted m2t file?
JJKizak wrote on 2/9/2008, 5:24 AM
Actually the eagle looks fine to me. The aliasing and shutter bumping are evident on all the rest of the clip. Looks like is was filmed at 18 fps.
JJK
mdopp wrote on 2/9/2008, 9:56 AM
The wmv film shows a lot of deinterlacing artifacts (false double contours; For example, in some images you can see two noses). It is very difficult to judge which part of the blur comes from improper deinterlacing and which might have other reasons.
I suggest you upload a short part of the original, unedited m2t clips of the eagle. Then we'll see.
Martin