hi res titles

I'm working with DV but have heard that I can achieve better looking text by creating them at a higher res. How do i do this? I tried creating some text using title 3D in an uncompressed 4:2:2 sequence and pasting them into my DV timeline, but it didn't make any difference. How do you determine what codec the text generator uses?

The Text and Title 3D generators both follow whatever codec the timeline is at. In order to improve them, you have to put your entire DV timeline (eg. exported into a movie file) without titles, put that into an Uncompressed SD timeline, then make your titles there and export an Uncompressed SD movie file. Not useful if you're going back out to DV tape, though.


www.derekmok.com

thanks Derek. Can I just change my sequence settings from DV to uncompressed and then render everything and add titles?

You need to choose a different EASY SETUP, then create a new sequence and copy and paste your old sequence into the new one. Try DV50 first. Low data rate and great for titles. If that doesn't do it for you, then try uncompressed 8-bit. But, once you go there, there is no going back to DV tape...unless you got back to DV thus losing all the gain from going uncompressed to begin with. This works for mastering to higher formats and to DVD.


www.shanerosseditor.com

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Thanks, I'll definitely try DV50. This kind of "under ther hood" info about how text works in FCP seems to be hard to find. None of the books I own really go into it. Anyone know some good resources?

My word of caution here is, if the titles look bad in DV, then they'll look bad broadcast or on DVD as both do worse things to graphics than the DV codec ever did. I'd work on learning how to make titles look good in DV, and then you know they'll stand up to the rigours of broadcast.

And yes, if you're going out to, say, digibeta, you can just alter the timeline to "uncompressed", re-render and let the SDI card handle the output to the new format.

Graeme

This is good stuff and i'll add it to the FAQ. The answer to bad looking titles here seems to be do it in a uncompressed sequence. But if the titles look bad in DV they are going to look bad in a uncompressed timeline? Is this what you are all saying or are you saying it will look better in an uncompressed timeline but still look bad if it was bad in DV?

The FAQ has some good pointers on doing titles in DV.

My Titles/effects look awful

Michael Horton
-------------------

It will look a lot better in the uncompressed timeline, but it will give a false sense of security as nobody but you will see the uncompressed timeline. The broadcast process will do plenty worse things to the titles than the DV codec will, so my point is, yes, do it in an uncompressed timeline if you're not going out to DV, but use what it looks like in the DV timeline as a rough guide to the crap that the broadcast process will do to it. If you can't get it to look good in DV, it won't look good after broadcast!

Graeme

Thanks guys - terrific info.

Another method would be to create your titles in another program, like After Effects or Illustrator, and export them at the desired higher resolution. Import in FCP, cut into your DV timeline and then you'll only have to render these clips. Useful if you've got a long sequence with fewer titles. Not so useful if you need to change and alter the titles a lot.

Sorry Phil, but that won't do it. Once you drop those nice pristine titles into a DV timeline they instantly get the 5:1 DV compression and look like crud. You must change the codec of the timeline in order to make them look better.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
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So, if I have a lot of titles, and not much video (but all DV), what should I do?

Uprez the video?

To what? More precisely, what is the minimum standard that will serve as a noticeable improvement over DV?

Just to elaborate a bit.

I am trying to do an educational DVD on statistics, a subject that normally would put a brick to sleep. So I am trying to use clips I have made in Motion for the most part.

I have an iMac Core Duo (2GHz, 2GB RAM, 256MB VRAM), with 7200 rpm firewire external drive.

This system eats DV. It's perfect.

But I wonder if it might groan under a more ambitious codec.

> This system eats DV. It's perfect.
> But I wonder if it might groan under a more ambitious codec.

It's possible. FireWire 400's not fast enough for Uncompressed SD. However, you're not trying to go for real-time playback. You may be able to get away with putting the DV timeline/movie file into an Uncompressed SD timeline, adding titles, rendering and then exporting a movie file. None of those processes is real-time. Try it.

> So, if I have a lot of titles, and not much video (but all DV), what should I do?
> Uprez the video?

To cut down on rendering, you could Batch Export your DV video clips to a higher codec, eg. Uncompressed 10-bit SD. No quality to be gained, but you don't lose anything, either. And then you can edit strictly in Uncompressed 10-bit.

Again, not useful if you're going out to DV tape. If your target is just a DVD, then you have something to gain.


www.derekmok.com

Drop your cut into a DV50 sequence and render. That will give you great results and will still play back on firewire 400 drives.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

Many thanks, guys.

Baz

Hello. I've been following this very informative thread 'cos it relates to my current project. I'm working in DV, but apparently my timelines are going to be "up-converted" to HD before broadcast. I'm using a lot of subtitles, so my question is what codec should i use to generate them? If I generate crisp HD titles and then edit them onto my DV timeline (down-res) will they return to their former HD glory when up-res'd again before broadcast? Or how about making uncompressed SD titles and doing the same? ...In essence, what's the rule of thumb here? I'm happy to follow Shane's advice of up-res'ing my timelines to DV50 or uncompressed SD, but would like to stay working in DV25 if possible.

Thanks in advance for your help guys!

Rob