Magic Bullet "Instant HD" filter - opinion?

Has anyone used this filter to 'up-res' their SD material in a mixed HD/SD project? I had a friend recommend it, as a viable option to the more laborious process of transcoding the SD material I have. Thanks.

Greg

I have used it many times with success, we utilize the After Effects plug-in instead of doing it in Final Cut. You get the choice of AE or FCP when you install it. The only thing I don't love about it, is the footage needs to be progressive, so if you start with interlaced you have to do that conversion.
There are different options and it takes some testing to get it looking best for your situation.

DCA_Film Wrote:
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> I have used it many times with success, we utilize
> the After Effects plug-in instead of doing it in
> Final Cut. You get the choice of AE or FCP when
> you install it. The only thing I don't love about
> it, is the footage needs to be progressive, so if
> you start with interlaced you have to do that
> conversion.
> There are different options and it takes some
> testing to get it looking best for your situation.

I'll concur with that. Taken from the manual:

"There is one major limitation in the current Instant HD release. The product is specifically designed to work with progressive (non-interlaced) images. That means that if you are starting with interlaced video such as a standard Sony PD150 DVCAM capture, you will need to convert the image to progressive in the host application before applying Instant HD."

Thanks for the info! The footage in my project was shot 30p on a Panasonic DVX100b, so I'm glad to hear I don't have to do that extra step. I don't have AE, so there's that, but what would be the difference doing it in AE over FCP? Just curious...

and extra question

"MB Instant HD" works in Fcp and AE. (you tend to use it in AE)

"MB Instant HD Advanced" will only work in AE.

does the Advanced really make a difference ?

Have you guys ever used it with FCP? I downloaded the trial last night, and could NOT get it to work despite following their instructions to the letter. I don't have AE so I'm a bit stuck/perplexed/frustrated.

I've used it, and I can testify that it works ? technically. But I've never liked the results enough to make it worth all the extra hoops you have to jump through to achieve them. If you want a crappy upscale, it's a lot easier just to pipe your footage through Compressor and let it run over a weekend.

I've used it in FCP and thought the results was notably worse than Compressor. Of course maybe more tweaking might have helped but I doubt it would have been much better than Compressor even with all that work.