Editing metadata

OK, quick context: we're shooting 30p and sending over SDI to a direct-to-disk capture system. Everything works fine.

The problem is FCP is treating this clips as interlaced and is in fact interlacing our progressive images. Even when placed in a progressive sequence, it still degrades the image. See example below:
Original Interlaced


I've found if I go into the clip properties while in the bin, and reset the Field Dominance field to none, from upper, the image reverts back to its normal non-interlaced imaging. Interestingly, you have to do this stage before pulling it into the sequence otherwise it wont work



Fixed Progressive


What I'm curious is how to make this process batchable, either once in FCP or ideally externally before it ever enters FCP. We want to be able to have a high volume of these clips soon and not have to go and do this to every clip individually before pulling it into the sequence. Is this an XML thing? What tools are there to edit meta-date outside FCP or do it faster inside FCP?

If you set your timeline field dominance to "none" when working with PsF footage it disables Final Cut's built-in anisotropic filtering, and your footage is going to jitter like hell.

Quote
Scott Erickson
OK, quick context: we're shooting 30p and sending over SDI to a direct-to-disk capture system. Everything works fine.

With this "capture system" is there a way to specify metadata settings?

Quote
Scott Erickson
The problem is FCP is treating this clips as interlaced and is in fact interlacing our progressive images. Even when placed in a progressive sequence, it still degrades the image. See example below:

So, you import the clips from files into FCP directly? Whether yes or no, FCP is not picking up any metadata in the clips/files and is just "choosing" something, it seems.

Since we can't see the clips' Field Dominance settings in your Browser, we don't know if they are set to: Not Set, Lower, or Upper (guessing that they aren't set to "None," which would mean they were properly tagged as progressive).

Say all the clips are being assgined "Upper" for whatever reason. When you edit them into the sequence timeline, they get conformed automatically to the sequence settings (among other things --- and guessing that you are using FCP 6 or 7). That's why they look wrong.

Quote
Scott Erickson
I've found if I go into the clip properties while in the bin, and reset the Field Dominance field to none, from upper, the image reverts back to its normal non-interlaced imaging. Interestingly, you have to do this stage before pulling it into the sequence otherwise it wont work

Remember, once you edit a clip into the sequence timeline, it becomes an affiliate clip and its field dominance, when changed, doesn't also change the master clip. So, yes, if you are stuck with a bunch of master clips with the wrong field dominance setting, you'll have to change them before editing them into the sequence timeline.

Quote
Scott Erickson
What I'm curious is how to make this process batchable, either once in FCP or ideally externally before it ever enters FCP. We want to be able to have a high volume of these clips soon and not have to go and do this to every clip individually before pulling it into the sequence. Is this an XML thing? What tools are there to edit meta-date outside FCP or do it faster inside FCP?

If you can't get the capture system to properly tag the field dominance metadata, then I have a workaround for you (I tested it and it works pretty well)...

1. Put all of the clips with the field dominance property issue (Upper, aren't they?) into a separate Bin, if they already aren't.

2. In the Browser, select only the Bin with the problematic clips and then export the Bin as XML. You should end up with something like "Bad Bin.xml".

3. Open "Bad Bin.xml" in a text editor (Text Wrangler works well and is free) and simply do a search and replace on "<fielddominance>upper</fielddominance>" (no quotes) and use this as the replacement: "<fielddominance>none</fielddominance>" (no quotes).

4. Save your xml file (same name or different, it's up to you). Import that XML file into your FCP project and all of the field dominance settings should be changed to "None" (progressive).

5. Edit away...


-Dave

Obviously the ideal way would be to batch change the metadata. Wish there was an Automator action to change the field order property.


D-Mac Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> If you can't get the capture system to properly
> tag the field dominance metadata, then I have a
> workaround for you (I tested it and it works
> pretty well)...
>
> 1. Put all of the clips with the field dominance
> property issue (Upper, aren't they?) into a
> separate Bin, if they already aren't.
>
> 2. In the Browser, select only the Bin with the
> problematic clips and then export the Bin as XML.
> You should end up with something like "Bad
> Bin.xml".
>
> 3. Open "Bad Bin.xml" in a text editor (Text
> Wrangler works well and is free) and simply do a
> search and replace on "upper" (no quotes) and use
> this as the replacement: "none" (no quotes).
>
> 4. Save your xml file (same name or different,
> it's up to you). Import that XML file into your
> FCP project and all of the field dominance
> settings should be changed to "None"
> (progressive).
>
> 5. Edit away...
>
>
> -Dave

Wouldn't this just be the same as selecting all the clips in the Browser and right-clicking on the field order column to change it? What am I missing?

- Justin Barham -

JustinB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Obviously the ideal way would be to batch change
> the metadata. Wish there was an Automator action
> to change the field order property.

Well, my quick-and-dirty method is semi-automatic.



> Wouldn't this just be the same as selecting all
> the clips in the Browser and right-clicking on the
> field order column to change it? What am I
> missing?

Try it. I did and it only changes the first item selected (at least on my two systems). You're right, Justin, it should be that easy... Oh well, maybe Apple will beef up this part of FCP when they release "Kick-Ass" or "Awesome" (aka FCS 4) in the next year, or so...


-Dave

P.S. - Of course, I presented a pretty simple, if not fully automatic way to make the changes. I'm sure writing a custom Automator action, or AppleScript, could do the same. Even using Batch Export won't let you change the metadata. Metadata pros like John C. and Andreas K. may have better ideas...

The right-clicking on the column (after selecting all the clips themselves in the Browser) is working for me here in FCP 7. It brings up shortcuts to select, and changes them all.

As far as Automator, I was thinking towards changing the file metadata instead of just the project metadata. Assuming that's possible for field order.

Love your XML find and replace recipe though. That could be very powerful.

- Justin Barham -

JustinB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The right-clicking on the column (after selecting
> all the clips themselves in the Browser) is
> working for me here in FCP 7. It brings up
> shortcuts to select, and changes them all.
>
> As far as Automator, I was thinking towards
> changing the file metadata instead of just the
> project metadata. Assuming that's possible for
> field order.
>
> Love your XML find and replace recipe though. That
> could be very powerful.

Whodathunkit!!!

Justin, you're correct.

I was selecting a bunch of clips, then control-clicking on one of the file icons to open the item properties window. That only affects the first selected item.

But, selecting multiple clips and then changing the property in the browser column for the Field Dominance does change all of them.

So, forget my "solution"... ack, not needed...


And, I know I knew about that... Doah!!!
(Probably why I included a "disclaimer"

-----

Of course, avoiding this mess to begin with is the way to go (proper capture settings in FCP, or the "capture system" device/drive).

I worked on a Nat Geo piece about a year and a half ago, where the project was moved between computers and settings got hosed, etc. Plus, they were using a mixed format timeline (SD stock footage, DV25 footage from "civilians," mixed with the primary DVCPro HD footage). The online setup wasn't done right and many of the clips had the wrong field dominance (auto-created by the FCP 6 "sequence conform feature", as well as shift field filters all over the place...

Anyway, I had them export an XML of the final sequence and I made a grep pattern ("super" search and replace) that "cleaned" the file. Re-imported and everything was good...

Thanks for mentioning that... feels like a rookie mistake (that I made)...


-Dave

Every now and again I'm right about something .

Actually it's somewhat non-intuitive in my opinion. And I don't think it used to work like that (could be wrong.)

-------

Re: "grep." You must have coding experience. That's why you're so comfortable going out and doing it in an XML.

I'm still saving your find and replace recipe for later. I could see it coming in handy in a situation like you described above. Maybe someone should an XML "bin cleaner" app.

- Justin Barham -

kick ass thats exactly what i needed. I figured there was a way with XML and thanks for figuring that out but the column way will do just nicely!

>If you set your timeline field dominance to "none" when working with PsF footage it disables Final
>Cut's built-in anisotropic filtering, and your footage is going to jitter like hell.

Not sure about the anistropic filtering, but since FCP 6, this part has been a mess. The implementation of the shift fields filter is much better than FCP 6's auto-deinterlacer function where it is invisible and a pain to remove as a result. In FCP 5, you had to manually add a deinterlacer when you drop interlaced footage into a progressive timeline, in FCP 6, FCP handles everything for you behind your back, and you can't tell it not to.

When you have progressive footage and it is flagged as interlaced, inserting it into a progressive timeline causes the footage to be de-interlaced, so you lose resolution. And if you cut in an interlaced timeline, your transitions will be interlaced and text, graphics and speed ramps may look like a**. Unlike a shift fields filter which you can easily remove, you can't easily re-interp your footage if your footage was flagged incorrectly, unless you go the xml route, which seems to be the only solution.



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