[QLab] good video quality .mov files

[Ronald Murphy]

Hello all-

I generate and perform video and audio cues for a small theater group. Previously, I assembled all of the cues on a time line in Final Cut. Since some of the video is shot with a miniDV camera, the FCP project setup was DV NTSC. Any animaiton I created with AfterEffects was rendered to a DV NTSC file and brought into FCP. For performance I fired the cues straight out of FCP, FireWire from a MacBook laptop to a miniDV camera, and S-video from the camera to the video projector. All was well.

Now I am trying to use QLab, VGA out of the laptop to the projector. When I'm generating animation in AfterEffects and editing and outputting video in FCP, what set up configuration, codec, etc. do I use to produce .mov files with good-looking video? Using the same setup as before and creating, for example, a text role resulted in obviously visible interlacing-fields issues. I've tried other configurations and managed to cure the visible fields but have jerky playback.

Thank you for any help you can offer.

Ron Murphy

[Freddy Komp]

Hi Ron,

I always use PhotoJPEG or Animation (the latter only if
transparency/alpha channel is needed). The files are medium/big, but
only little strain on your processors. The sequence preset should be (as
it is in After Effects) something uncompressed - you don't want any
footage to be compressed more than the hopefully one or maximum two
times that can't be avoided; one at the end of your editing, plus the
optional one of your source (if you had something filmed i.e. in DV, but
then don't forget to run a de-interlacing filter over it before you
compress your final PhotoJPEG).

Cheers,

f.
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[dr.light]

Ron - 

heres what i would do... not sure if its the least number of hops or correct, but it seems to produce 

First - Im not sure its logical to render out of AfterEffects as DV NTSC, even though your live video content is coming in in the same format. I would render out of After Effects using either Animation or ProRes 4444 if you are needing to preserve alpha, and PhotoJPEG @ 87% / ProRes442 if not. This will ensure that your animations are being rendered progressive,which will help with your text rolls*** and field/frame issues.

Second - Before beginning work in your FCP project, You should run a batch render on all your incoming live DV content to de-interlace and render to ProRes/PhotoJPEG (depending on what you chose from the previous step - it should match the codec you chose. You would then set your sequence settings in FCP to use that while you edit.... I do this because i hate waiting for things to render in FCP... in fact, ive stoppped using FCP in favor of Premiere, mostly because it has great support for editing files straight from my 7D.

As for final playback content in Qlab, ill go PhotoJPEG for anything 1024x768 or smaller - 720p/1080p I favor prores 442/4444.

*** Its worth noting that horizontal scrolling text is definitely problematic no matter what you do, vertical seems to generally be less glitchy. As i understand it there is a high science to dealing with the tearing that results from scrolling horizontal text, having to do with drawing in synch with your framerate and refresh rates of the system that you're playing back on, but thats really only possible with a genlocked system.