Field or Progressive?

[Smith12895]

In the newer versions of Flame, I think starting with v9, you have a choice of setting your project as field 1, field 2 or progressive. (Pre v9 it was "frame" in stead of "progressive".)

My question's are:

1. What are most people setting their projects up in? Field or progressive?

2. Does it really matter which one you use?

I work mostly in NTSC, so would field be the obvious answer? You would think, but I have always worked in frame mode and now progressive. If i needed something rendered in fields I would just swicth to field render, but now If I do that, with v9.5, the clip turns blue (by turning blue I mean the time code displayed on the clip on the reel). Which in the past always ment that it wasn't the correct format, in some form, for the project and you wouldn't be able to output it or archive it to tape. I seem to be able output these "blue" clips without any problem and I can change them to the correct format by simple selecting "change time code" and clicking on the clip. Also, when in progressive mode, if you film compress a clip and then expand it back it also turns blue. I know it all seem quite obvious that YES the clip is the wrong format if it has fields in it if you are running your project in progressive, but pre v9 when the project was set as frame, not field, it never seemed to care if you rendered in frame or field or film compressed or expanded. That never made it turn "blue". Now it does.

So I guess what I'm really asking is: Am i making a mistake using progressive? If so please explain.

Thanks
:?:

[loops]

If you're doing NTSC work I myself would set the project scan mode to Field 2 (== lower field first) and just not worry about it. If you sometimes use progressive clips (stills, obviously, which should have a scan mode of Prog but often don't, not that it really matters) they might appear blue but that's okay, Flame's just warning you, like, hey! Careful! The only real calamity is if you mix clips with opposite interlaced scan modes, like comping some HD into an NTSC shot. That would look BAD, but remember you'd only see the problem on the broadcast monitor, not the graphics head. Also, field-aware processing (Action, basically) might go a bit wrong if used with the wrong scan mode.

Some things aren't field-aware which should be in an ideal world - Paint and Filter aren't, so you might want to Deinterlace, Paint, Reinterlace but often it's not that noticeable.

When you use the Change Scan Mode option of the Dominance tool it doesn't change the picture at all, so it's something you should avoid unless somehow something gets the wrong scan mode attached to it, like you import something from an image sequence with it accidentally set to Field 1. The acid test is to play the clip and watch the broadcast monitor, if you can see field jitter, the clip doesn't match the project scan mode, so use Reverse Dominance (which actually swaps the fields around in the actual pixels of the clip). If it looks fine but the timecode is blue, then maybe it's gotten the wrong scan mode attached to it.

There's a whole chapter in the manual about this, it makes for pretty thrilling bedtime reading

[imported_neonmarg]

Check out this tip http://www.fxguide.com/fxtips-197.html on the subject

Jeff

[rohit]

i work in PAL and always keep it everything on progressive...and only switch to fields if the need arises....yr in the UK ? im curious why u use F2 ?

[loops]

For PAL or HD, I'd use Field 1 obviously But the original poster used NTSC so he'd want Field 2. I'm not sure why people use Progressive, it just seems wrong to me. The video you're working with is interlaced so it should be treated that way unless there's some reason not to.

I notice that the default NTSC resolution that Discreet give you has a scan mode of F1, surely it should be F2? The fields chapter in the manual even says that NTSC should be F2. What's going on there?

I'm glad I don't have to work with NTSC, it's horrible

[eltopo]

Really? I love NTSC.
I always have hated PAL colours, or the lack of them...
Plus is a fact that the brain react more to >FPS and not to size.

Having a constant colour seems to be better to work but in my opinion produces a lower quality colour.

[rohit]

tot NTSC stands for "Never The Same Color" ?? :twisted:

[loops]

PAL == Perfect At Last

And SECAM, well, Simply Essentially Contrary to American Methods

Maybe Flame captures NTSC clips with reversed dominance so they are F1 whilst in the system? Seems a bit weird though.

[rohit]

weird is right..i think JFP would have the answer to that

[eltopo]

Is Never Twice The Same Colour, JA!

Anyway I love it...
I need the colour baby, hopefully HD-PAL changes that...