4k HD vs 16x9 vs 2.1

[Anthony DeRose]

Which is the best format to shoot if the final output will be to HD 1920x1080? I was told to shoot 4K HD as some problems can arise with 2.1 in editing and converting down to 1080. But just was wondering what other people think.

Cheers

 

[Darren Orange]

I would take 4K HD to some flavor of ProRes, then life should be sweet aka easy to edit with in final cut.

 

[Tim Whitcomb]

We jsut shot 4.5K Build 21 REC42 and it is sweeeeeet transcoded to Prores4444 and then edited in FCP.

We are not even going to go back to do an online, the quality of 4444 Prores is fantastic for most of our work. And I read some post recently that said more and more people are doing this. i.e. skipping the conform back to r3d. Of course this is TV work, not film.

yes on 4K HD

 

[Peter Hodgins]

Which is the best format to shoot if the final output will be to HD 1920x1080?

This is exactly what I want to know also ... what is best format and then workflow ... with 16X9 SD DVD as final product? also for BD 16X9 as final product.

 

[PatC]

4khd all day.

 

[Tehben Dean]

I believe that 4K HD is exactly double the resolution of 1920x1080 so when you ingest into FCP at 2K it is exactly 1920x1080.

Tehben

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

4KHD should just be called QuadHD because that's what the rest of the world, non RED shooters, refer to it as. Most current and upcoming high-res displays from most manufacturers will be QuadHD and not true 4K.

I really like 4KHD (QuadHD) as a shooting mode and use it quite a bit, especially for run-n-gun stuff, direct to 1080p conversions, etc.. Overall, I still prefer 4K 16:9 with it's larger frame size as it gives the option to crop to the 3840x2160 4KHD resolution or scale down, etc..

Workflow wise, I prefer the direct support within Adobe CS4, but having to render everything out through AE is a pain in the ass since Adobe Media Encoder is so incredibly unstable.

I'm really liking the ProRes 4^4 workflow through FCS3. L&T into ProRes is OK, but much prefer to do it via RocketCine or old school RA+RR. ...Hoping RocketCine gets OLPF compensation and a few other fixes soon! For just about anything short of a film-out, ProRes 4^4 is great and I would probably trust it to go to film too, but haven't had the chance to see it done.