Stretching hd footage to 4k or scaling down 4k to 1080 timeline difference

[Caleb Spillyards]

Hey all, I apologize if this is a redundant post. Say you have hd camcorder footage (using for "found footage" type music video) that you are mixing with 4k hd footage for a 1080 export. is there a difference in stretching the 1080 footage to the 4khd timeline, then exporting to hd after the edit, rather than scaling down the 4k footage to a 1080 timeline and exporting? just didn't know if stretching the 1080 footage out to a 4k timeline hurts the quality even though its exported to 1080.

 

[Scott Crawley]

I wouldn't do it, so I haven't done it though I'd expect it to look like ass both during the edit and output. Why not improve your output as well as your editing performance and work in a 1080 timeline? Why would you cut it @4k?what do you hope to gain?

 

[Todd T]

If you want to keep it in a 4K timeline you could put the hd footage in a frame of some sort ( a tv screen, cell phone screen, projection on a wall, etc.) to avoid scaling the footage at all.

 

[Craig Parkes]

The answer you are looking for is yes, there IS a difference between upscaling and then downresing versus keeping in the native format.

The upres and downscale is going to look both softer, and will have introduced errors where the upscaling algorithm doesn't match the downscaling algorithm. It'll also make more obvious any codec related issues with the 1080p source footage.

If you don't mind if the found footage footage looks a bit more grungier than it already is, then that's fine, but keep in mind it's going to get grungier still when compressed for web and broadcast.

 

[Caleb Spillyards]

thanks Craig!