Xl-H1 and EX1 used for SD broadcast

[Joachim Hoge]

Hi
Just wanted to share some recent experiences.

We are currently shooting 4 half hour sports programs for National television in Norway (NRK)
We are covering Norway Freeride Cup, shooting in the weekends, 3 days of editing and broadcasting the following Thursday.

The broadcast is in SD, but we wanted to use HD or HDV as our main media.
We use the cameras we have, 1 XL-H1, 1 A1, EX1 and two HV30s.

We were quite worried about mixing the EX1 with the Canons, but it turned out well in the end.

As we use FCP I would like to share a few tips;
It is no problem to drop EX1 footage down to a 1080i50 HDV timeline and render for excellent results.
However, if you start out with a EX1 time line (XDCAM) and drop the Canon footage in and render, the canon footage turns out stretched. I don´t know why this is though and it took some hours before we figured this out.

We have tried 2 different ways from HDV to SD (DV).
1. Brought a HV30 to NRK and down converted HDV from the camera to DV on their decks.

2 Used the technique we found a link top here at the forum, from kenstone.net.
It involves editing in HDV, copy and pasting the finished HDV sequence into a DV timeline, then render and print to tape.

I have watched both broadcasts on my Panasonic 42" plasma with a digitaldecoder and I don´t think I could say if one method looked better than the other.
I was pleasantly surprised of the outcame. Unfortunatly we have no time to color correct the footage due to the short time for editing.

What did surprise me is that the XL-H1 looks quite a bit better than the A1. The EX1 (interlaced) is closer to the H1, it´s not much different in the finished product.

Here is a link to the first program, it´s a bit rough as we were really pushed for time. And it was cloudy and flat light. Our 2 program was blessed with sunny days and fresh powder, but it´s not on the web yet

http://www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/sport/spill/verdi/50105

[Oleg Kalyan]

Joachim
Interesting results, how would you compare Hv30 to the rest of the cameras?
Do you shoot everything on factory presets? If no which ones you use?

Please share more info on you tests, possibly screengrabs?

Thank you.

[Joachim Hoge]

The H1 and A1 is set up from a setting I found here that I tweaked a bit more to my liking. I can´t remember which one right now.

The HV30 (and 20, we use both) holds up well, but the white balance on the 20 leans towards red.

When one cut from the H1 to the HV 30 you really notice a difference. I thought the difference was less before we tried to intercut them. I have always been impressed by the HV image. It´s not so different if it´s bright sunlight, but if it´s less ideal light situations it has a lot less detail and sharpness.

The smaller cameras are harder to controll due to lack of manual controlls. They work ok, but are not ideal for B-cameras.
As this is a sport program we can get away with it, if it was any kind of drama I wouldn´t have used them as it would have been to distracting I think

[Dave Gosley]

Hi Joachim,
I went to your page http://www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/sport/spill/verdi/50105 to view the video. The vid would not play and the error message I got was to do with the way the video was embedded.

The video dislay holder works in Internet Explorer but not in Netscape or Firefox in fact your page structure fails in the latter two.

I have attached screen captures of what I am seeing. They have been compressed so their picture quality is not great but at least you see what the browsers are doing to your vids / pages.

I would recommend changing to flash (.flv) embedded videos, I can give you a link to some pages with them embedded in a private mail if you desire. These work on a much higher percentage of user machines. Regards, Dave

I have added the fourth image which is an .flv videoin a Firefox window.

[Joachim Hoge]

Hi Dave.
Tell me about it. The web page is run by NRK ( the Norwegian equivalent to the BBC) and unfortunatly we don´t have any control over that page. They just upload our program after it has been broadcast.
But thank you for your offer and concern

[Even Solberg]

Jeg fikk samme problemet. Er ikke imponert over Krinken her. ;-)

And now back to our regularily scheduled weirdness: Nice to see the comparisons. Also interesting to hear your experiences with the HV30 vs 20. I recently sold my 20, and I'll be buying a 30, so this is good to know.

[Dave Gosley]

Hi Joachim

A possible solution if you are not in control of the page could be to switch to using .flv video files.

For instance, I produce all our web versions in 16:9 format to a 500px wide X 280px High screen size. It might be worth a try, if you don't give them a wmv video they have to adopt to your different style I would have thought.
You can obtain the latest originals of the mediaplayer.swf and swfobject.js files from the manufacturers site: http://www.jeroenwijering.com/?about...V_Media_Player

The code to place the embedding is only two pieces.
1. In the header section place:
<script type="text/javascript" src="swfobject.js"></script>


2. In the body where the film is to go use this code which forces a holding table around the film. thereofr everything has to move around it:
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.video-productions.net/newplayer/swfobject.js"></script>
<div id="flashcontent" align="center"><strong><center>You need to upgrade your Flash Player in order to view the presentation</center></strong></div>
<script type="text/javascript">
var s1 = new SWFObject("http://www.video-productions.net/newplayer/mediaplayer.swf", "mpl", "500", "280", "7", "#ffffff");
s1.addParam("wmode", "transparent");
s1.addParam("allowfullscreen","true");
s1.addParam("bgcolor","#ffffff");
s1.addVariable("file","/videoprojects/MBT1_512K.flv"); (this is the video line)
s1.addVariable("enablejs","true");
s1.addVariable("javascriptid","mpl");
s1.addVariable("displaywidth","500");
s1.addVariable("displayheight","280");
s1.addVariable("autostart","true");
s1.addVariable("overstretch","false");
s1.addVariable("lightcolor","0x00ff00");
s1.addVariable("backcolor","0x212121");
s1.addVariable("frontcolor","0xCCCCCC");
s1.addVariable("bufferlength","4");
s1.addVariable("smoothing","true");
s1.write("flashcontent");
</script>

[Even Solberg]

Actually, I suspect it's the other way around. You give them the file in the format they want, or you don't get published at all.

[Dave Gosley]

Ah well, good intentions...

[Joachim Hoge]

Actually we just hand over a DV master for the broadcast. They (NRK) do all the encoding for web.
Still, really appreciate all the effort Dave, I´ll keep it in mind for other projects.

[Dave Gosley]

Hi Joachim, you're welcome. I am trying to build my site solely around videos and trying not to use text as much s possible. It means every page has a vid but thats what its all about.

My only wish is that I was as good with the camera and edit suite as most of the stuff I've seen on here. I am trying to find someone local to limpit with and learn but its difficult fitting it in with peoples work schedules.

respect to you, you've got material going in the right places, congrats, Dave

[Markus Bo]

Hi Joachim, after some months you should have more experience of using the EX1 for SD-broadcast. If you don't mind tell us a little bit more. I am to change my JVC HD101 for the EX3 but I want to know if it means really a benefit in SD quality.

Thanks
Markus