M2V/MPG and audio

[Dan Keaton]

Dear Lance,

I could be wrong, but I doubt if there is a Firewire device that offers HD-SDI output.

As you are probably aware, with Firewire, 1394a and 1394b, one is limited to 800 Mbps.

HD-SDI is 1485 Mbps or 1.485 Gbps.

So, we have two inputs on the nanoFlash for recording from a computer, HD-SDI or HDMI.

[Lance Librandi]

Dan- Thanks for the info my system is SD and I am now making the conversion to HD. I edit on a Macbook Pro and use a Dual ESATA express card to power my two Stardom raids for editing. The I/O in the past has been via a Datavideo DAC-15 which is connected to the firewire 800 or 400 pot. This unit now needs to replace with a HD device which will output HD-SDI for the Nanno, HDMI for the monitor, and retain my analogue output connections.

You are right I have not found anything yet all the devices that I have seen so far require the use of the express card slot but that then means running my raid drives on USB2 which I think I might run into problems.

Hey if anyone can offer suggestions please do so I would really appreciate it.
Thanks

[John Mitchell]

Originally Posted by Dan Keaton

Dear James,

M2V is a video only format, so there not any audio by design.

MPG should have audio. We are checking into this.

Dan just to be clear .m2v is a video only format but what is stopping you from creating pcm/wav audio at the same time? Is this a hardware limitation?

thanks John

[Dan Keaton]

Originally Posted by John Mitchell

Dan just to be clear .m2v is a video only format but what is stopping you from creating pcm/wav audio at the same time? Is this a hardware limitation?

thanks John

Dear John,

We were considering this.

In our recorders, we strive to keep all of our files, on the CompactFlash cards, 100% defragmented. In other words, each files is written so that each block of data is next to each other. This allows us to provide high-quality, glitch-free playback, and we are able to create the files at speeds close to the theoritical maximum speed of each CompactFlash card.

If we write two files, simulataneously, then each file will be in multiple non-contiguous areas of the card. This has serious implications.

[Rafael Amador]

Originally Posted by John Mitchell

Dan just to be clear .m2v is a video only format but what is stopping you from creating pcm/wav audio at the same time? Is this a hardware limitation?
thanks John

The only MPEG-2 "video+audio" file that DVDs authoring application would accept, it would be an an MPEG-2 with MP2/Layer1 Audio. But probably you don't want that because is a very little efficient audio codec.
The Nano could record an SD MPEG-2 with PCM audio (these are the files that normally records the NANO:.mov, MFX) but those files wouldn't be accepted by DVDSTP or so.
The .m2v is the simplest solution. You get the MPEG-2 video (.m2v) in the NANO. To get the audio for the DVD you just need to export your clip as .aiff, wav or AC3 and pair the files in the authoring application.
Cheers,
rafael

[Mark Job]

Originally Posted by Dan Keaton

Dear Lance,
I could be wrong, but I doubt if there is a Firewire device that offers HD-SDI output.

...The Flash XDR. ;-) Sorry, Dan, I just couldn't resist :-)

[John Mitchell]

Originally Posted by Dan Keaton

Dear John,

We were considering this.

In our recorders, we strive to keep all of our files, on the CompactFlash cards, 100% defragmented. In other words, each files is written so that each block of data is next to each other. This allows us to provide high-quality, glitch-free playback, and we are able to create the files at speeds close to the theoritical maximum speed of each CompactFlash card.

If we write two files, simulataneously, then each file will be in multiple non-contiguous areas of the card. This has serious implications.

Understood Dan - sounds like writing the interleaved files is the only practical solution, unless you dedicate one card to audio which is pretty inefficient. No big deal - easy enough to split them in post...


John

[James Brill]

Dan - Any ideas on what software is best to use the MPG's with natively?

[Dan Keaton]

Dear James,

Are you asking which software is best to take our already rendered ".MPG" files and burn a SD DVD or a Blu-ray disk?

If so, I do not have a preference, as I have limited experience with the numerous options available. We have tested some in our lab, but I do not remember which ones at this moment.

I edit using Sony Vegas, so I use DVD Architect for creating SD DVD's.

For Blu-ray disks, I understand that one can use DVD Architect or Sony Vegas itself in some cases.

I welcome suggestions from others as to what DVD or Blu-ray burning software they like best.

Or, are you asking which software to use to edit our ".MPG" files?

I expect to burn some Blu-ray disks in the next week or so. We are about to order some media.

[James Brill]

Dan- Yeah I just wanted to know what application works best with the MPG files to make Blu Rays. It seems like Encore doesn't like them since it wants to transcode them.

[Rafael Amador]

If you work with MAC, you can do it with Toast.
Just tell him don't re-compress the media.
rafael

[Mark Job]

Originally Posted by James Brill

Dan- Yeah I just wanted to know what application works best with the MPG files to make Blu Rays. It seems like Encore doesn't like them since it wants to transcode them.

....If you are working in MAC there are two excellent ways to go here. Maybe even three. (??) In FCS 7.0 you can use both DVD Studio Pro or Compressor to make a burnable Blu-ray DVD or DVD Image for burning on another computer or PC. The third option is Adobe After Effects CS4 with Adobe Encoder, which will also allow you to import demuxed MPv and MPa (I think ?) - I have to familiarize myself with this app more to be sure.