NLE Mac / Final Cut questions from 2004

[Jeff Donald]

I've never used it nor do I know anyone that has. But that doesn't mean it's not a good product. If you try it, please post back and let us know how it works for you.

[Sharif Zawaideh]

Thanks. My original sequence was a 4:3 as I changed my presets after that one was created. I appreciate the help and the rapid responses.

[Mike Hanlon]

Why do you want to add an additional D/A and A/D conversion to your footage?

The footage on tape is already converted by the camera from analog to digital and compressed for the DV format. Bringing it into the computer via FireWire maintains the digital data, which is in as pure a form as you are going to get.

Going through the DV deck and AJA system adds two additional A to D conversions - the first is done in the deck as it takes the digital DV data on the tape and converts it to analog, the second is the AJA system that takes the analog output from the deck and converts it back to digital. You may be getting a "better" digital format by going through the AJA (less or no compression, more bits per pixel) but the image quality (resolution, compression, etc.) was already established in the very first step - in the camera. The additional processing steps in going through the deck and the AJA, no matter how good the conversions, can only degrade the image. Maybe not by much but certainly noticeable if you look carefully.

[Paul Figgiani]

Mike,

I was told, and maybe I misunderstood the person, that by going analog out from a dv deck to the IO, and capturing 8 or 10 bit uncompressed would yield higher quality footage. Now the reason why I inquired is that if in fact I connected the deck directly to the IO and not the computer, I would lose deck control, because my deck does not offer serial deck control. Now, I can capture 8bit 10bit uncompressed, and/or DV/NTSC by just changing the capture setting, and still have fire wire deck control.

Am I on track?

-paul.

[Mike Hanlon]

That's the whole point of my post - you can't get any higher quality footage than what was originally recorded by the camera onto tape. In this case that camera recorded in the DV format which is defined as: 4-1-1 color space, 720x480 resolution, 5:1 compression, etc.

Every D/A or A/D conversion you do is going to degrade the the image in some way. It may be a small amount, but it is always going to happen. That's why you want to keep the number of conversions to a minimum.

Your best image quality will be maintained by importing the DV footage from the deck over FireWire to the computer.

[Matt Woodson]

thank you,

I was also told to do this:

audio/video settings should be at:

sequence setting to 23.98
Capture settings to 23.98 (2:3:3:2 advance pulldown removal)
Device control to Firewire NTSC NDF

If you can upgrade to FCP HD do so. It's free and will really help.


now not sure what to do

[Les Wilson]

Could this be as simple as you are viewing the recaptured footage with the QuickTime player and High Quality is not turned on? In QuickTime Pro, open the DV file and select Movie->Get Movie Properties. Select Video track from the left drop down and Quality from the right drop down. Change the quality to "High Quality Enabled".

[Thomas Berg Petersen]

Hello,
I have landed a gig where I need to edit a show for a TV show. They need the final show on a Beta SP NTSC tape.

The footage is a mix of Beta SP NTSC and MiniDV NTSC.

I was thinking about renting a Sony PVW-2800 and ad this to my current editing suite: Apple G4 w/FCP 4.5, Sony DSR-11 DVCAM deck and Sony PWM 1342Q video monitor.

I was then going to capture all footage into FCP, edit and then make a master tape on the Sony PVW-2800.

Since I have never done this before, I was wondering if this set up will do? I am also very intersted in any comments.

Thomas

[Shane Ross]

Either you need to purchase a capture card, FW800 card, G-raid or Lacie BigDisk Extreme in order to capture the betacam at 8-bit resolution, or you are going to have to transfer all of the beta footage to DV and capture and edit DV/NTSC. For the beta-DV transfer, and vise versa, I'd suggest getting a black burst box as well.

After you finish editing you'll need to color correct and make sure your fall within broadcast safe colors, brightness and blacks. When you output your show, you'll then need to dub BACK to betacam.

Since it sounds like you are somewhat of a novice in this area, i'd suggest getting the Beta's transferred to DVCAM (with matching TC) at a dub house, and when you are done editing and output your final, have them dub it from DV to Beta.

[Graeme Nattress]

Yup - best advice is use a dub house to make DVCAM copies of the beta tapes for you. Edit as DV throughout, and give the DV master tape back to the dub house to get them to do a DV to SP dub for you. Even if you hired an SP deck, you'd have to deal with the NTSC setup issue on dubbing from SP to DV as the DSR-11 doesn't have a switch to take care of this for you. Also, check your levels on the DV tapes after getting them dubbed from SP to DV as there are still some idiots in dub houses who don't know, (or don't care) how to set their black levels correctly. This is not the place to name names, but after just getting some SP to DVCAM dubs done properly in Toronto, along with some Quad to DV dubs, I was dissapointed after getting an SP to DV dub done locally in Ottawa to see that the black levels were really, really wrong. I'll be getting the guy in the office who ordered this dub done for his project to get his money back on that!

Graeme

[Vishal Gurung]

Hey all folks.. man it's been a while since i last posted.. at least 2 weeks :)

well i got a fairly simple couple questions i spose.. and i've searched to no avail.. basically, whenever i do a proj in FCP and then compress it using Compressor, which exports it as a mpg2 .. which is all well and good.. i open up the proj in DVD SP 2, at which point when i'm done, i press the button 'Build/format' and DVD SP begins to encode it.. now my question is, since i bring it in as an assett that's already mpg2 encoded, is there any way i can bypass this setting as it seems that DVDSP2 is re-encoding/compressing the footage? or am i totally off base here...

2) When i do Scene selections on the dvd, when the scene ends i want it to go back to the 2nd menu or scene selection menu as it stands.. i know how to do this by adjusting the chapter markers in the main track.. however, when i DO do this and i play the film on the regular menu, for some reason at every chapter marker it goes back to the scene selection menu.. is there anyway possible i can ensure that in the scene selection part it goes back, but in the regular part footage it continues to play without being cut off?

Any help to these questions would be MUCh appreciated folks, thanks in advance! :)

[Roman Dirge]

I know this must have come up numerous times before, but I couldn't find it. I am referring to those darn pesky titles. I understand that if I had a NTSC monitor, life might be easier, but that isn't happening anytime soon. Anyhoo, on to the point:

Do titles in AE have to be imported from Photoshop at 72dpi, or can they be kept larger, as in 300. Not to wax obvious, but I like bringing them in larger so I can size them down as the need arises. If you bring them in at 72 and then you need to size them up, they look like poop. That's right, actual poop.

BUT, when I do this (bring them in large) and then size them down, they look something horrid on my computer monitor. I'd hate to have to transfer my footage to dvd everytime to go check on my TV. Any information on this matter will be joyfully absorbed by my sponge-like brain.

Thank you.

[Glenn Chan]

Why don't you hook up your TV to your Mac/Final Cut? If you're starting, you should *really* do this so you know to avoid things like overscan, chroma crawl, interlace flicker, etc. A TV will be close to what your video will look like on a TV, what you see on your computer monitor is far from accurate.

All decks can convert from DV--> analog on the fly. In Final Cut, go into the A/V settings and tell Final Cut to send video out through firewire.

Most camcorders can function in place of a deck, but not all have analog-digital passthrough. You need to set the camera to convert in the right direction (many can do both ways).

2- If it looks bad on TV then you have a problem. Check on a TV first.

[Dean Sensui]

Here's what I do:

-- Set up FCP for NTSC DV.
-- Capture all DV via Firewire.
-- Capture all Betacam via a Decklink SP card through component connectors. As it captures it encodes it as DV.
-- Setup with the Decklink is set to zero.
-- Setup of the final signal is adjusted with the aid of an external waveform monitor.
-- Output final mastter via the Decklink SP card through the component connectors.

Resulting quality is very high, as good as the source material.

Dean Sensui
Base Two Productions.

[Vishal Gurung]

hmm anyone here have an inkling to what i'm saying or am i not making very much sense? i do that sometimes :|