cant get full HDV quality out of the HD100

[Nima Taheri]

my bad

what I meant by "broadcast quality", is a product which will be broadcasted on national tv stations... is there another term for that that I can use?

[Jiri Bakala]

Originally Posted by Nima Taheri

my bad

what I meant by "broadcast quality", is a product which will be broadcasted on national tv stations... is there another term for that that I can use?

Don't worry about it...it was meant 'tongue-in-cheek'.

As for the video quality, it all depends on the station airing it. Most networks have their own guidelines for "technical specifications" they expect/demand of procured material. Check with your broadcaster.

[Graham Hickling]

> When I capture with CapDVHS, I can only save the file as .mpg and not .ts. Do the different file formats make any difference?

No visual difference at all - same resolution, color depth etc. Transport streams (.ts or .m2t) differ from program streams (.mpg) in how the same digital data is packaged, and in some metadata that .ts carrys on camera settings.

BTW, remuxts.exe is a fast and handy way to convert transport streams to program streams, for software than can't handle the former.

[John Mitchell]

Originally Posted by Nima Taheri

John

When I capture with CapDVHS, I can only save the file as .mpg and not .ts. Do the different file formats make any difference? I'm just trying to capture as close as native quality. Maybe there are some settings I overlooked that can makes CapDVHS save files in .ts... Also, do you think CapDVHS is a appropiate tool to use for capture for professional products that will be broadcasted? If no, what other tools would be appropiate?

As with the conversion of the dnxhd codecs, is it as simple as using lets say Canopus Procoder, selecting the target Quicktime Movie, selecting Avid dnxhd codec with the 720p 23.976 90 10bit (since Avid doesn't support 720p 25)?
1. does the 23.976 on the codec effect the framerate in any way (since my original footage is 25fps)?
2. will 720p 23.976 90 10bit give better image quality than the 720p 23.976 90/60 8bit?
3. because the end result will have to be SD, should I do the HD-SD downconversion during this same process of Avid dnxhd codec conversion? (downing from 1280x720 to 720x576)

Would you say this workflow is sufficient for achieving broadcast quality?

About the mpeg artifacts/monitor issue, I also think it's the monitor at blame, but I think lowering the detail level on the cam during the next shoot might help some too, as I understood after reading some posts.

1. Yes - I imagine ProCoder will attempt to interpolate the 25 down to 23.976 - that would be a bad thing. I don't think there is anyway of telling it to just run the footage slower. Maybe if you could force interpretation of your source to 23.976 that would work. Unless you are really experienced at working between film and tape rates I would not go down this path - I would leave the 23.976 frame rate codecs for material you shoot at that frame rate. We really need Avid to pull their finger out and support the 25P frame rates.

2. Not really - the 10bit codec is there if you plan to do a lot of post effects - it will hold up better than the 8bit footage. Your original footage is only 8bit but each time you render an 8bit codec to an 8 bit codec you introduce mathematical errors.

3. Avid's workflow is to just drop the footage into an SD comp and let Avid handle the conversion.

I've looked at the available options in Xpress Pro and unfortunately I just don't have time right now to run any tests for you. I would advise testing the following workflows to see if you can get an acceptable result:

1: a] CapDVHS 1280 x 720/25P Mpeg to AvidDnxHD 1080P/25 codec
b] Work in 1080P/25 Avid project and bring final timeline into PAL project
Some users have reported quite good results uprezzing.
2: a] CapDVHS 1280 x 720/25P Mpeg to Avid 1:1 PAL codec (will only work if you have Mojo) but should give a much better result than converting Mpeg to DV
3: a] Cineform Intermediate capture (trial version available) to .avi file.
b] Convert to Avid DV 25 codec from .avi file
4: Use a hardware converter to capture directly into Xpress Pro in PAL resolution.

Sorry - not much help I know, but I have mentioned ot Avid (a number of times) that they are very slow in implementing 25 support.

[John Mitchell]

I have run some tests uprezzing to 1080P then dropping the edited timeline into a 25P SD project and it seems to work, although Iwas only using a test clip downloaded from the web.

I can see some typical 8 bit errors in a blue sky section of the video when monitoring in SD of Mojo on a CRT - I'm unsure whether these errors are attributable to ProCoder, Avid or the live display through Mojo.

I only used the 1080P 8bit codec so the 10bit codec might work better. But the process works and didn't seem to be introducing any really nasty artifacts like you seemed to get.

[Nima Taheri]

John

Thank you for the feedback and taking time to do the testing, I really appreciate it. I will try the options you gave me and get back on how it went when I done.


- Nima