I believe I made a Stupid mistake!

[Ben Chancey]

In my Zeal to create "Chew On This" in HD, I believe I overlooked the fact the network probably can't even view the Master I just sent to them for pilot submission. Late last night I was researching HDCAM and it seems they have a complete different sized tape. This probably means the powers that be at the network will look at me as some kind of hack because I sent them a digital master HDV tape. From what I gather there will be no way for them to play HD footage from a HDV cassette. Below is an excerpt from their HD pilot submission process.

•Programming must be shot and edited on professional HD equipment providing audio and video that meets or exceeds the broadcast standard of HDcam (1080i) or DVC Pro HD (720p) format videotape.

Does anyone have any ideas on what to do from here?
I really thought I was doing great. I thought I could do HD programming from my studio and send it straight to the network each time I finished a show. However, it looks as if I will have to find a way to get an HDV tape converted to HDCAM. I have no idea on how to do this. For some reason I feel it will be really expensive as well. I don't know! When the show was on Fox Sports Net I was able to have a friend dump the show from DV to Beta for me at the Fox News studio here in Cape Coral, FL. Now I don't know what to do. Sorry for the long post. I am just a little disappointed at my miscue.

Regards,
Capt Ben

[Mike Teutsch]

Hi Ben,

I used to watch your show, it was great! I especially liked the one where you had the guy with locked down reel fighting the goliath grouper. That was a riot!

First, you did not say what equipment you did use, and that is something we may need to know.

Second, I think the studio will be able to view your tape, but they may want it delivered differently in the future. Or, they maybe able to convert it themselves.

Let me know what you find out, as I would love to see your show in HD.

Good luck!----Mike

[Ben Chancey]

First of all Mike,

Thanks a ton for watching the show and letting me know you liked it. I have a Sony HVR-Z1U. I received it last year in April and we have filmed 3 shows on it. One show was a big Redfish show in the Mosquito Lagoon where we have 30 and 40 pound Redfish balled up and tailing right on top of each other. The site is awesome to see in HD. The colors and clarity of the fishes scales is remarkable. I also have a show called "Summer Snookin" that we shot in your neck of the woods in Stuart and Jupiter. The final show was a Tarpon and shark show off of Sanibel. I edit the shows in Vegas 6.0c and export them to Sony Digital Master 63 M tapes for the network. Do you believe they will be able to view the tape in HD without an HD player. I don't know how or where to get the tape converted to HDCAM. Thank you very much for your time. I really appreciate the response.

Regards,
Capt Ben

[Mike Teutsch]

Ben,

I would be very surprised if they can't view it, but only time will tell. MiniDV and HD MiniDV have been around for quite some time now.

As far as the camera is concerned, it is as great camera, and I hope that it is acceptable to them. I not up to speed on the various formats, others can give you more info there, but many shows have been shot with this camera.

I'll keep my fingers crossed. I think you should post your main question in the Sony HD forum, so more read it that are familiar with the camera and its use for your type of production/

Maybe you can just email the wrangler of the Sony thread, or Chris, and asked it to be moved.


Good Luck!

Mike

[Ben Chancey]

Thanks Mike,

I just send Chris and email.

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

In Florida, it's easy to get your material transferred to HDCAM from a disk master or from HDV, if you have the deck or camcorder. They can take the component output from the HDV camera and use that as input to the HDCAM deck.
Or, you can send off a hard drive to a replicator/transfer house with a 4:2:2 YUV file on it, and ask them to print it. Should be around 300.00 or so.

Try Evatone in Orlando if you can't find one close to you; I know they can do it.
http://accordvideo.com in Miami does this too.

[Ben Chancey]

DSE,

Let me know if I have what you are saying right.

<In Florida, it's easy to get your material transferred to HDCAM from a disk master or from HDV, if you have the deck or camcorder. They can take the component output from the HDV camera and use that as input to the HDCAM deck.>

I will not be able to send them an HDV tape for them to convert. However, I will be able to send them my HVR-Z1 camera along with the tape and they can play the tape through the cameras' component port and then copy to a HDCAM tape. Or I should just convert the whole show to YUV format on a hard drive instead of cineform and then send them the whole hard drive. The shows are typically 28:30 TRT is there a price per minute or something like that from these production houses? Is there any chance the tape I sent can be viewed by the network or did I just blow it?

I really appreciate your expertise.

Regards,
Capt Ben

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

If the network requires HDCAM or D5, then just tell the post house that. I'd never let the network know anything about HDV if I were you. Just deliver them a master or preview tape on HDCAM or D5, they'll be happy, or should be.

Yes, the replicator/transfer house can take your Z1, component out, and print to the HDCAM deck with those outputs.

[Ben Chancey]

I contacted Accord as you said DSE. I am also going to look into contacting our local NBC 2 affiliate. They have switched over to HD so maybe they can help. Is it normal to send your camera to a production house through the mail or would it be best just to by a hard drive to print the show to and send it over to them?

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

I've sent a deck, but never a camera. In most instances, we've just sent a hard drive over, so that we've got a copy and so do they.

[Fred Finn]

Edited I've reread the posts and I think I misunderstood. The question. You need a conversion from HD to HDCAM?

Or HDV?

[Ben Chancey]

Here is a post from the film segment of this forum. Feel free to ad any info you may have.

Originally Posted by Nick Hiltgen

HDV can't have HDCAM writtne to it, there's no room, and if there was there's no deck that would play HDCAM footage off of an HDV (mini dv) tape.]

Nick,
By the above statement you are informing me that there is no way for a network to play an HDV master unless they have the camera or HDV deck.

If that is true which I feared it was, then I better get on the phone and tell them to send it back when they receive it because I sent the wrong package. I thought I may have made a stupid mistake. However I thought maybe there was a chance that HDCAM decks had the ability to dub HDV to HDCAM and play it as a preview as well. Last night I went to bed with a bad feeling about this and tonight just confirmed it.


What I would suggest is master out your HDV footage to your camera in HDV, Then you would be able to convert out of the camera, through an AJA HD10 converter into the HD-SDI input of an HDCAM deck. Then you record the HDV tape off to HDCAM and you have your HDCAM master.

Here is where I am spinning in circles. How would I personally get access to an HDCAM deck. Is there any chance my local NBC affiliate that broadcasts in HD could dub a master for me if I took my camera and master to them?

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

you can rent an HDCAM deck. Figure on paying more for a days rental than you'll pay for a house to transfer it. Nick is right, you can't print HDCAM to HDV, but you CAN print HDV to HDCAM.

[Ash Greyson]

You would be shocked how many problems you encounter with just normal miniDV in the broadcast world, HDV just wont fly, not for any network. The workaround is easy though, just have it dubbed or dumped from HDD. $300 seems EXTREMELY low for an HDCAM dub from HDV or HDD for that matter. I would suggest you output an uncompressed file and have it transferred from HDD. There are many people doing this... I work in DVCproHD myself so I dont have experience but I am told http://www.vasst.com/gearshift.htm is a plug-in for Vegas that will do just what you need.


ash =o)

[Ben Chancey]

DSE and Ash,

It is 3:30 am and I am still looking for a site online in FL that will dub HD or HDV or anything. I don't have any problem at all converting the show over to the YUV Sony codec that DSE mentioned. Is that what file I need to save it to in order to have it printed to HDCAM? If I save the file on a HD, do I just send the whole hard driver over to the Post House and they will know what to do with it from there?