January 16th, 2010
Workflow for multi format delivery to:
-Tape SD or HD
-Digital formats for Web & DVD
-Sources are a mix of 16×9 (HD or Anamorphic) and 4×3 SD.
With a mixture of 16×9 and 4×3 in a show, the best approach is to edit in the resolution and aspect ratio of your final output format.
Reformat footage on the timeline as needed.
HD
If you have to deliver the final show on HD-CAM, edit in your favorite HD resolution, 16×9.
-The 4×3 footage will be pillar-boxed
SD
For delivery on SD Digi-beta you have to make a choice between delivering anamorphic or letter-boxed. Decide based on how much 16×9 and 4×3 footage you have.
16×9
If you have more 16×9 footage (from HD sources), deliver anamorphic.
Make sure the Anamorphic box is checked in Sequence settings in FCP.
-4×3 footage will be pillar-boxed.
4×3
If you have more 4×3 footage, go for regular 4×3 and cut the HD footage in letter-boxed.
or centercut
In my opinion, because most TV sets are 16×9, anamorphic is preferred.
You gain about 1/3 resolution over letter-box.
TV’s, projectors and DVD players are very good at stretching Anamorphic to 16×9.
Anamorphic makes it easier to up-res the show to HD.
If you are making a tape for projection, label with clear instructions:
“This tape is 4×3 LETTERBOX” or “This tape is ANAMORPHIC, please stretch to 16×9″
For SD DVD export a 640×480 Anamorphic quicktime.
Always de-interlace 4×3 full frame for the web on export!
If your sequence is SD-anamorphic or HD, export interlaced for Blue-Ray DVD.
For Web delivery, de-interlace on export!
Notes on digital delivery:
-Make sure to add a few extra frames at the top and bottom to make the movie go to black and not hang on a ghost frame.
-Resize picture to 104% to get rid of closed captioning and fuzzy video edges.
-Always de-interlace coming out of your NLE, software like adobe’s media encoder assumes that you de-interlace, there is no option to de-interlace!
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December 27th, 2009
Progressive video is not really recorded progressive on modern video cameras.
Editing software extracts progressive frames from interlaced recording formats.
See wikipedia
If you accidentally shot 1080i24P on the HVX200 or HVX170 then Cinema tools is your friend. Do this:
-Use Log and Transfer to re-wrap as usual. (the Remove Advanced Pulldown checkbox doesn’t help because 1080i24P is NOT advanced pulldown)
-Footage comes in as 1080p30 29.97. It plays really shitty in FCP and you see interlacing artifacts.
-Start cinema tools
-FIle > Batch Reverse Telecine
-Use these settings:
It takes about the same time as re-wrapping
You end up with 1080p30 23.98 with all the fields removed.
Next time shoot 1080i24PA (Advanced pulldown), that way log and transfer can pull the fields and frames out while it re-wraps into Quicktime.
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December 14th, 2009
During a shoot always copy the “CONTENTS” and “LASTCLIP.TXT” to a drive to empty cards, never try to re-wrap files on location!
Best thing is to bring enough cards to make it through the day.
If you bring laptop, card reader & HD, make folders in advance; CARD 1, CARD 2 etc.
Lately I’ve seen FCP skip files or abort transfer in the log & transfer window.
You see a red stop sign with an exclamation point.
This is with a fast laptop 3.06 gHz with 8GB ram.
Only after many tries will it transfer certain files.
See this link on Apple
It is too much of a pain to have to troubleshoot and make sure you have all files on location.
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November 24th, 2009
If you shoot for American TV on a Panasonic camera (HVX-200, HPX-170)
set the camera to DVCPRO 60i
For European TV DVCPRO 50i (50Hz model)
Storage calculation 1GB/Min.
For the HMC-150 record DVCPRO 60i in PH-mode.
Storage calculation 3 hours on a 32GB SDHC card.
Do a test on the editing system if you shoot with the 150. The codec is AVCHD witch means more heavy lifting on your processors in editing. You’ll have to balance quality with efficiency if you’ve got a slower system. Otherwise, Panasonic offers a free utility that will convert the AVCHD files into the DVCPRO format. This will reduce the responsibilities of the processor, but will dramatically increase file size.
In FCP use the preset in log& Transfer to re-wrap to Pro-res 422.
If you shoot with the Sony PMW-EX3 shoot 1080 59.94i (50i for European TV)
Storage calculation 1GB/4 min. or 70min per 16GB SxS card in HQ mode.
List of Panasonic cameras
List of Canon cameras
List of Sony cameras
Sony XDCAM format
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November 17th, 2009
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November 16th, 2009
I’ve had extremely slow internet connection since doing clean install snow
I found this link on apple
After that it is a little better, but still not great
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