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DVCPro50 24pA capture
I shot a concert with the SDX-900s and all the cameras were set to 24pA.
I know if I capture via a deck with firewire I can remove the advanced pulldown on ingest, but what about if the deck only has SDI? Do you just capture the footage as 29.97 and then use the Tool>Remove Advanced Pulldown from within FCP or is it better to do it is CinemaTools? Or can you do it via SDI if you set it up correctly?
Thanks
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10 Replies
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Nope- for 24pA pulldown removal it must come in over firewire. There is zero to be gained by capturing via SDI.
Noah
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I could find a rental deck when I needed it and when I went to a post house their deck was only SDI and I could figure out why the pulldown was not working, thanks for confirming the NO on SDI. Hopefull I can get a deck w/ FW to capture all my tapes. about 27 33-min tapes. Just want to find it locally so I can do it in a day. Low budget project, seems like I do too many of these. 🙂
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The decks you would need are the SD930, SD93 or 1200A.
-Noah
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No you might think that but all your doing is wrapping the signal that’s there already into a much larger signal path. But there is zero increase in quality or resolution. Now there is something to be gained by editing in SDI or uncompressed because anything new you add like effects or transitions and titles will be at the full SDI resolution. But the DVCPRO50 material will not gain any additional resolution. It will just not lose quite as much as it would have in a native 50 timeline. But in my experience that added hassle of not being able to remove the pulldown automatically- major difference in effort and time there, and the not very noticeable difference in quality- DVCPRO50 is an awesome editing codec- make the SDI route not worth it.
-Noah
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Pardon?
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Yes- and?
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Ok- all sarcasm aside- I don’t understand what you’re driving at. The original poster was asking whether there was anything to be gained from capturing DVCPRO50 taped material over SDI. And I said no because you don’t gain any additional data or resolution. And you apparently disagree with that assesment and so… ?
Noah
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Uh- I think we are totally not communicating. Believe me I know DVCPRO50 is a 4:2:2: codec. I shot a feature on it and wrote an article about it and the SDX900 for American Cinematograph(March ’06 issue if you care). My point was there is no resolution to be gained via capturing DVCPRO50 tapes over SDI vs. over Firewire. When you capture over Firewire you get the full DVCPRO50 signal as recorded on the tape- nothing more nothing less.
When you capture that same tape over SDI, you get the exact same DVCPRO50 signal, wrapped inside a much less efficient and much more storage intensive SDI codec. But it buys you zero added quality over what you get over Firewire.
Remember Firewire is just a connection protocol- perhaps you are thinking Firewire=DV25. It does not(necessarily). For example with a Panasonic 1200A deck you can capture DVCPROHD 100Mbit via Firewire connection. All the Firewire is doing is sending a pure digital signal. It is not dithering DVCPRO50 or DVCPROHD down to DV25. I hope that clears up my initial recommendation for you.
Noah
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No problem- in fact FW in theory could handle a lot more. Standard Firewire is also called Firewire 400 for 400 Mbits. DV25 is 25Mbits and DVCPRO50 is 50Mbits. And Firewire 800 is so named for it’s theoretical max speed of 800Mbits. Of course in practice you don’t get quite that high but more than enough for 50-100Mbits.
Noah
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For David, I did shoot with the 900’s in DVCPro50, and yes I plan to capture with that codec so Noah is right SDI offers no advantage and one huge disadvantage, not being able to remove the pulldown on capture. The reaason for asking is I have access to more SDI only decks but to do a software pulldown would mean tieing up a system for days, I have 15 hours of footage. So even if I have to rent an out of town deck with FW and ship it in it will be worth it.
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