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Need ideas for transfer of HD tapes through Kona-2 Card
We will be capturing footage from HDCAM tapes shot at 24Psf 1920 x 1080 on a Cine Alta directly into the hard drive of a Final Cut Pro 5 Studio system.
We’ll be coming out of a JH-3 HDCAM deck and through a Kona-2 duel link HD-SDI interface card directly into Final Cut Pro on a Power Mac G5 Duel 2.3 GHz.
The capture settings on the computer will be for photo jpeg offline hd codec (384×216) set at 23.98p.
Our editor will be using a Power Book 1.67 Ghz with Final Cut 5 to edit the project offline.
When our editor has completed a final cut, we will be upconverting and reconforming her timeline to original HD.
We want to set up our EDL and files so that the batch capturing process can be as automatic as possible.What I’m wondering is, would you recommend capturing to a higher compression ratio for a better quality image than FCP’s photo-jpeg preset for HD at 384×216?
Is this codec supported by the Kona card and will the RT effects be preserved or show up red? (I’ve read two different accounts). Is Kona and FCP set up to create photo-jpeg files at say, 75%? I looked but did not find any specific information on how to do this, although both manuals seemed to indicate it could be done.
Would the files have any problem being 1) edited in FCP, 2) captured and played back through firewire drives 3) conveying the RT effects through to the upconversion process to a final HD color-corrected master?
A thread of posts on Creative Cow seemed to indicate that going to a higher compression ratio meant losing the ability of RT effects to convey in the EDL through the upconversion/matchback process. Has anyone’s experience shown this to be true? If we do capture the footage at a higher compression ratio, can our editor play this back with FCP 5 software on a G4 laptop?
As you can tell, I’m probably asking questions that show I have a lot of holes still to be filled in my understanding of Final Cut Pro, so thanks for your patience. I appreciate any help you can offer. And I appreciate this forum – I called Ron Lineboom and thanked him personally. There’s nothing like it out there.
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4 Replies
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I would either capture at DV or DVCPro HD for the offline. A laptop can easily handle either of these and you can capture to either codec directly through the HD-SDI of the Kona 2. Going to such a small offline codec will not make it fun to do the offline for the editor.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.comNow in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com
Now editing “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
G5 Dual 2.0, AJA Kona 2, Medea FCR2X
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Walter is right.
Both of the codecs he mentions are easily handled by firewire drives and you editor will actully see everything in the frame with a very high level of detail.The DV is 3.8 mb/sec and the HD will be 11mb/sec @24 frames so your only real question is storage.
On the offline online process:
FCP has some problems media managing projects when switching machines so make sure that the project you are going to online is created by the offline editor on the laptop.
David
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[Dog Jack Pictures] “We will be capturing footage from HDCAM tapes shot at 24Psf 1920 x 1080 on a Cine Alta directly into the hard drive of a Final Cut Pro 5 Studio system.
We’ll be coming out of a JH-3 HDCAM deck and through a Kona-2 duel link HD-SDI interface card directly into Final Cut Pro on a Power Mac G5 Duel 2.3 GHz. “These say 2 different things? if you are capturing direct from the camera into FCP you will not get correct timecode on your records, you will get Ubit unless you plan first if you record from the deck the TC will be accurate. FCP does not see smtp timecode over HDSDI.
[Dog Jack Pictures] “What I’m wondering is, would you recommend capturing to a higher compression ratio for a better quality image than FCP’s photo-jpeg preset for HD at 384×216?”
Why not DVCPROHD? BUT Yes you can change the compression manually.ON RT
You “loose” RT on the conversion normally because there is not much realtime in 1080 UC workflows even on the fastest machines. IT’s also because most people try to do this on underpowered machines.Gary Adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation
Chicago, IL USA -
[Dog Jack Pictures] “We will be capturing footage from HDCAM tapes shot at 24Psf 1920 x 1080 on a Cine Alta directly into the hard drive of a Final Cut Pro 5 Studio system.
We’ll be coming out of a JH-3 HDCAM deck and through a Kona-2 duel link HD-SDI interface card directly into Final Cut Pro on a Power Mac G5 Duel 2.3 GHz. “These say 2 different things? if you are capturing direct from the camera into FCP you will not get correct timecode on your records, you will get Ubit unless you plan first if you record from the deck the TC will be accurate. FCP does not see smtp timecode over HDSDI.
[Dog Jack Pictures] “What I’m wondering is, would you recommend capturing to a higher compression ratio for a better quality image than FCP’s photo-jpeg preset for HD at 384×216?”
Why not DVCPROHD? BUT Yes you can change the compression manually.ON RT
You “loose” RT on the conversion normally because there is not much realtime in 1080 UC workflows even on the fastest machines. IT’s also because most people try to do this on underpowered machines.Gary Adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation
Chicago, IL USA
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