• AJA Video Systems

  S16mm on Digibeta, Betacam SP, and minidv (prores)

  Posted by Azel James on February 8, 2008 at 6:32 am

  I have my S16mm film transfered to Digital Betacam, Betacam SP, and minidv. I believe everything is letterboxed 1.85 with the timecode imprinted in the cropped area.

  I have access to a Betacam SP deck and an I/o HD deck. What is the best way for me to cut the film on Final Cut Pro and output to HDCAM for festivals.

  first thought; was to upres minidv’s on I/o hd to prores422 and cut that footage. But I’m wondering how much higher the quality would be if I uprezzed the Betacam SP to prores422?

  And, can you crop the prores422 footage to make it fit the 1.85 or 16:9 aspect ratio. Would this be considered a V crop on the I/o hd.

  Thanks for your help.

  Azel James replied 18 years, 7 months ago 3 Members · 4 Replies
• 4 Replies

• 

  Michael Sacci

  February 8, 2008 at 5:41 pm

  If you can rent a DigiBeta why not capture from that, if it is a deck issue definitely use the SP over the DV tape.
• 

  Gary Adcock

  February 8, 2008 at 5:52 pm

  [Azel James] “I have access to a Betacam SP deck and an I/o HD deck. What is the best way for me to cut the film on Final Cut Pro and output to HDCAM for festivals. “

  check with the festivals first – many will not take SD > HD conversions without restrictions.

  “first thought; was to upres minidv’s on I/o hd to prores422 and cut that footage. But I’m wondering how much higher the quality would be if I uprezzed the Betacam SP to prores422?”

  your best bet with the all of the SD footage formats listed would be to finish the show as uncompressed or as prores then do the conversion to HD- that will save the most space and costs.

  “And, can you crop the prores422 footage to make it fit the 1.85 or 16:9 aspect ratio. Would this be considered a V crop on the I/o hd. “

  NO — the IoHD does not have cropping functions on ingest- that would need to be done in FCP after capture.

  gary adcock
  Studio37
  HD & Film Consultation
  Post and Production Workflows
  Inside look at the IoHD
• 

  Azel James

  February 8, 2008 at 5:54 pm

  I have access to the Betacam SP deck, how much better would the resolution be on the Digital betacam tapes and which format is better for uprezzing to HD apple proress422 and cropping?

  thanks for the post
• 

  Azel James

  February 8, 2008 at 9:02 pm

  Thank you Gary.

  I just want to run this work flow by you.

  1. I’ve already digitized the minidv’s with timecode and I’m doing an initial cut. While I wait for Betacam Sp tapes to be shipped to me.

  2. uprez the Betacam SP Tapes through Io HD to a prores422 HD codec(which format?). Only capture the required footage from intial cut.

  3. Crop in FCP to make 16:9 final print.

  4. Output to HDCAM for festivals, Cannes, Torronto, Telluride, etc…

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