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FCP 101 Question: Beta-sP & DV in the same timeline
Hello again,
I’ve only been using FCS for four months now and am feeling pretty good about it, however I’m sure I’ll run in to snags like this that are FCP 101 to most of you!
I have already digitized selects from five Beta-SP tapes via AJA Io LA at 10 bit uncompressed. Today, the client gave me three DVCam tapes and their Panasonic AG-DV2500 deck. The IOs on it are DV, S-Video, composite and RCA L&R (and RS-422).
I assume that I can’t capture the footage directly using the deck’s DV IO (via firewire) and codec because that wouldn’t match the timeline setting, which already has the 10-bit uncompressed Beta-SP footage in it? Would I have to digitize via one of the AJA IO La S-Video settings and go in through that box?
Thanks AGAIN in advance for your help – this forum has made my editing life much easier over the last four months!
-PatG5 Quad 2.5 Desktop with 4GB Ram, 500GB HD & Fiber Card ~
30″ Cinema Display & 17″ Sony SVGA ~
Swift Data 200 Internal 1.6TB SATA II RAID 0 ~
AJA Io LA ~
Final Cut Studio ~
Sony UVW-1800 Beta-SP ~~~P D Post Productions, Inc. ~
TV~DVD~VHS~CD~WEB
for Corporate Communications, Commercials, Infomercials, Television Programs, Family Occasions since 1983 ~
E-mail **@****st.com ~
Website http://www.PDPost.com ~
Business/Cell Phone (847) 275-5671 -
8 Replies
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[PDPost] “Would I have to digitize via one of the AJA IO La S-Video settings and go in through that box?”
That will give you the best video quality given your options from the deck. Just capture at the same capture setting.
Though honestly, with BetaSP I wouldn’t capture any higher than 8bit for everything.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.comDirector, “The Rough Cut”
https://www.theroughcutmovie.comNow Posting “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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Wazzup Pat!
It looks like Walter beat me to the punch.
Did you have a good time in Vegas?
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Director-At-Large
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group -
Hi Walter and Steve,
Thanks for the reply! As you described, I hooked the deck in, changed the settings to AJA Io LA S-Video 10-bit Uncompressed and it appears to be working just fine. The picture looks pretty good, too. I have heard that capturing in 8-bit Uncompressed for all analog sources is good because, in the case of Beta-SP, most are about 5:1 anyway. I’ll probably move to this capture setting once I get going.
NAB was good this year, but I didn’t think it was fantastic. There were some great things going on, though. I’ve been going off and on since ’96 and was a bit disappointed by the Apple and Apple plug ins booths. I guess I was expecting much more, but what they had was good. It was fun hanging out with you there, Steve!
Thanks again!
-PatG5 Quad 2.5 Desktop with 4GB Ram, 500GB HD & Fiber Card ~
30″ Cinema Display & 17″ Sony SVGA ~
Swift Data 200 Internal 1.6TB SATA II RAID 0 ~
AJA Io LA ~
Final Cut Studio ~
Sony UVW-1800 Beta-SP ~~~P D Post Productions, Inc. ~
TV~DVD~VHS~CD~WEB
for Corporate Communications, Commercials, Infomercials, Television Programs, Family Occasions since 1983 ~
E-mail PD@PDPost.com ~
Website http://www.PDPost.com ~
Business/Cell Phone (847) 275-5671 -
[PDPost] “I have heard that capturing in 8-bit Uncompressed for all analog sources is good because, in the case of Beta-SP, most are about 5:1 anyway. I’ll probably move to this capture setting once I get going.”
10 bit is really overkill for BetaSP and really anything that’s not going to broadcast. Heck even for most stuff going to broadcast, 8 bit is just fine. There are people on these forums who insist that 10 bit is the only way to go with uncompressed, but to be honest, very little of our work is ever done at that bit rate. 8 bit is just fine for most of our work here.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.comDirector, “The Rough Cut”
https://www.theroughcutmovie.comNow Posting “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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Thanks, Walter!
Are there any times that you would want to go to 10-bit? I heard that if you’re chroma keying or if you do are doing multiple layers that need to be rendered? I’ve got 1.6TBs of storage with my Swift Data 200 system, but it does tend to fill up fast! I’m guessing you can’t mix 10-bit with 8-bit in the same timeline, right?
Thanks again,
-PatG5 Quad 2.5 Desktop with 4GB Ram, 500GB HD & Fiber Card ~
30″ Cinema Display & 17″ Sony SVGA ~
Swift Data 200 Internal 1.6TB SATA II RAID 0 ~
AJA Io LA ~
Final Cut Studio ~
Sony UVW-1800 Beta-SP ~~~P D Post Productions, Inc. ~
TV~DVD~VHS~CD~WEB
for Corporate Communications, Commercials, Infomercials, Television Programs, Family Occasions since 1983 ~
E-mail PD@PDPost.com ~
Website http://www.PDPost.com ~
Business/Cell Phone (847) 275-5671 -
[PDPost] “Are there any times that you would want to go to 10-bit?”
If you have a graphic with a heavy gradation to it. That’s really the only thing I can think of.
I’ve done over 700 layers in After Effects comps and 30+ tracks of video in FCP comps all in 8 bit with no quality loss that I can see. 10 bit just fills your drives faster and cuts down the realtime.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.comDirector, “The Rough Cut”
https://www.theroughcutmovie.comNow Posting “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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Thanks again, Walter!
Starting with the next project I digitize, I’m going to input in 8-bit. I’ll have to make sure I don’t capture anything in 8-bit that I am already editing in 10-bit, right? If not, the two clips won’t play on the timeline? I don’t know for sure because I’ve not run into this yet, but compression settings can not be mixed and matched within a timeline, right?
-PatG5 Quad 2.5 Desktop with 4GB Ram, 500GB HD & Fiber Card ~
30″ Cinema Display & 17″ Sony SVGA ~
Swift Data 200 Internal 1.6TB SATA II RAID 0 ~
AJA Io LA ~
Final Cut Studio ~
Sony UVW-1800 Beta-SP ~~~P D Post Productions, Inc. ~
TV~DVD~VHS~CD~WEB
for Corporate Communications, Commercials, Infomercials, Television Programs, Family Occasions since 1983 ~
E-mail PD@PDPost.com ~
Website http://www.PDPost.com ~
Business/Cell Phone (847) 275-5671 -
[PDPost] “I’ll have to make sure I don’t capture anything in 8-bit that I am already editing in 10-bit, right?”
I’m 90% certain they will not play in the same timeline, but you know I’ve never tried it. 8bit and 10bit SD Uncompressed are almost identical in the codec, so it might be possible that those two would actually work in the same timeline. Easy enough for you to do a test though. Just capture an 8bit clip and throw it into a 10bit timeline and vice versa.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.comDirector, “The Rough Cut”
https://www.theroughcutmovie.comNow Posting “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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