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HD showing going to NTSC – timeline suggestions
We had a show that was airing on HD cable networks last year, and this year it will re-air on a few NTSC (SD) networks instead, though we’ll still shoot HD since we are pending getting back on a few HD networks in the near future. My main question is about timelines and quality. On our SD networks, we are inserting our own SD spots and shipping to the networks on BetaSP. I’m dropping the old DVCPro HD timelines into SD timelines and it looks like I should be going to NTSC 8-bit rather than DV50 due to the artifacting that seems to be inherent in the DV codecs? Does that sound right to you all? I was hoping to go DV50 for storage issues since 8-bit requires about 3 times more storage space. Or is it just the DV (rather that DV50) codec that is so bad? Any feedback would be great, as I am about to start batch capturing sponsor spots from the Beta tapes. Unless I hear otherwise, I think I’ll be going with 8-bit.
thanks again!
mh
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3 Replies
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…or how might ProRes fit into this mix?
thanks again!
mh
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What about archiving the DVCProHD sequence instead of SD? DVCProHD is usually smaller files than 8-Bit SD. When I archive 8-Bit SD, I might try saving the timeline as seperate files. Video, audio tracks etc. Or, I might even break the complete show up into smaller segments files and just put it back together later.
How are you archiving? DVD data? I used to archive on Hard drives or dual-layer DVD’s. But of late, I purchased a Blu-Ray burner and archive on that. Plenty or room.
Ernie Santella
Santella Film/Video Productions
http://www.santellaproductions.com -
Thanks, ya, at this point I have archived the HD sequences as DVCPro HD files. A 22 minute show is in four segments, and each segment is around 4.5GB. I saved the files with the music tracks separately, and of course, have also saved the real timelines with all the cuts, graphics, and transitions along with all the original media on my hard drives. I wouldn’t have saved all the media (some HDCam, mostly XDCam, and HDV) except that I do not have that format of decks readily available. I have to rent them when I capture, so I figured it most cost-effective to buy another drive or two. Right now, it all takes up (2) 500 GB drives and seems to be working well. At some point, Blu-Ray would be the way to go to better archive what will soon be old shows and media.
My main concern now (other than my hard drives crashing and loosing all of this!) is how best to master the new SD shows: 8-bit or DV50? I’m probably leaning more towards the 8-bit, but then again, I won’t really be adding much to these shows (graphic-wise) other than simply inserting tv spots in the black holes. Maybe DV50 would suffice? In other words, I won’t really be “editing” in SD, but really more down-converting and then dumping out to BetaSP.
thanks again!
mh
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