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  • Posted by Andrew Conner on March 13, 2009 at 12:26 pm

    I work for a cable channel at a small school district in Michigan. We just recently upgraded to the Panasonic HPX 170 with P2 Cards. So far everything is great. The footage looks AMAZING. Before we shot everything on Mini DV in SD. With the move to HD we are confused on a few things. We still need to broadcast in SD. Either 4:3 or 4:3 letter-boxed. We aren’t broadcasting in HD yet but hope to in the future.

    So here’s our question… What would be the BEST workflow for us to use? We are shooting in 720p 24. Should we edit in that as well? Or do a conversion BEFORE we start editing? We have a project done that looks awesome and would hate to have to redo it.

    We also have tried to print to tape from here, the audio comes through but no video. What would be the best way to get this back onto a mini dv tape so we can capture it back in to our broadcast deck? I have heard a lot about the Kona cards & Matrox MXO2. Would this help us out if we got one of these? Any recommendations or thoughts?

    Any help is appreciated!

    Shane Ross replied 17 years, 2 months ago 5 Members · 8 Replies
  • 8 Replies
  • Rafael Amador

    March 13, 2009 at 12:53 pm

    [Andrew Conner] “So here’s our question… What would be the BEST workflow for us to use? We are shooting in 720p 24. Should we edit in that as well? Or do a conversion BEFORE we start editing? We have a project done that looks awesome and would hate to have to redo it. “
    You can also edit your HD in an SD sequence. This would be the best if you go to SD 4×3. You can easily reframe the picture.

    [Andrew Conner] “We also have tried to print to tape from here, the audio comes through but no video. What would be the best way to get this back onto a mini dv tape so we can capture it back in to our broadcast deck? I have heard a lot about the Kona cards & Matrox MXO2. Would this help us out if we got one of these? Any recommendations or thoughts? “
    To do this you only need FireWire.
    rafael

    http://www.nagavideo.com

    (and here some clips for the friends: https://www.vimeo.com/2694745 )

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  • Walter Biscardi

    March 13, 2009 at 1:01 pm

    Get yourself an AJA Kona board.

    Edit in HD.

    Then use the Kona to downconvert your output to SD if need be. You can center punch, letterbox and go anamorphic on the downconvert.

    This way you have a really clean HD original file and an SD downconvert in realtime, no rendering and much higher quality than taking that HD and editing in an SD timeline in FCP.

    Walter Biscardi, Jr.
    Biscardi Creative Media
    HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

    Read my Blog!

    STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!

  • Andrew Conner

    March 13, 2009 at 1:16 pm

    Awesome. Is there a specific model you would recommend?

  • Walter Biscardi

    March 13, 2009 at 1:21 pm

    [Andrew Conner] “Awesome. Is there a specific model you would recommend? “

    If you have a ton of older SD material that you will need to incorporate with your new HD material, then look at the AJA Kona 3 to upconvert that material to HD during ingest. Note that this ONLY has digital inputs so if you have analog sources, you’ll need some converters from AJA as well.

    If you don’t, you can save money by going with the LHe which does perform the HD to SD Downconversion. This has both analog and digital inputs.

    http://www.aja.com and you can look at the specs there for the Kona boards.

    Walter Biscardi, Jr.
    Biscardi Creative Media
    HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

    Read my Blog!

    STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!

  • Andrew Conner

    March 13, 2009 at 1:30 pm

    Thank you so much for the info. Most of our footage that we will be upconverting will be from Mini DV. Would I need a converter for that? Or could I connect through firewire?

    Also, how does “Print to Video” work when going back to SD? Would I still just print from my timeline through firewire to a mini dv tape? Or am I forced to use the output of the kona card.

    Sorry for the amateur questions!

  • Walter Biscardi

    March 13, 2009 at 1:40 pm

    [Andrew Conner] “Thank you so much for the info. Most of our footage that we will be upconverting will be from Mini DV. Would I need a converter for that? Or could I connect through firewire? “

    Your footage has to pass through the card for upconversion in realtime. We run an AJA HD10AVA converter for our DV / HDV footage. Takes Component video and analog audio and turns it into an SDI stream with embedded audio which feeds our Kona 3’s.

    [Andrew Conner] “o, how does “Print to Video” work when going back to SD? Would I still just print from my timeline through firewire to a mini dv tape? Or am I forced to use the output of the kona card. “

    You would use Edit to Tape and if you want HD to SD downconversion in realtime or if you want to output HD, you use the output of the card. You have both Digital and Analog outputs available on the card.

    Walter Biscardi, Jr.
    Biscardi Creative Media
    HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

    Read my Blog!

    STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!

  • Jason Porthouse

    March 13, 2009 at 3:12 pm

    Andrew,

    To fully answer your query I think we need to know a little more about your workflow. You broadcast from DV, correct? And you’re going from your Mac to DV via firewire, correct?

    Walter’s advice is, as ever, sage – but I think reading between the lines the Kona might be overkill for you and introduce a whole layer of complexity and expense you don’t need.

    If you are going to master to DV via firewire the Kona is overkill. I’d be inclined to edit native 720 and when locked, export a reference movie. Open a new DV project, import said reference and copy in to a DV sequence. FCP will resize accordingly – and then lay this off on to DV via firewire.

    If you have a DV deck with SDI in, or even component in, then you could go the Kona route, providing your deck has RS422 machine control. it all depends on your deliverables and what deck you’re using.

    HTH

    Jason

    _________________________________

    Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes.
    Then when you do criticise him, you’ll be a mile away. And have his shoes.

    *the artist formally known as Jaymags*

  • Shane Ross

    March 13, 2009 at 3:31 pm

    AJA Kona 3 seems WAYYYY overboard for this. And only having digital inputs and needing to get ANOTHER expensive piece of equipment to convert the analog. Too much. The Kona 3 is for the really HIGH END stuff. 4:4:4 and 2K and all that. No need to spend extra money when it is not needed.

    Plus they are tapeless.

    So…you can look at the less expensive AJA Kona LHe. That has Analog and digital inputs if you ever needed to capture tape as well. Or you can look at the Matrox MXO. That is output only, great for tapeless and only $995. Plus with it you can do broadcast monitoring to a computer monitor (click on my head at the top and look for my Matrox MXO article). Or you can get the MXO2, which I have and really like. It captures, output, downconverts HD to SD, soon it will upconvert SD to HD. Captures analog, digital, HDMI, and outputs HDMI to an HDTV.

    Then you have the Decklink cards…

    There are lots of options out there. Be sure to get the one that fits your needs without going overboard.

    http://www.matrox.com
    http://www.aja.com
    http://www.decklink.com

    Shane

    GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
    Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

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