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4:1:1 DV offline to 4:2:2 output for Broadcast.
I am trying to construct a workflow for our television show.
We shoot MiniDV on Panasonic 100A’s.
I want to be able to capture all the footage down in Miami via firewire to a an external drive. (which will be at 4:1:1)
Then I will take that footage and create a a full offline edit.
One I have created the offline edit in DV, I want to send it to our offline edit suite.
The trick is, that want that DV footage to be edited in a 4:2:2 environment/timeline, so that it may better meet the
broadcast specifications of our network.I know that this can be achieved if we capture the dv footage through SDI, but I am wondering if there
is a conversion or something in Final Cut where I can say “Hey, I know this is 4:1:1 footage originally, but can
we just make our edit environment 4:2:2 and still use this footage?”Is that possible?
Or would it be easier to do all my offline capturing etc etc, and just handing over the project file to be recaptured
through an SDI connection. (which would take longer??)thanks!,
-Ross Hendrickson
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13 Replies
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How are you capturing the dv footage through SDI?
jmf
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As of right now here is how we have it set up,
DV Deck (Panasonic AJ-D455) connects to our DigiBeta Deck (Sony DVW-A500) via component video, the DigiBeta deck sends the SDI signal to the Edit System.
Then we master straight through SDI back to DigiBeta.
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Where does the DV Deck get the tape, from the DVX100? Are you expecting to start with 4:1:1 and upgrade it to 4:2:2?
jmf
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The DV Tape comes from shooting on the Panasonic DVX100A.
In my understanding, this footage is native 4:1:1, though when brough IN to a system via SDI, it’s becomes 4:1:1 quality footage but in a 4:2:2 format as a result of traveling on the SDI.
Realize that I am not trying to make this raw footage better by doing this conversion. I am trying to put this footage into a 4:2:2 project/timeline so that the color correction and graphics that are are implemented in the on-line edit are of better quality for our mastering of the program.
I want my use my originally captured DV footage, edited, color corrected, and composited w/ graphics to be output in higher quality/ broadcast quality 4:2:2..
Can I do this if my footage was imported via firewire and not SDI?
(I hope this helps clear any confusion.. instead of add to it)-Ross Hendrickson
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I suppose another (possibly better) question would be..
Can I capture my DV footage via firewire as an uncompressed (4:2:2) format? Realizing again, this will not increase the quality of the captured raw footage. But, just allow it to exist in an uncompressed environment so that the graphics and color correction are not limited to the compressed 4:1:1 DV format.
Either that or can I capture it normally, and then import it to a timeline/project file that is set up for 4:2:2, so its output would be as such.. (or would this require too much render time etc..)
thanks again!,
Ross Hendrickson -
I shoot most everything on my DSR500ws DVCAM camera (4:1:1). I then go component out of my DSR-45 DVCAM deck to an AJA io box which sends my signal over firewire to a 10-bit uncompressed project. I can edit in 10-bit 4:2:2 timeline (without having to render the original captured footage) and output my uncompressed signal via firewire to the AJA and then to Digibeta or whatever without losing quality.
I think the AJA box costs around $1,500 – $2,000. They make them with component in/out and SDI in/out.
hope this helps.
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Let me throw in my workflow. I deal with a lot of clients who offline their shows in DV. They media manage the finished show to a firewire drive and bring it to me. I load up the project and duplicate their finished sequence, changing the sequence settings to Uncompressed 10 bit. (I have a Blackmagic card in my on-line system)
If the material is interlaced, I move it down one line in the motion tab to align the fields correctly. (This is because of the difference between DV 480 frame height and uncompressed 486 frame height) I then colour correct the shows and add the chroma resample filter included in the free Too Much Too Soon filter set (But make a donation, it’s a great filter set). Then I output via SDI to Digital betacam.
I haven’t seen a better workflow for material that originated on DV. Some people say you can get slightly better images capturing from a DV deck with SDI output, but in tests I’ve done, I haven’t seen a difference. The chroma resample filter takes care of DV vertical chroma banding in dark intense colours like red. I’ve deliverd hours of material to broadcasters using this workflow without any complaints
Cheers
John Christie
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Interesting. I still don’t see how you can invent/inject color information into 4:1:1 source video. Is it that the component out contains more information than that which ends up on the internal miniDV tape, or what?
jmf
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You’re right, I’m not adding anything to the existing colour. There is no more info than what’s on the original tape. But I am now colour-correcting and working in an uncompressed colour space which looks much better than DV.
The only thing I’m adding is the all-important “u” in the word colour 🙂
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Can describe what you mean by “much better?” Is it worth the extra hardware that is required to output 4:2:2?
jmf
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