-
4:4:4 10bit HD capture with decklink
i have a simple (at least i hope it is) question regarding the possibility to capture a 10bit 4:4:4 HD uncompressed stream with final cut pro 6.
our hardware:
octacore g5 with 8GB ram
16TB SAN (appr. 766 MB/sec)
decklink HD 4:4:4we will probably use a sony F23 or the arri d20 as a camera (if that matters…)
just wanted to hear if anyone has tried this before.
we only have a HD-cam deck and i want to bypass the hd-cam compression because this will be screened in cinemas.i checked the apple website and strangely enough 4:4:4 is not mentioned in the tech specs?
just wanted to make sure this is possible before we start shooting.
i am really not an editor but more of a vfx person so any insight would be helpful!
thanks
timor
-
9 Replies
-
First off, your decklink card needs to have dual-link HDSDI inputs in order to work in 4:4:4 HD. You’ll need to connect your camera to either an HD Cam SR deck or a D-5 deck with optional 4:4:4 boards installed (or some comparable tapeless sytem). And then you’ll need very fast drives that can sustain more than 200 MB/second throughput. Your HDCam deck will be gathering dust on this project.
Arnie
Now in post: Peristroika, a film by Slava Tsukerman
https://www.arniepix.com/blog -
hi arnie,
thanks for the quickt response.
i don
-
I have the Decklink HD PRO with dual link. Looking at the setups in FCP I have the option of 10 bit RGB 444 at 29.97, 25, 24, 23.98, plus 2K 444 at various rates as well, so FCP has the capability in theory. That said, I have never used above HD Uncompressed 10 bit 422 which works fine. A test would be a good idea.
Hope it is a short film with low ratio if you are capturing to a 16TB SAN. That’s not a huge amount of space for rushes in 444.
-
hi michael,
thanks, thats all i wanted to know!
it will be a short ad so i think the storage space will suffice.
(max. 20min footage i assume).we are still in preproduction so it might take a while since principal but i will let you know how it went.
cheers
timor
-
Glad it isn’t a feature. 20 mins at HD 10bit 444 is about 230 gigs so no problems there.
There is a widget at Digital Heaven that calculates drive space for any codec.
https://www.digital-heaven.co.uk/videospace/
-
Trust me, you want a deck. Technically you can capture from the camera. But without RS-422 deck control, I’m pretty sure FCP won’t be able to read the timecode (I may be wrong about this). You can go ahead and do it. A lot of non-editors I know think along these lines. But without capturing the proper source timecode, all reference to the original tapes will be destroyed. You’ll never be able to re-capture, conform, or recover from a disk failure. Even if FCP can read the VITC or LTC, you’ll still have to get a controllable deck in order to re-capture anything.
Given the fact you’re shooting on SR, I’m going to guess that a 1-day rental for an SR deck is well within your budget. I would strongly suggest doing it.
Sean
-
hi sean,
as i mentioned in my first post we will have hd-cam tapes in the camera as a backup and i
-
[Timor Kardum] “we have another 20TB backup system via GigLan so i am not too worried about loosing any data…”
I would not even consider trying to move Dual Link Data over GigE except for DLT Tape backup.
gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows -
hi gary,
yeah, it will take a while but using metaLAN the throughput is actually quite ok (around 70-90 MB/sec).
we will have appr. 20min of HDSR-footage that will be roughly 300GB.(15 GB/min).
might take a while to transfer but we
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up