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AVI stream, digibeta, or betasp which would give me the best quality and least trouble?
Fellow Cows,
I have someone sending me footage. They can send it either as uncompressed AVI stream, Digibeta tape, or Beta SP. The Digibeta tape would be hard for me to input into Final Cut without renting or buying a special deck, etc. or getting a lab to help me. Plus it is in PAL, and I would have to convert it into NTSC. The Beta SP would be in NTSC, but the quality is lower and I would also have input problems without renting a special deck, etc.
That leaves the AVI stream, which can be delivered to me on discs already converted to NTSC. From what I have read the uncompressed AVI stream quality would be more or less identical with Digibeta quality. Is that true?
I’m also not clear how easy it would be for me to input uncompressed AVI stream into Final Cut Pro. At first, I thought it was simply a matter of putting the files onto my hard drive, clicking import in Final Cut, and it’s there. Now I’ve discovered there might be other complications, though I’m not clear what they are.
The people who are sending the footage to me are using Premiere Pro. And I gather that sometimes uncompressed avi files (even if they are Quicktime for PC compatible) need to be converted with Telestream Flip4Mac, and that this program has occasional problems of tis own. Is there also a quality loss with this conversion? Do all AVI files need conversion?
Since I want the best quality possible, if nnecessary, I can afford to make the BETA to NTSC conversion, buy a deck and go with the digibeta solution. But first I want to make sure that is really the best solution and that I’m not just setting myself up for more problems and expense.
I’ve also heard that the difference in quality with Beta SP is pretty minima, though again this isn’t something I have gotten confirmed.
Finally, some people have mentioned needing Aja Io, Kona or Blackmagic cards to really do this right. Right now I have a LaCie 1000GB drive. Would I have to get an even bigger more expensive drive if I went that route and what would that do for me?
I have a lot of questions I’d appreciate any clarity anyone could bring to any aspect of this situation for me.
Lee -
3 Replies
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First of all, stay away from .avi files. That is a microsoft thing and you are now in a mac world. (There may be some program that can change the .avi to a .mov, but I would worry about taking the hit in quality that would be possible.)
Personally, I’d probably go with the beta sp. But do you even have a way to capture from beta?
[Lee Feigon] “some people have mentioned needing Aja Io, Kona or Blackmagic cards to really do this right”If you don’t have one of these cards how do you plan on capturing/outputting at all?
I guess you could always find a facility that has the right equipment to digitize it for you onto your Lacie drive. Then you could edit and take your drive back to the facility to get the end result to tape. If you are going to do that, though, I’d go with the digibeta.
So many options… Hope this helps.-Todd Beabout
Vazda Studios -
Thanks. I guess I’ll go with the Digebeta and try to find a facility that can convert from PAL and then put it on my drive for me. I’m still interested in learning more about what the Aja Io, Kona and Blackmagic cards really do though.
Lee -
They are all basically i/o cards that allow you to move video on and off your computer. If you will be doing anything other than DV, you will not only need one of these cards, but of course some tape decks and probably more storage. And those decks aren’t cheap… last time I checked a BetaSP deck that could record and playback was at least $5K, and up into to $20-30K range if you wanted to edit to it. Digibeta is around $45K (I think). Hope this helps.
-Todd Beabout
Vazda Studios
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