Be a boyscout, help a newbie!? Setup for Beta in FCP

[Kaspar Kallas]

Ok
lets start with simple things:

8bit uncompressed / DV : uncompressed codec has more color resolution (Video frame is divided to 3 channels luma (black and white image) and 2 croma channels, but usually the croma channels have only half the resolution of luma) in uncompressed the croma channels are 2x smaller than the original resolution while in PAL DV first channel is 2x smaller and the next one is 4x smaller, extra to that you add lossy compressiona that is 5x smaller in bit size than the original.
Therefore 8 bit uncompressed is superior to anyd DV footage
The other side to the story is that uncompressed is about 10x larger (file size) than DV (1h of DV roughly 12GB; 1h of uncompressed 80GB) so if you have the space use uncompressed if not then DV or DVCpro seem like viable options – DVCpro is better format than DV because of colour sampeling – also bigger than DV (file size)

You can use photoJpeg that is almost as good as 8bit uncompressed but you will loos realtime effects (file size wise it is very small – even smaller than DV)

what ever codec you want to use you will find the apropriate easy setup in FCP

-Kaspar

[Colin Shamrock]

Hi Kaspar,

and thanks for your reply. I guess I’ll be running out of space using uncompressed video, plus my HD will probably be too slow. So it’s down to DVCPro or PhotoJPG. I’ll do some testing.

But how can I make FCP convert the incoming data into that codec? Use the easy setup as you suggested?

Another thing. I will be using a Sony J-30 player to play the Beta tapes. I guess it would be better to use the component outputs and not the Firewire one to get the video onto my machine, right? In order to control that deck from within FCP, I need to connect the Decklink RS422 plug with the Sony player, right? And then use Capture in FCP? Or is there something I need to be aware of?

Thanks once more,
Colin

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Colin,

If you want to work with maximum quality, then capturing uncompressed video from the J30 player using the DeckLink Extreme card will be the best choice. However if you are going to work in DV, then you might as well use the DV port of the J30 player and use the PAL DV easy setup in FCP provided by Apple. You could still use the DeckLink card for monitoring your DV material on a breadcast monitor. The advantage of capturing in an uncompressed format is that you will not lose any quality when applying effects or text to your video or if needing to render the video. However uncompressed video takes up much more space than compressed video.

If you are going to capture from the Betacam SP using DeckLink, you will just need to connect the 3 from deck component analog video cables plus the from deck XLR analog audio cables. Also you will need to connect the RS-422 deck control cable included with the breakout cable for DeckLink Extreme.

Next go in to the System Preferences and click on Blackmagic DeckLink. Set the Video Input to Analog Y, B-Y, R-Y. If you are going to be monitoring the video via a broadcast monitor, set the video output to Analog Y, B-Y, R-Y if it accepts component analog video. Alternatively set it to NTSC/PAL (Y out) if it only accepts composite analog video.

Your J30 player does not allow you to record to tape so Disable the option to Black Vide Output to Deck in Capture. If you find that you run in to any sync problems, you will need to use a black burst generator to connect to the deck and to the genlock reference input of the DeckLink Extreme.

While a single SATA hard disk in a G5 should be fast enough for capture and playback of 8-bit uncompressed video (which is very high quality), you might run out of space on your hard disk. You can use the Easy Setups in Final Cut Pro to select a Blackmagic PAL timeline in any of the DV, DV50 or JPEG compressed formats. DV50 is better quality than DV but takes twice the space. DV and DV50 are supported by Apple’s RT Extreme realtime effects. The JPEG easy setup provides even better looking video capture and the only downside is that you cannot use RT Extreme effects with it in realtime. You would need to render any effects with JPEG.

You should first determine if you need RT Extreme effects. If the answer is “yes” then the choice is between DV and DV50. If the answer is “no”, I would personally choose JPEG but you can check that out for yourself and make your own assessment of the quality.

Another reason for choosing JPEG is that the DV standard in PAL is a bit messed up.

When DeckLink captures from the component analog outputs of the J30 deck, it receives uncompressed analog video. Depending upon which Blackmagic easy setup you choose in Final Cut Pro, the video will be automatically stored in any of the uncompressed, DV, DV50 or PhotoJPEG formats. It just happens seamlessly in real time and is not something you need to think about much. The Blackmagic easy setups will also configure the RS-422 serial control.

So you don’t need to worry about capture and sequence settings. Just choose the desired Blackmagic easy setup and all the FCP settings will be configured for you 🙂

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Colin Shamrock]

Hi Luke,

and many many thanks for your great reply. Now I should be all set. I also realised that I upgraded to FCP5.0.2 and thus had to reinstall the BMD drivers in order to get the easy setup options. Since I didn’t see them, I got a bit confused.

Well, turns out the people I’m working with want to output to DV tape, anyway. In your opinion, does the image quality look worse when going from Beta to DV, or does it look MUCH WORSE? I might be able to convince them that it makes no sense going Beta when filming only to ruin your nice images when playing out again….

Thank also for your “messed up” link, that was very useful. one question, though: If we do go ahead with the Beta in, DV out (via Firewire to a DV deck), will I still need to move the clips up one line if they then decide to transfer the DV tape to Beta? I know that sounds like a really stupid idea, but it’s cheaper for them to do that than to rent a Beta deck, and money is everything, right? For some people at least.

Thanks once more for your reply and I’m looking forward to hearing from you,
Colin