-
Best in/out method for DV
Hi, I’ve got a tape of DV footage (PAL) which I’m going to chroma key and composite. In the past I’ve simply captured this as DV into FCP, marked in and out and exported it as a quicktime movie using current settings to Shake where I do some pre-processing and then key it.
I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing something here.
A) Does exporting as a quicktime movie recompress the file in anyway? In other words, is any more data lost?
B) Would I somehow benefit from exporting this in a different codec?
C) Is there any benefit from capturing DV via SDI into something like uncompressed 8-bit?
Thanks for any advice.
W
-
7 Replies
-
Hi Wil,
A) If you do not check “Recompress all” only are recompressed the clips in wich you have change something (effects, motion tab,..) If you only set IN-OUT and export USING QT (NO QT CONVERTION) you are just exporting a piece of the original footage. Not loose of quality at all. The same is if you export a refference movie.
B) Export with a different codec would be interesting for you if you would pre-process the clip in FC. For example if you would apply a kind of Chroma Smoothing to make easier to pull the key, you should export the clip as 8/10b Unc or so. If you make this pre=procesing in FC and them you export as DV the pre-procesing would be waisted.
C) I always capture DV. It take less space on the disks and in case any capture-card would introduce any improvement in the image, such a improvement can be done through software too.
Cheers,
rafael -
Thanks for that. I like to do my colour smoothing in Shake where I can see exactly what I’m doing and make adjustments to the pre-processing whle I work on the key. So FCP is really just a capture tool in this workflow.
Thanks,
W
-
If you would have a Blackmagic or so you could capture from the Video Out of your DV camera directly in 10/8b Unc. The result is awesom and you don’t need any pre-process to pull an incredible clean key in Shake.
Cheers,
Rafael -
I do have a BM card with digital and analog i/o. Which video out are you referring to? Do you mean from the camera as it is recording, or playing back from tape? Do you mean through SDI, component, SVHS or composite?
I only ask because I would love to get a cleaner image through this.
Thanks,
W
-
You don’t need even to record. Just open the camara and plug the Composite Video Out to the Composite Video in of the BM.You only need a cable with RCA in one extrem to branch to the camera and a BNC in the other to branch to the BM. Them you capture 9 or 10b Uncompress.
If would be even better if would be possible to switch the S-Video to the BM Component Video In, but I do not know the way.
I try thisI system a bit for fun because I really do not use C-Keys but I know that if I ever need to do one I’ll do it like that. As I told you before the quality is astonishing. You can capture with the BM and record in tape at the same time. Them just compare the two imiges. Try it, you won’t regret it.
The main inconvenient is that you need your computer not to far from the camara. But no so close. A BNC cable too long produce looses in the signal and you need to amplifiy it (although I think the BM could do this function). However I thinck untill 15 meters or so there is not problem.
Rafael -
Ahhh. So this is like live capturing before the DV compression has occured, right? Like capturing HDMI direct from a HDV camera? I’m afraid that’s not an option this time around. But perhaps it will be next time.
Thanks,
Will
-
Yes. You capture a full broadcast composite video signal before to be compressed (5:1) to DV. The difference of quality is amazing even if you are using a cheap camera.
Rafael
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up