Can I Capture 24fps DigiBeta with SONY DVW-A500 & BlackMagic HD Extreme Card?!

[Shane Ross]

Digibeta tapes don’t run at 24fps. ONly 30fps (well, 29.97fps). Is this a FILM transfer perhaps? That might be film telecined to tape…24fps telecined to tape using the 3:2 pulldown to get it to 29.97 that ALL digibeta tapes are.

What exactly is this footage?

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Lisa Rolley]

Hey Shane

Ok so I actually did not get much info on what the footage is – however as soon as the producer said to me that its at 24 fps SD and I looked at it and saw that it was a DigiBeta I was confused – It was EOD and I had shutdown etc But thats exactly what i thought – how could it be 24fps on Digi.

Can the Sony DVW-A500 deck even run anything but 29.97?

Could they have meant that they wanted me to ingest it at 24fps ???

what are my options and how best should i investigate further and/or approach the producer with questions??

Thanks Shane and if anyone else his thoughts feel free to school me – The only tapes I have brought in at 24 or 23.98 were the larger format HD tapes – which usually required rented HD decks…

Lisa

[Shane Ross]

[lisa rolley] “Can the Sony DVW-A500 deck even run anything but 29.97?”

Nope. SD is 29.97 and 30fps only. NO 24fps. ONly HD decks can do that, and only certain ones, like HDCAM, HDCAM SR and D5.

[lisa rolley] “Could they have meant that they wanted me to ingest it at 24fps ???”

Yes…this is why you need to know what it is. If it is FILM, then you need to make sure that you capture it on the A-Frame, (00 frame) and then reverse telecine later. If it is an HD downconvert, you might have to experiment.

[lisa rolley] “what are my options and how best should i investigate further and/or approach the producer with questions??”

Ask questions. “What type of footage is on this tape?” “Is this film?” “Is this an HD Downconvert?” “Why do you want me to capture this at 24fps?”

God I hope they don’t come back with, “well, I want the film look…”

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Lisa Rolley]

HAHA! oh man sorry shane – yeah it was kinda just handed to me EOD so I just thought i would deal with it in the morning.

I will ask those questions but from what she said it was just that the footage is 24fps and needs to be that so I guess my remaining question is how with the deck and tape I have would i go about doing any of the ingest options you mentioned?

I have to walk in do this first thing so i wont really have time post another question here once the producer tells me what its coming from – i just need to be ready to ingest it first thing ya know – so if you have any other advice on my options for ingesting this digi beta that would be great.

Can i ingest at 24 fps? If i ingest at 29.97 how would i then make the change to the footage you mentioned – is that better to have a AE guy take what i ingest and convert (remove pulldown)??

Thank you for your time Sir – you rock.

Lisa

[Shane Ross]

Sorry, but I don’t have the time to sit here and lay out EVERY possibility that this could be. Not unless you are ready to hire my services as a consultant. And there might be a circumstance that I don’t think of…or something doesn’t quite fit it on way but with a tweak it can be done another way.

There is no way to know what to do until you are told what you have.

Well, wait. You have the tape, right? Play it…what does it look like? Capture it at 29.97fps. Does it look wrong? Reverse telecine it…does it still look wrong? You are in the position of not knowing what to do with the task you were given. But you have time to play and try to figure it out. All night in fact. And yes, we all do this…work long hours to ensure that the client’s experience is nice and smooth. You might not know what you are doing, but THEY can’t know that. Test test test TEST until you figure it out. ANd if you figure that it is 29.97…then tell them. Capture it 29.97 then try your various other options and have ALL of them available for the client.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Lisa Rolley]

hey shane

yeah unfortunately i am home – this is why i was digging for more info – do not have access to equipment till the AM – if i did of course i would stay up late. and so yes of course i will first try to play it and and ingest it at 29.97 to begin with

Sorry to ask such broad strokes – wish i could have had time to check it out before posting…of course those are my goals in terms of making client happy and myself look super on point…thanks for your time.

Reverse telecine or removing pulldown in fcp or AE – how would you go about doing this in either – btw – what do u recommend for this if need be?

Lisa

[Sean Oneil]

[Shane Ross] “Well, wait. You have the tape, right? Play it…what does it look like? Capture it at 29.97fps. Does it look wrong? Reverse telecine it…does it still look wrong? You are in the position of not knowing what to do with the task you were given. But you have time to play and try to figure it out. All night in fact.”

Aside from reading manuals, that is exactly how I know the things I know. One can either make time and show desire to learn, or they can hire someone else to do it.

Sean

[Sean Oneil]

There are lots of posts here on the subject. I personally use Cinema Tools. Again, you not only need to identify the AA frame, but you need to know and understand what that even means. I find Apple’s manuals to be surprisingly very descriptive on things like this.

Sean

[Lisa Rolley]

I hear ya just did not have a manual to look at a[nor the equipment to take home with me so thats why i posted…The tape obviously is 29.97 so I will capture it as such – aside from firing myself and hiring someone else to do this (?!) I was hoping to get some advice on how to determine what to do next, whether it be within fcp, cinema tools (which i have never used), or AE i do want to learn I just have never doen this process and have an hour to figure it out – sorry to have pissed off or annoyed you guys – i get your point.

Lisa

[Lisa Rolley]

HEy guys,

So i ingested at 29.97 and got some info – it was shot on film @ 24fps and then transferred to Digi – going frame by frame i dont see any duplicate frames but correct me if iam wrong in order to make it 29.97 pull-down was added no?

I will hand these files to the producer and see what they want to do next if its meant to be worked with in AE @ 24fps. I will recommend that they have there AE person to do this in that I have never used FCP or Cinema Tools to do this process – in the meantime I will pick up the MANUAL and read up on how to for the future : )

Best

Lisa