Cannot import 720P/30PN files to Media 100

[Wickham Strub]

Rawn,

I forget… have we discussed you getting us some of this footage so we can take a look?

~Wick

[Rawn Fulton]

Wick – no discussion yet – files still on my P2 card. FYI, Just found a post (https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/4/863970#863970) by Todd Bunnell from 3 Sept, answered by Jim Wilcox as follows:

“For now Media 100 cannot deal with 720p30n. Really the only work around is to cut in another NLE or run the footage thru Compressor to bring it back to 59.94 (which is 30p with 2:2 pulldown). ”

Is this true? If so, why not make Media 100 720P/30PN compliant? It works with 720P/24PN. I prefer the 30PN look to 24PN for pure video applications, and it saves a ton of storage space over 30P.

Thanls,

Rawn

[Wickham Strub]

[Rawn Fulton] “why not make Media 100 720P/30PN compliant? “

I can’t say whether it’s a deliberate choice or not. I’ll run it by the Engineers on Tuesday (we’re closed Monday for Columbus Day). I’m not going to make any predictions until I run it by them.

I’ll let you know how that goes.

~Wick

[Rawn Fulton]

Wick, Further to my last – re. getting you a sample from me – I’m not sure this is necessary, as I believe you mentioned you have an HVX200. My clips would be exactly the same as any you could create by setting your camera to 720P/30PN in the CAMERA MENU / 5. RECORDING SETUP / REC FORMAT P2- select 720P/30PN. Shoot a few seconds to P2 and see what happens when you try to import via Duel Adapter to a Macbook Pro setup. Is this possible for you? Also, did you get my earlier response to your Optical Stabilizer request, and other issues?
Thanks,
Rawn

[Wickham Strub]

You’re correct, we do have that camera. So it should be an easy test for us to do.

In regards to your email, yes, I got that.

[Rawn Fulton]

Excellent – I really hope M100 can activate the 720P/30PN format – for 3 serious, real-world reasons.

1. Despite current film-look fashion, video records and plays back more smoothly at 30fps that at 24fps. So unless theatrical release in film format is intended, I still prefer 30 over 24fps for purely video distribution. At least, I want to have the option to choose for myself.

2. 30PN, in the P2 world, gives you around 2 minutes of video per gig of storage – similar to 24PN’s 2 1/2 minutes per gig. ANY OTHER FORMAT uses 1 GIG per MINUTE !!! – in which case there is almost (see #3) no point in shooting 720P/30P or 24P – we might as well shoot 1080i or P, since it is the highest quality and you’re burning up a gig a minute anyway.

3. 30PN, like 24PN, has better low-light capability than 1080i, so for documentary work, the extra 1/3 to 1/2 stop can be very helpful.

In my view, 30PN is the best of both worlds – smooth capture and playback, doubled storage capacity – both with P2 on location, and later on the hard drives in the edit suite – and more shooting latitude. Even with the new E series P2 cards, P2 storage isn’t cheap, so doubled capacity without loss of quality – in low-light instances, even better quality – is significant.

Thanks for listening – we are starting a new project and would like to use 720P/30PN if possible. We have already shot aerials of the client site in this format, only to discover that we can’t so far use them. (My bad – of course I should have run a test first, but didn’t think it necessary and we were short of time before the flight, which came up on very short notice.) Can this footage be saved?

[Jim Wilcox]

Rawn & Wick,

We have been hoping for this as well. I did send Matt P2 720/30PN footage (on DVD formatted as a P2 card would be) to pass along to engineering this summer. As of right now the only way to deal with this footage is to import thru FCP and then run it through compressor to add 2:2 so M100 sees it as 59.94 footage. Not a solution for anything but the most brief projects. Really looking forward to media 100’s solution.

[John Twigt]

Is there any hope for an update for this ?

I hope the inclusion of 720/25 PN will be possible too soon. For the reasons mentioned in Rawn’s post we’re sometimes shooting in 25PN and we’re forced to use FCP (not my first choice) because putting all the footage through an compressor batch is taking too long for the footage of a 2 hour show from 3 camera’s.

John Twigt
Workstation BV, Amsterdam
The Netherlands
http://www.workstation.nl

[Rawn Fulton]

Wick,

We’ve been out of touch for almost a month… What’s happening on 720/30PN + Boris optical stabilization integration into Media 100?

Thanks,

Rawn

[John Twigt]

Any news on the implementation of the 30N and 25N footage?

John Twigt
Workstation BV, Amsterdam
The Netherlands
http://www.workstation.nl