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  • compression codec for both Mac & PC?

    Posted by Alisa Placas on April 13, 2005 at 3:52 pm

    I finally got all kinds of techno kinks worked out in my HD workflow.
    DVCPro HD is great. It is making my animations completely manageable.
    Of course, there had to be a catch.
    Ends up my online editor is on a PC system. DVCPro HD is for Macs only, right?

    I need a codec to render animations to in After Effects on my Mac that will transfer to an online editor on a PC.
    I know there are non-compession codecs that will work.
    I really need a compression codec though.

    My system can’t handle playing back uncompressed HD. And I have ONE HD project. I already bought a new G5 for this project and the budget is not big enough for me to also buy a raid array (which I would only need for this one project). The producers are new to HD and failed to recognize that EVERYTHING is more expensive in HD, including the graphics. They did not leave much for graphics.

    I can view DVCPro HD animations via my Blackmagic Decklink HD Pro card on a HD CRT monitor and everything looks great. It chokes on the uncompressed Blackmagic codec or Animation codec animations though.
    I am fearful of ‘checking’ my stuff DVCPro HD but then outputting and delivering something that is uncompressed and that I have not actually ‘seen’ myself. It is starting to look like my only option though. Is it?!?

    Time is running out before I have to deliver these!
    Thanks for any help….

    Alisa

    Alisa Placas replied 19 years, 10 months ago 397 Members · 2 Replies
  • 2 Replies
  • Alisa Placas

    April 14, 2005 at 4:01 pm

    Thanks for replying, Dave.

    Unfortunately, the editor is in Canada and I am in Boston.
    I have spoken to him though and he told me to deliver 1920x1080i 29.97 upper field first. He can take animation codec quicktimes or targa sequences. The quicktimes are preferred because none of my offline editors like working with targa sequences.

    So, I can deliver that. I have the codec. It just produces ENORMOUS files.
    The stuff I am working with is all moves on paintings and etchings and watercolors….few of which are of outstanding quality, so that is why I was trying to make my life easier and just go with a compressed codec.

    I CAN preview and check all my animations compressed as DVCPro HD on an HD monitor and then rerender them as lossless animation quicktimes for the online. I am just a bit uncomfortable delivering something that I’ve never watched (in that codec) and won’t play on my system.

    I have to figure that he should be able to handle the massive files since he IS in a fully decked-out HD editing suite with all the power one needs to drive those. And I have to guess that there won’t be any surprise moires or jittering in the lossless versions that didn’t show up in the DVCPro versions.
    At this point, that seems like all I can do. Am I imagining a problem where one doesn’t really exist??
    ( I hope so! )

  • Alisa Placas

    April 14, 2005 at 7:11 pm

    Thanks again, Dave.
    When you work alone all the time, sometimes you just need someone else to assure you that what you are doing is right.
    I research until I “think” I am sure about something, but then it takes a load of weight off to have another person double-check and agree with your final conclusions.

    Alisa.

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