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considering LH/codec/graphics queries
I have come to FCP after working with Avid for some years. The setup I am using needs some attention in terms of capture card and I am contemplating the Kona LH. Generally we work in dv tape but have archive tapes also on Beta SP. With avid it was simple in as much as all video was sucked in 2:1 and used the avid Meridian compressor even if the footage was dv although most of it was digi beta.
With the current system(FCP v5) I use firewire and edit using the dv pal. If I create any graphics in Motion, no matter how I render them out, they get transcoded to the pal dv codec when imported into FCP. I was thinking that the Kona easy setup options would allow for something that would be kinder to graphics but obviously using the card to capture dv footage would not improve it and potentially I would lose some of the benefits of editing in the native codec and may result in larger file sizes without any improvement in quality.
I am thinking that sometime in the future I will look to working in hd, so the card would be of useful in that way also. Does anybody have any thoughts on the above.
Many thanks
Dom Richardson
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4 Replies
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[Dominic Richardson] “I was thinking that the Kona easy setup options would allow for something that would be kinder to graphics but obviously using the card to capture dv footage would not improve it and potentially I would lose some of the benefits of editing in the native codec and may result in larger file sizes without any improvement in quality.”
OK…but if you captured this as DV50, or Uncompressed 8-bit, your DV footage wouldn’t benefit from this, but your Motion renders sure would. Just like capturing DV as 2:1 in Avid…it isn’t capturing it at a low data rate, but rather the high end Avid codec, so other things rendered in that codec would look good too. The native DV codec is rough…especially on graphics. So if you want clean graphics, test capturing and working in a DV50 (DVCPRO 50) or Uncompressed 8-bit codec.
Shane
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http://www.LFHD.net
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I have rendered the graphics on a sequences set to both DV 50 and uncompressed 8 bit and that cetainly helps. Are you saying that dv footage wouldn’t be improved by capturing in the above ways, unless it is then imported into motion and worked on?
Thanks
Dom
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The DV footage will never be any better than it already is on tape. When you digitize DV over FW into FCP, all you’re really doing is making copy of the file as it already exists on the tape. If you digitize it over SDI or component to a higher bandwidth codec, you’re actually recompressing it to the new codec.
Arnie
Post production is not an afterthought!
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[Arnie Schlissel] “If you digitize it over SDI or component to a higher bandwidth codec, you’re actually recompressing it to the new codec.”
Exactly. The only benefit for this is that your motion graphics will look better. But, what you can do, is capture DV native via firewire, edit, cut in the motion graphics…and then when you lock picture, copy and paste the sequence into a DV50 or Uncompressed 8-bit timeline and render. This way your Motion Graphics will re-render to the higher data rate.
worth testing.
Shane
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http://www.LFHD.net
Read my blog!
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