DV footage goes dark when compressed to MP2…. Why?

[Danny Dodge]

Dennis,
I hate to say it, but I’ve been dealing with this for two to three years. I just finally wised up enough to ask if anyone else had the same problem. Now, finally, I don’t think I’m crazy anymore thanks to you and the other guys on this thread. I honestly thought I had a bug there for a while. You know this kinda stuff is enough to make a guy wanna toss FCP and get something that’s consistent. That’s hard core, coming from me.

Thanks for the input!

And as for Jon’s post, he forgot to mention that my telephone number is 667-2997. Get it … “29.97” It must be destiny, I didn’t request that number. A friend brought it to my attention : )
Thanks again,
Danny

[Chris Poisson]

Well that’s true I guess, would be great if it would feed a monitor. Must admit I have had to trial and error using the filters, but I have got excellent results doing so.

You might look at Squeeze though, it has a preset gamma filter that works pretty well.

Have a wonderful day.

[Ron James]

Danny, sorry for my ignorance, but where does Sorenson 3 fit into the workflow? I was thinking you export a ref. movie and then open that in DVDSP for the conversion?

Thanks for all your great info in this thread.

G5 Dual 2.7 GHz
2 GB RAM
OS 10.4.6
FCP 5.0.4
QT 7.0.4

[Danny Dodge]

I think it was just a side track. Someone suggested using Sorensen. You can export using the Sorensen codec through Quicktime Conversions. You still have to convert that to mp2 which, although it looks pretty decent, is just another step and an additional compression which will introduce additional compression artifacts. I don’t suggest doing it.

This has been a good thread and I appreciate everyone’s participation. I believe, no matter how long I’ve been doing this type of work or how much I think I know, there’s always someone who could teach me a thing or two.
Thanks again,
Danny