Exporting to Betacam SP

[Jon Barrie]

Betacam is a Professional Broadcast Quality Format. It uses a Serial connection and not FW. It has component output/input via SDI so I think you’re outta luck with your software based system. Betacam decks are extremely expensive and most prod co’s don’t own one. Hiring is expensive too, then you need the Hardware to talk to it (AJA, Black Magic, Matrox AXIO to name a few).
If I need to do that I go to a Big Post House that charges to put a Video file from a HDD out to the Betacam maching. It’s not cheap so be aware it will cost you $$$ no matter how you transfer.
I usually export my video to Uncompressed AVI or QT Animation codec. These two digital formats are lossless. QT Animation can be smaller in data size than Uncmopressed AVI. Ask the Post House what they prefer. There systems will be setup for RT playback and optimized for certain file codecs.
Hope that helps.

Jon Barrie
aJBprods
http://www.jonbarrie.net

[Clyde Villegas]

[Jon Barrie] “Betacam is a Professional Broadcast Quality Format. It uses a Serial connection and not FW. It has component output/input via SDI so I think you’re outta luck with your software based system.”

Thanks Jon! But do you mean big post production houses don’t use Premiere Pro and other software based systems? What do they use?

ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus

[Jon Barrie]

I’m not saying that they don’t use the same software. Matrox AXIO is only for Premiere Pro. AJA is for Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro. Then there are Avid (which has it’s own hardware solutions) and is the most popular system in Big Prod Houses. A video file is a video file. Hardware is available for many softwares.
At the end of the day you need to put your video onto Betacam. Nobody knows what you cut it on or even care. If you had the right hardware you can use Premiere to go to Betacam. Black Magic and Matrox AXIO are the two most popular Full HD Hardware for Premiere Pro.

Jon Barrie
aJBprods
http://www.jonbarrie.net

[Jeff Brown]

BetaCam comes in 2 variations: BetaCamSP, and BetaCam Digital (commonly called DigiBeta). DigiBeta has SDI in/out. BOTH have component in/out, which will produce a perfectly fine recording.
Neither have Firewire connections. BetaSP also has 3 variants: the BVW series, the PVW series, and the UVW series. The recording specs for the BVW and PVW are a little bit better than the UVW series.

Important note: DigiBeta will play BetaSP (analog) tapes, but the analog decks will not play DigiBeta tapes.

For deck control, you would need an RS-422 connection to your system. You can just “crash record” without the RS-422: hit record on the deck, wait about 10 seconds, then hit “play” in Premiere. This does not give you a professional leader, though (color bars, tone, etc., at exact timecode points).

Both analog and digital Beta decks want house sync, but you can probably provide this by sending composite out from your system to the Reference In of the deck.

You should be able to rent a Beta deck for about $250 – $450 a day, depending on the deck & your market.

I have had a PVW deck for almost 15 years now; though anymore I use it about once every 6 months.

-jeff

[David Erwin]

I have a black magic card on order so I can import the company’s legacy footage off of betacam and other formats.

If I decided to export back to tape (out of a 1080i project) would Premiere automatically do a down convert or will that be dependent on the capabilities of the black magic card

thanks
de

[Dave Friend]

It will depend on the BMD card.

[Clyde Villegas]

[Jeff Brown] “For deck control, you would need an RS-422 connection to your system. You can just “crash record” without the RS-422: hit record on the deck, wait about 10 seconds, then hit “play” in Premiere.”

What is RS422? Is it an interface card? If I install it, will Premiere talk to the deck like it talks to my miniDV recorder?

[Jeff Brown] “I have had a PVW deck for almost 15 years now; though anymore I use it about once every 6 months.”

Since you use it every 6 months, then most of your clients must be requiring some formats other than Betacam. What do most of them require? Here in the Philippines, whenever I talk to some friends and acquaintances in ad agencies and television networks, they tell me they almost always require Betacam. Is this also true for the U.S.?

ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus

[Jeff Brown]

RS-422 is a type of serial connection. Typically, a video I/O card (like AJA or BlackMagic) will have this connection for deck control.

Most of my work is short-form animation and visual effects; I’ve been able to demonstrate to my clients that importing a digital file to their systems provides the highest quality. But– they are the ones doing the final edit.
So, I don’t have to do much in the way of broadcast deliverables, but for SD work here in the states, Digital BetaCam would probably be the most common deliverable.

The important thing is: if your client wants BetaCam, give them BetaCam!

-jeff

[Clyde Villegas]

[Jeff Brown] “but for SD work here in the states, Digital BetaCam would probably be the most common deliverable.”

How about HD, what is the most common delivery format? Thanks Jeff.

ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus