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Hardware upres workflow question
We are offlining a film shot in anamorphic DVCAM that will be onlined in HD (where we will add HD graphics) and ultimately export to HDCAM.
The post house we are talking to said the only way to upres via a hardware converter (Terenex) is to recapture from the camera tapes. We would really like to avoid recapture(over a hundred tapes), and some of our footage is from file and not tape anyway.
Is there a way to patch in a hardware converter to go from file to file without recapturing? I suppose we could output the offline to dbeta and put that thru the terenex, but that would lose the clips and handles… Would an AJA or Blackmagic box be any different?
thanks for any thoughts.
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7 Replies
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I think most folks would say the Teranex is the best hardware approach followed closely by Kona 3. Not sure if Teranex works with a file-based workflow. Kona doesn’t. You’d have to use Compressor (or other software) to up-convert. The reason to go with hardware is it will be superior quality compared to software up-rezing DVCAM.
John
MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.8 QT7.6.4 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 3 (FCP 7.0.1, Motion 4.0.1, Comp 3.5.1, DVDSP 4.2.2, Color 1.5.1)Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO & 192 Digital I/O, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN
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YOu won’t be capturing the FULL tapes…just the parts in the timeline. This is typical offline/online workflow. Recapture footage from timeline with handles. You could use a Terranex…that would require a LOT of prep time, an EDL, tapes taken to a post facility, dubbing them over. time consuming. Or you can use a Kona 3, LHi, or Matrox MXO2 and their hardware upconvert after you media manage the cut to include only handles. That is the tapes.
Tapeless stuff will have to be done separately with Compressor.
OR…output everything minus graphics to tape…use a terranex on that tape, or capture with a Kona card the full tape. Then add graphics to the holes.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
I do it all the time: offline to online. And the way Shane describes it is certainly correct. There’s a funcion in the media manager to “make offline.” It’s poorly named, because it doesn’t mean “take my project offline.” No, it means create a new project, from a selected timeline (sequence) and create a new one that has no media attached to it. Then setup your system to capture in the resolution you want. We use Kona cards. However, we’re going from HDCAM to ProRes Proxy to something with less compression, Prores 422 or 8- or 10-bit uncompressed. I’m not a big fan of trying to make something like DV bigger. Smallest I’ve ever used to make a film release print or DI has been Digital BetaCam.
Non-linear: all the time and nothing but.
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Thanks guys for your suggestions. We’ve done the media managed recapture many times, and usually there are issues with TC or tape names or whatever (not to mention billable hours at the post house). hoping to avoid that since we already have the QT files on a HD.
With today’s cameras and workflows you can’t assume that typical projects originate on tape, so it’s really stunning to me that a terenex or other hardware converter can’t be patched in some way to accept a signal from file or played out of a file-based system. Talk about instant obsolescence.
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You can play from one machine to the other. Kona out to Kona in, or something. But the point of hardware converters is that they are converting a signal that is being fed to them. THAT is how the hardware gets a hold of the signal.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Thanks, Shane. I didn’t think of that even thought I’ve used that workflow. We have a G5 with AJA IO and a MacPro with Kona 3. I’ve captured SD into the IO via component analog then sent the SDI output of the IO to the Kona3 to capture. You even capture timecode if you let the Kona control the SD deck.
John
MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.8 QT7.6.4 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 3 (FCP 7.0.1, Motion 4.0.1, Comp 3.5.1, DVDSP 4.2.2, Color 1.5.1)Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO & 192 Digital I/O, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN
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If your film is DV and has been captured in native res, why dont lay it out to a DVCAM submaster and then run that thru the Terenex and get your HD master. It’s all native res from in to out. No need to do an traditional capture from tape.
I bet they’re billing by the hour.
CHL
Chi-Ho Lee
Film & Television Editor
Apple Certified Final Cut Pro Trainer
http://www.chiholee.com
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