how accurate are the internal scopes in FCP S2????

[Walter Biscardi]

Internal scopes are all we use. They’re quite accurate, not perfect, but quite accurate.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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[Joe Procopio]

and what is your target medium? broadcast? web? if broadcast, what stations?

Broadway Video, NYC
AVID/FCP editor/engineer

[Craig Sommerer]

The number one reason to disregard the internal software scopes is they do not measure the signal from the output device as a hardware scope would downstream of any sort of a PCIe based I/O card. How is that accurate?

I work as a video engineer/camera shader with thousands of live shows broadcast internationally, nationally and regionally. I can’t do my job without proper hardware video signal measurement. If you’re making money on your business providing programming for broadcast, there is no excuse for not having hardware scopes.

Some feel the FCP/Color scopes are accurate, I wouldn’t go that far.

[Joe Procopio]

that’s what I’m looking for…I need ammo for my financial guys to purchase some…we have 2 Smokes, 2 Symphony Nitris’, 5 MCAs, 4 FCPs, and 4 After Effects stations that can do HD, and only 1 HD scope…

“they” want to rent them as needed, but we have a 5 month HD project that will be on 2-4 FCPs, can’t rent scopes for 2-4 months without coming close to the purchase price…

I need more real world experience with these scopes.

We are a professional post house, but it is hard to get the right equipment to do the job at sometimes…

Broadway Video, NYC
AVID/FCP editor/engineer

[Walter Biscardi]

[Joe Procopio] “and what is your target medium? broadcast? web? if broadcast, what stations? “

Food Network HD, PBS HD, The Weather Channel HD, & NBC BluRay commercial replication. We have more shows in development for about 6 other networks, all HD programming. We also have three feature length documentaries booked for 2009 that are slated for theatrical release.

We’ve delivered over 80 to 100 HD Masters now for HD broadcast and have never had a show rejected. No external scopes at all, we only use the FCP internals and Color’s scopes.

I put our money towards things like better HD Monitors and VTRs instead of the Scopes.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
Read my Blog!

[Craig Sommerer]

Joe,

I’m going to completely disagree with Walter, again, on this subject. The built-in scopes on FCP and Color are woefully inadequate for the job a scope is designed to do which is measure the video signal. Again, they don’t touch what is happening downstream of the output device, whatever that is. I don’t have scopes at home (I’m not making money on products for clients on my household rig) but I would trust an old Tektronix component analog fed a downconverted signal from my Kona LHe a lot sooner than I would the software Apple scopes.

How many of your operators actually know how to properly read that instrumentation? I worked at one facility and my video area needed a sdi scope to replace a dead scope. I stole one from the flotilla of Avid rooms as those guys rarely turned their scopes on. They never knew.

I spent today staring at a pitiful Harris/Videotek VTM series rasterizer. Yesterday I was working with a nice Leader LV5700A but my favorite hd scope is a Tektronix WFM 7120. The lcd trace looks as close to a crt trace as one can get. These products are expensive but it’s the cost of doing business. Monitors hide things that scopes will reveal.

At the very least, I would think you’d want hardware on your finishing machines.

[Joseph Owens]

I’d be curious to know what HBO and HDNet think about that.

Networks that actually reject things…. you know…

jPo

This IS my blog!

[Craig Sommerer]

Joe,

More ammo for you in your quest for hardware scopes. Note what the poster says about the internal scopes.

https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/98/870788