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How to make Time Code Window DVD from P2 quick & easy?
I miss the old days of tape! I am a freelance DP, sometimes I produce and will edit on my FCP system. However, clients often request a time code window DVD to pick takes. I used to connect my betacam deck to a $200 DVD burner from Best Buy, hit play and record, set a kitchen timer for 30 minutes, turn on the TV and pop open a beer. Now what?????
If I won’t be editing the job, meaning I won’t be making money on the post, why would I want to ingest all the footage and take all this time to make a DVD? Is there a simpler way? Can I use the camera, in my case a HPX300 and play back all the clips contiguously with TC out?
It seems the Sony XDCAM system using discs would be easier, more like betacam, no?
Any tips to expedite this process will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Ned
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7 Replies
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Dunno if the camera has that option. But if you use FCP, then you can either string out the footage, add a TC reader, then output via capture card to a DVD-recorder. Or string out the cut, export a QT reference movie, use Compressor to compress for DVD, and use the Timecode filter in there to make the code…oh, no, that will only show SEQUENCE code, not CLIP code. Gotta add the code in FCP, render, then output to Compressor then to DVD SP. Or just a ref movie for DVD SP to make a DVD direct, but the quality will be lower…which might be fine.
Shane
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What’s up Ned?
I just looked at the HPX300 manual and it looks like it will output a standard def analog signal with TC visible.
Alternatively you could hook up the video out and the time-code out to a Horita TC reader (if you still have it laying around) and run that into your DVD burner.
Then you just set you timer for the total length of your footage and, if it was a long shooting day, have a six pack because you don’t have to change tape every 30 mins.
Best,
Gabe
Hatfield Post/Production, Inc.
819 W. Superior
Chicago, IL 60622
312-226-3200
312-226-3211
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Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Board of Directors
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group -
On my HPX-170 I can playback clips with timecode display to a monitor by pressing the OSD button on the remote.
I can playback clips with timecode display to a monitor on my HPX-500 by switching the Output Character button to ON.
The HPX-300 I believe has that feature. The switch is left of the ch selects on the bottom.
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Board of Directors
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group -
Even the HVX-200 will do this.
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Thanks Gabe! I do still have my old Horita time code reader. But what if I reformat the cards after dumping it to a hard drive? Then I can’t just play from the camera. Oh well. I’ll just tell them to have their editor do it.
Best regards,
Ned
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Of course out of the camera straight into a DVD recorder is the best option, but if you’re stuck working from files I’ve yet to come up with a truly quick and easy way to do this.
Adding the TC filter in FCP seems to be the best way to go but takes time and eats up 2-3 times the disk space.
If you have the means to use your MXF content directly in Compressor (I use Raylight but I think there are better options these days) then you can encode to MPEG2 and add a timecode filter (which is not as easy to see as the one in FCP) in the same pass. Problem here is, adding lots of clips into a track in DVD Studio Pro is a royal pain. Very frequently the audio clip is a frame or two shorter than the video, which multiplied by tens of clips, leads you to have very out-of-sync audio unless you check and adjust each clip.
Perhaps I should try using some tool to MUX the files before DVDSP… but then that’s adding back in a step although it would be a lot faster and more disk-space efficient than duping the original media in FCP.-Adam
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Video Photographer / Avid & Final Cut Editor
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