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Media 100 to FCP
My company just purchased a G5 dual 2.7 yesterday with additional 1 GB RAM. Of course, I’m eager to use it. I have an edit starting on Tuesday with a longstanding client who is shooting 24p in 16:9 on DV50. We don’t yet have our Blackmagic card so I would have to capture through firewire. This will be for broadcast.
My question is, is there any reason I couldn’t do this edit right now in FCP using the DV50 capture codec? If not, I’ll have to edit in Media 100, which is what we’ve done up to this point. I’m proficient in FCP so that’s not an issue. My question is really about quality of signal. We need to output to beta through a Sony 40 DVCAM deck with component.
Thanks,
Bugsy -
12 Replies
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Bugsy,
If you can only capture via firewire you will need the Panasonic AJ-SD93 vtr with the firewire card. This deck plays back DVCPRO 50, DVCPRO and DVCAM.
Are you delivering a 16×9 anamorphic master? Is so don’t output to betacam you should output back to dvcpro 50 or other digital format to maintain the maximum resolution. Using the DSR-40 to loop thru to the betacam deck is not the most ideal method to maintain image quality instead of waiting for a video card that can output component analog directly to the vtr.
Tony Salgado
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If you’re concerned about quality, going through a DVCam deck and using it’s component outputs is a bad idea.
I assume your Media 100 has component output.
Here’s what I’d do. Capture using the DV50 codec over firewire. When the edit is finished, output the sequence using the Media 100 lossless codec. They JUST made their codec openly available for anyone to use without the need for their hardware. You can download it from their site.
Then just open up that exported file on the Media 100 box and output to Beta.
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Even further, given that it’s being shot DVCPro50, it should be mastered to at least that standard, and BetaSP is way below that standard.
Graeme
– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects for FCP
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Well, that all depends. BetaSP is uncompressed quality – but analog. A lot of places still ask for things delivered on BetaSP.
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“Well, that all depends. BetaSP is uncompressed quality – but analog. A lot of places still ask for things delivered on BetaSP”
BetaSP is definately not uncompressed. It has about 3/4 of the luma resolution of an fully uncompressed SD video signal, and about 1/3 of the chroma resolution and is noisier. Anywhere that asks for a master on BetaSP is doing so because they’re living in the past and haven’t been able to afford to upgrade to better digital equipment. Any TV station that wants video in a quality modern format will request Digital Betacam and refuse BetaSP.
If you’re interested in a comparison which shows what BetaSP look like compared to Digital Betacam and how inferior it is, can I direct you to this I wrote: https://www.nattress.com/Chroma_Investigation/chromasampling.htm
Graeme
– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects for FCP
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Graeme,
I must agree digi beta is the most ideal way to go for a broadcast master but many paid broadcast programming is still accepted on betacam sp. Betacam SP will be for quite some years a delivery format as well as a standard workhorse in many broadcast and corporate sectors.
Most stations are not even playing back off tape anymore as they have switched over to servers for playback of all their programming. Delivering a broadcast master with the least amount of compression makes a major difference considering the additional compression which will take place via the playback server.
Tony Salgado
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Totally agreed. I was just pointing out that out of all the currently available formats that people master to, BetaSP is arguably the worst looking. I’d hate anyone to shoot something on DVCpro50 and master to BetaSP instead of DVCpro50 thinking that they’re keeping the master in the best quality possible. And indeed given that all the digital formats are in some way compressed, one of the worst things you can do is then move the video to a highly compressed analogue format, adding together the worst of the analogue and digital realms.
Sure, if the station needs it on SP because they’re poor, then fine, but master to the DVCpro50 and make an SP dub for the station. It’s the comment above that BetaSP is “uncompressed” which leads to people I know in our local industry doing some pretty strange things in terms of choice of personal archive mastering formats in a misguided belief they’re preserving things in the best looking format, and will state such BS as “BetaSP is 4:2:2 uncompressed” which it is most plainly and obviously not.
Graeme
– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects for FCP
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I appreciate all the help! You’ve answered my questions.
Unfortunately the client is requesting Beta SP to send to the dub house for distribution. Not the best format I know. But at least we’re starting with great quality and editing in great quality. It’s still going to look better than the 16:9 DVCAM we’re used to.
Thanks again!Bugsy
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Bugsy,
If you are delivering a 16×9 anamorphic master do not send a betacam sp dub.
You are much better off delivering in DVCAM,DVCPRO 50, or digi betacam in this case.You should deliver a letterboxed version for betacam sp.
Tony Salgado
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You should deliver a letterboxed version for betacam sp.
Why?
Dajen Productions
Santa Barbara, CA
G5 Dual 2 Gig – AJA IO
Huge 1.2 Raid
FCP 4.5-OS X 10.3.8-QT 6.5
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