P2 workflow and video IO on Mac Pro

[Shane Ross]

Blackmagic Multibridge and an HD monitor, or you can downconvert to an SD monitor, but it won’t look as good.

I am using a Decklink HD card and a Sony PVM-14L5 with HD SDI card.

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net

[Margus Voll]

ok but how it works?

you copy stuff from P2 card and import it to FCP.
then edit as usually with video ?
and output with DL HD.

What kind of array you use?

Margus.

[Noah Kadner]

An array is not needed- the Decklink has direct support for DVCPROHD and works fine from internal SATA drives FW800 and even FW400 though I highly recommend something faster. For example a nice G-Raid would give you better performance but again not essential. It pretty much works as advertised. Piece of cake. Just make sure to get a good HD monitor.

Noah

[Margus Voll]

Hi.

I have this in mind as array:

https://www.caldigit.com/S2VRPro.asp

Maybe when wallet gets fater then some other array 🙂

What would be decent HD monitor?
Apple 30″ as it can be hooked to Multibridge Extreme?

Margus.

[Shane Ross]

Watch my tutorial on how to properly import and work with P2 footage in FCP:

https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/page_wrapper.cgi?forumid=8&page=https://www.creativecow.net/articles/ross_shane/p2_workflow/index.html

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net

[Shane Ross]

[Margus] “I have this in mind as array:

” target=”_blank”>https://www.caldigit.com/S2VRPro.asp”

That is WAY overkill for DVCPRO HD. Fine for uncompressed 10-bit HD 4:4:4, but really you will not ever need the power this offers. DVCPRO HD is an 8-bit colorspace codec, so the highest you will ever need to go to work with this and output to HDCAM or D5 is uncompressed 8-bit HD.

A good SATA Raid from Weibetech or Sonnet tech or Firmtek will serve you well.

[Margus] “What would be decent HD monitor?
Apple 30″ as it can be hooked to Multibridge Extreme”

Computer monitors are never good color correction monitors. You need an HD CRT and the lowest end is the PVM-14L5. But they are hard to find as they have been discontinued, but they are still out there.

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net

[Margus Voll]

Hi.
This was really clarifying things up 🙂

Wanted to ask just how well does P2 material key (greenscreen)

Margus.

[Shane Ross]

I had some issues with it. But it depends on what your footage looks like. DVGarage has DVMattePro which can do wonders, but I had a lot of motion blurring that it didn’t cut thru. I ended up using Shake and keylght, but you can use AE and keylight…you just need to make a hold out matte.

Here is a blog on my exploits with that issue:

https://homepage.mac.com/comeback/iblog/Work/B787268209/C836512295/E20060630005948/index.html

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net

[Margus Voll]

So the problem is more motion blur on stuff than DVCPRO codeq?
I would go with Combustion keyer.

In theory uncompressed would be ideal for key (4:4:4 RGB)
Or this is owerkill also ?

Margus.

[Noah Kadner]

Problem is you’re not shooting uncompressed unless you tether an array to the camera and record the component output directly- and bypass P2 and DVCPROHD. Much less mobility but better quality if you need it for the compositing.

Noah