POLL – who would use DPX or Image sequence capture in Decklink.

[Neil Sadwelkar]

I’ve just finished the grade of a 90 min feature shot and edited on DVCProHD using Framelink and DPX.

The workflow…
1. Flattened QT as DVCProHD 720p24 submitted to us.
2. Broke it into 20 min movies. Still DVCProHD.
3. Exported each ‘reel’ as uncompressed QT Blackmagic HDTV 720p23.98
4. Converted these into DPX with Framelink. QT TC not carried into DPX.
5. Copied these to Lustre. This takes aaaagggeeesss.
6. Graded in Lustre.
7. Took Lustre renders to Framelink and converted to QT – uncompressed QT Blackmagic HDTV 720p23.98
8, Output this to D-5 via FCP.

Framelink works well but finder takes ages to show up the 30,000 odd frames that make up a 20 min ‘reel’. Drag copying too takes very long and one needs to hold down the mouse button after drag till it ‘registers’.

And Framelink doesn’t seem to work well over the network. Meaning if DPX files are on another station, then mounting them to your system over even GigE doesn’t happen. I’ve had to copy them locally before Framelinking them into a QT.

Anyway, coming back to the topic, capture as DPX would be worthwhile if only because…
1. There’s an entire body of people who believe Uncompressed QT is simply not ‘as uncompressed as’ DPX. For them, capture to DPX would be the ‘final solution.’
2. DPX timecode should be supported so one can use them meaningfully in an edit or conform.

Capture as jpg, tga, tiff or j2000 seq is of limited use IMHO. Why? We have Quicktime don’t we?

Neil

[Kristian Lam]

[Georg Misch] “Maybe Blackmagic could implement a menue dialogue system where one can specify where the DPX files should be moved to, rather than having to do drag and drop.”

Has anyone tried doing something like this in Automator or Applescript?

regards

Kristian Lam
Blackmagic Design

[Kristian Lam]

Thanks guys. Keep the ideas coming, we’re listening. 🙂

regards

Kristian Lam
Blackmagic Design

[Neil Sadwelkar]

I tried Automator. It chokes. Its just that if you have a folder or a FrameLink volume, just listing about 30,000 frames takes a while. Even in Terminal a ‘ls’ command to see the frames takes a while. Doing a ‘cp’ is about as slow/fast as drag copying.

Definitely the OS. WinXP shows ip folders with a large number of frames faster.

Besides, if the DPX files are on a network drive, then Framlink fails on conversion. Maybe it ‘times out’ or maybe the OS gives up.

I’d prefer a File > Open Image Sequence in QT Player and then the resulting movie saved would carry the timecode.

Haven’t tried AppleScript.

Neil

[Justin Tan]

Would LOVE capture to DPX – only problem is QT does NOT support DPX files at all, and from what I have seen, plugins are limited in what they can do (IE converting internally to 8 bit before displaying)

the other major problem is that FC does NOT support file sequences in any way or form; something I believe is rediculous…I hate the fact that I can’t import a DPX sequence adjusted in shake for film burn to ensure that there are no bad frames… but heck that’s for another time…

If you wanted to get picky, a BM QT imported and rexported (via shake) and then compared via difference test will NOT be exactly the same, there are very minor changes but it is not visible to the eye – only via numbers – again it is so minor though that it is not a concern…. a DPX how ever is the same…

I’ve heard rumours that we might hear something at NAB about the ability to import DPX, but I ain’t going to hold my breath…