Projecting app pro res 1920 x 1080, 29.97 .mov files at live event

[Mark Beazley]

How big is the screen going to be; personally I do not feel that projector has enough light output (lumens) to get you the image you want.

Make sure the resolution of your laptop or computer output matches the projector; you will probably want 1920×1080 @ 60hz; for color I generally use the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 for projectors or switchers.

The only other factor to consider it making sure you have enough hard drive bandwidth to reliably play the ProRes movie back.

You may want to check into a program called “Playback Pro”.

-mark

[Walter Soyka]

It’s worth noting that ProRes is not included in the default Quicktime installation; the full codec is installed only with Final Cut Studio.

The ProRes decoder is also available as a separate, free download from Apple. If you don’t have FCP on the Mac Pro, you’ll need this for playback.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Magda Fernandez]

Thanks, Mark. Based on my recollection, the screen is not very large, around 10 feet wide. My .mov files are in 16:9 format. If we darken the lecture hall while the videos play, will the lumens of the Panasonic PT-AE2000U projector be adequate?

The color of my .mov videos look true in the 1.8 Gamma color profile. When I viewed them in sRGB IEC61966-2.1, the colors looked garish. Any recommendations?

I checked out Playback Pro and it looks great. Where can I get the USB Enabler Key? Without it, I’m limited to the demo mode with watermark.

[Magda Fernandez]

All good points, Walter, which I’ve learned before the hard way. Thanks for your help.

[Walter Soyka]

You can order the Playback Pro Enabler Key from the same DT Video Labs site you found the demo on.

Color management is somewhat tricky; projection will represent your colors somewhat differently than your computer monitor does.

Mac OS X has a basic by-eye calibrator built into the Display preference panel. If sRGB doesn’t look right on-site, you might try running the calibrator.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Mark Beazley]

Yes if you get the lecture hall really dark you should be fine with that projector.

-mark

[Andy Stinton]

In my experience color matching a projector is an on-site art. Each projector and company have their own peculiarities. Add to this the number of hours on the bulb and it’s a true fun fest of onsite tweaking.

Was your source material shot in HD?

Andy Stinton
Corporate Video
Live & Stage Events
Business Practices

[Magda Fernandez]

Hi Andy, I shoot my videos in HDV and convert to App Pro Res upon capture. I hear you about the challenge of color-matching. This is why I’m liking the idea of using Playback Pro with my equipment (projector and computer), so I can tweak/save the settings in advance for each of my short videos.

[Bill Davis]

Charlotte,

You sent up a big red flag when you said you’re originating on HDV – which by definition is horizontal size limited to 1080p and “blowing up” your work to 1920. Add in the HDV Reality of 4.2.0 chroma subsampling limitations built into HDV and I’m not shocked that you’re having problems.

I know it’s tempting to think that taking one resolution then mapping it to a “better” resolution before editing preserves more detail and color accuracy – but often the exact OPPOSITE happens.
You’re spreading out limited color resolution over a more dense raster in bumping to 1920. Essentially making the computer GUESS where the color boundries might be and reproduce them across the different pixel densities as best it can. Then you’re LOCKING those guesses into the rest of your workflow. This is NOT good.

I think you’d be MUCH better off keeping your original raster throughout your editing so you’re not making your computer re-rasterize before you even start your work.

With digital, you want to keep the math as simple and as close to 1 to 1 as possible.

So if you need more resolution, you want to both edit AND shoot that way -not shoot with less then try to calculate it up to more.

Hope this helps.

[Walter Soyka]

Acquiring HDV and transcoding to full-raster, square pixel ProRes on capture is a pretty standard workflow, so I wouldn’t expect any problems there.

HDV has a 1080-line flavor. It uses 1440 horizontal pixels with a 1.33 PAR, as you were alluding to, but so do DVCPRO HD and HDCAM. The display device has to go to 1920 square pixels anyway, so you may as well do the conversion on ingest for the convenience of using square pixels throughout your workflow.

Of course, scaling HDV 720 to HDV 1080 would be problematic.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events