-
Proper Workflow for outputting to cable TV
-
I disagree with Walter in this case. I know production companies that produce hundreds of reality show to major networks like MTV and VH1 and their entire workflow is DV from shoot to master is DV. They convert the DV to Beta for deliverables.
If that’s the budget you have then that’s what you have to work with.
-CHL
Chi-Ho Lee
Film & Video Editor
Apple Certified Final Cut Pro Trainer
http://www.chiholee.com -
[Chi-Ho Lee] “I disagree with Walter in this case. I know production companies that produce hundreds of reality show to major networks like MTV and VH1 and their entire workflow is DV from shoot to master is DV. They convert the DV to Beta for deliverables.”
From a video standpoint, that’s fine. From a graphics standpoint, it’s a terrible way to deliver a show. I’ve worked with DV based projects and we simply bring the footage in as 8bit uncompressed and work in the 8bit format. Budget is not all that different between DV and SD these days. $999 for an Io LA and a FW 800 drive will work just fine for storage. If you want to go super cheap, go with BMD cards.
MTV and VH1 really don’t care all that much about the quality of the video from what I can tell watching them. They just want reality and reality means low budget which mean cheap cameras and workflow.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
-
[Jon B745435] “I just got a quote for a breakout box / Aja setup (w/ 500gb addt’l to my 1tb setup) and it’s around $4200…”
Gulp. You only need to add an SD card to your setup – It’s a Quad with a SATA array.
You could purchase the Blackmagic SD cheapo card (think it’s $300) and output your finished HDV timeline as NTSC SD at the final hurdle.
Do as suggested in the post above, capture and edit everything HDV (unless you have the budget to shoot Digibeta or HDCam – I’m guessing not) then export your finshed sequence as HDV, drag it into the Uncompressed 10-bit timeline exactly as suggested above, and output straight to Digibeta with 4 tracks on Embedded audio. You don’t even need a card with analogue/digital audio outs, as long as you don’t want to see your audio levels on an external scope. The AJA cards support realtime playback of HDV via SDI for monitoring/recording. I THINK the BlackMagic cards do the same. You can then view your output on an SDI monitor for proper colour correction etc.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong – but that array should support 1 stream of SD? Otherwise spend another $300 on a FW800 disc array – I recommend backing up to one anyway – the G-Raids are excellent.
All you have to do is hire a DVW-500 for ONE DAY for the mastering. Another couple of hundred bucks I’m guessing (can get them in the UK for
-
[walter biscardi] “MTV and VH1 really don’t care all that much about the quality of the video from what I can tell watching them. They just want reality and reality means low budget which mean cheap cameras and workflow.”
That’s true. LOL. If you have lots of graphics then an uncompressed timeline will look lots better. But if it’s just simple lower 3rds and relatively simple graphics then I would say DV is still fine.
My two cents.
CHL
Chi-Ho Lee
Film & Video Editor
Apple Certified Final Cut Pro Trainer
http://www.chiholee.com -
I would love a good tutorial or link to an article about “preping DV for Broadcast” I still work mainly in dv, with no capture cards as of yet. I have had mixed success moving dv material to an 8 bit time line to improve graphics. Any takers or suggestions?? I haven’t had any complaints, but i believe i can improve quality somewhat.
-
[derek woods] “I would love a good tutorial or link to an article about “preping DV for Broadcast” I still work mainly in dv, with no capture cards as of yet. I have had mixed success moving dv material to an 8 bit time line to improve graphics. Any takers or suggestions?? I haven’t had any complaints, but i believe i can improve quality somewhat.”
Easiest thing to do is pick up an AJA Io or the Io LA. Take your S-Video or Component feed out of your DV deck and capture directly to the 8bit uncompressed codec. Then edit in the 8bit timeline. That’s super easy and gives you the best quality video and graphics.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
-
Thank you all for the great advice. Budget is low, so I’m sticking with current setup, shooting/editing with HDV and exporting finished product to DV NTSC via Quicktime.
Not loving the results but will work for now (Motion text/effects looks pixelated…).NOW the problem I’m having is when I attempt to PRINT TO VIDEO from FCP to the FX1. I can seet the video placyback on the FX1’s monitor when I connect it to the G5 via FW, and have the video playback settings correct in FCP. But when I hit record on the camera, the screen either goes black, or keeps the last frame frozen on it, and the audio is the only thing that actually gets recorded.
What am I doing wrong? The camera is set up and obviously “sees” the video from the FW but it doesn’t want to record it…Any clues why???
-
Maybe I missed something, but I believe that Jon B745435 has a PowerMac G5 Quad-core. PCI-Express slots, not PCI-X.
Steve Grimes
-
let me ask you this walter/chi-ho
what is the cheapest way for me to get up to 8bit. i have a dual1.8g5 with 2gb ram. i already own a few fw800 lacie drives?
offtopic, how’s it going chi-ho, you doing anything at 119 braintree street lately, i’ll be there all next week working on some commercials that were shot on an hvx with p2 cards.
-ben
-
The cheapest way is to get a Blackmagic card. They have cards as cheap as $300. You just have to make sure to pick the right card because they have various cards with various I/O. And any SATA or FW 800 or even the LaCie 500gb Big Disk can playback 8bit or 10but uncompressed.
Ben, I’m working there thru Sept. I was cutting a promo to be played at the Aquarium IMAX theater and then I’m cutting a pilot about The Birdman.
See you in the hallways!
Chi-Ho Lee
Film & Video Editor
Apple Certified Final Cut Pro Trainer
http://www.chiholee.com
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up