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Seeking HD Format Advice
So I will eventually need to deliver master episode tapes to a broadcaster on 10801 59.94 HDCAM. My understanding is that regardless of what native compressed HD format we shoot and edit in, the right aja product will convert to this format on the way to tape. Great ! We have not been told what compressed HD we can or cannot use, they don’t seem too bothered (of course they may be if the image we give them is total crap) but since we shoot a lot of material, a smaller file size will help in my archiving headaches. More hours of material on fewer TB’s is my goal. My question…. DVCprohd 720 x 24p sounds nice in terms of size, but how will it look on the convert to 1080i, is it still pretty nice quality ? Other option is the DVCPro HD 1080i 60 which seems a little bigger in terms of how much size, but is there a huge difference in picture quality. Lastly, has anyone seen the new JVC which records Apple prores 1080i, which is bigger again in file size to the DVCprohd, but can be edited in FCP immediately. I guess I am just wonder what I can get away with when bumping up a compressed image to 1080i 59.94. Thanks for the advice.
Dave
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4 Replies
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Just shoot on RED in 4K!
You seem very confused. Just because you shoot 1080i does not mean you will get better quality than 720p. Your frame size will be bigger. If you put the camera in the wrong hands, you can really screw up a job. Put any camera in the right hands and you can get some very good looking video that can be up/down and cross converted.
If the Broadcaster is not willing to give you their technical specs, you are either asking the wrong people or they are not a true broadcast channel.
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Board of Directors
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group -
Your right I am confused, but not about how a good or bad camera or DP can produce god or bad images. I have to deliver 1080i HDCAM 59.94. What I am trying to understand is how DVCprohd 720p looks after the conversion to that format, frame size etc. I like that I can archive more material onto 1TB of drive space in that format than I can using the 1080i DVCprohd, but all things being equal i.e. good dp, same camera, which native format handles the conversion better ? Or am I totally missing something altogether here, which is very likely. SD on digibeta was always a pretty easy concept, HD, not so much ! Your help is appreciated.
Dave
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I have delivered two History Channel specials (Mexican American War, Andrew Jackson) and a 15 part History Channel series (Strange Rituals…coming soon) on 1080psf 23.98 masters. The shows were all shot 720p 23.98…both on Varicam (pulldown removed) and with HVX-200 and HPX-170 cameras. The cross convert was done upon output via the AJA Kona 3 and output to HDCAM.
THey looked great. Awesome in fact. How did they look compared to shooting 1080p and outputting 1080p? No clue…we didn’t test. I just know that 720p 23.98 projected onto a 30′ screen from a Christie 2k projector looked fantastic.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Thanks Shane, exactly what I needed to know, and the exact work flow I would follow to deliver tape. Being clueless on HD, the 720p 24 gives the film look right, but our show is more “newsy” in genre, and my delivery is 1080i at 59.94, I noticed your delivery was 1080i but at the same frame rate as your original material. Do you think the convert through aja to that frame rate gets rid of that filmic look, would it create the strobing type of effect I have seen when some converts SD 24p to SD 30fps, any thoughts ?
I’m also interested in learning how you are archiving p2 cards and your shows. We do a minimum of 45 x 21 minutes a year on Lifetime, and our archive of raw tape or p2 will be pretty large, thats whats worrying me most about our transition to HD.
Dave
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