timecode is OUT

[Steve Braker]

There’s no such thing as VITC in any of the DV25 formats. It can be captured and passed in formats using 486 lines (NTSC), but not in DV/DVCPro/DVCam which only capture the actual image.

Your service provider should know this.

They are either using a very cheap deck or camcorder for the transfer, or they failed to set the deck up to “record” timecode. They would also have had to select whether to record from VITC aor LTC inputs – which aren’t always the same code. And they would have had to hook up a cable for LTC.

I agree with others that, if you have any choice, putting Beta (SP, I hope) through DV compression is a sad thing to do. Consider moving to DV50, or getting a converter and capturing uncompressed.

[David Bogie]

> For my own personal gratification and understanding… is there a major difference in quality between digitising directly from beta tape, or 1st dubbing from beta to dvcam and then digitising.< Huge difference. DV sucks and why we put up with it is anyone's guess. Keying is possible but truly awkward with DV. Just zoom in all the way on the edge of your key shot and take a look at those pixels. Apply your keyer. That's as good as it gets. Capturing from the Beat will provide tremendous quality gains BUT you must have a capture card to exploit the digiBeta color space and chroma resolution. bogiesan This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[Dan Cooper]

The footage dubbed from beta to dvcam looks like crap (as discussed + there’s the whole timecode issue) so my thinking is to hit the studio with the following request (tell me if the tech specs work):

The studio digitises the footage from the beta tape with the original timecode using their facility (i think they use liquid blue). I then get the digital files/takes copied over to my external hardrive, bring it back to my setup and edit/key/animate using FCP and AE.

My query though is will the digital files/takes captured from their setup be compatible and better quality for chroma keying than the footage i already have on dvcam? I operate off of a 2.3 dual G5, video card specs are:ATI Radeon 9650, Chipset Model ATY,RV351.

Thanks for the support,
Dan