to scope or not to scope?

[Aaron Neitz]

at the very least USE THE SCOPE in Final Cut! I’ve found it to be completely accurate against my hardware scopes so far – so much so that I took the hardware scopes out of my bay and are using them elsewhere. But you can never get away without using a scope if you’re going to broadcast.

[Todd Reid]

Think of it this way.

A doctor can probably guess if you have a fever by looking at you.
Wouldn’t you want him to use the tools he has, like a thermometer, to help him do his job more effectively?

I have seen people in many production facilities ignore scopes, and I have seen people live and breath by them.

Bottom line is that every monitor is different, so the ONLY thing we can rely on are waveform and vectorscopes. For the past 4 years, I’ve relied on the software scopes within FCP.
The real test depends on the facility that will be broadcasting it. They may have exacting standards.
So set up to the scopes you have, and if there is a problem, believe me, you’ll be the first to know when it gets kicked back to you with a long list of standards you must adhere to.

Contact your client and see what they expect, and you should be good to go with what FCP provides.
If not, time to invest a lot of money on scopes, or find someone that has them.

[Shane Ross]

It can’t be done without the use of ANY scopes. Do what Aaron says, at least use the internal FCP scopes. I have turned in one broadcast show using those only.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Ed Dooley]

Ditto what everyone said. And also…. if the editor really meant *no* scopes, then find another editor, quick! If they meant no additional scopes, they’ll use the ones in FCP, then maybe keep him. 🙂
Seasoned editor you say? …..any ediotr worth his salt will use scopes.
Ed

[Bob Zelin]

a “seasoned” editor – was he seasoned with salt and pepper ? That is quite a statement from a seasoned editor.

This is the final answer – if your master tapes get rejected, then guess what – you needed a scope. If your tapes go on air, then forget everyones opinions on this forum.

Please ask your seasoned editor how he sees 100 IRE (or .700mV)without a scope. I’d love to know.

Bob Zelin

[Sally Lundburg]

thanks for everyone’s answers. The editor was meaning that he would use the FCP scope, and I was wanting to know if this is capable of monitoring broadcast levels. Our deliverable is for an internal company dvd, not for broadcast, but we’ve written into the contract to deliver “broadcast quality”. In my previous projects, i did the offline myself and then went to an online for the final polish and correction.
if anyone has anything further..great. if not…thanks so much!
sally

[Dylan Reeve]

I’ve delivered hundreds of hours of television for broadcast (albeit the vast vast majority with Avid) and had very few issues. In my case I’ve usually had hardware scopes at my disposal, but don’t often need to refer to them. Also, even with scopes it can be quite easy to miss things, a single frame of illegal luma may be enough to fail a program, and very easy to miss without a logging scope.

So far I’ve found the FCP scopes to be very much in line with what my hardware scopes say and using a digital I/O (Firewire or SDI) I’ve never had noticeable difference in displayed and recorded levels.

If you have a good relationship with your broadcaster it’s not a bad idea to send an ep in early for a helpful tech check to make sure that everything is as it should be.

Of course, all my experience is within PAL which I believe can be a little simpler in things like this.

[Nate Stephens]

Bob,

To further the scope of this conversation,,, Will my NTSC SD scopes work just as well for my HD video on a down converted signal?? It is a good Videotech Composite scope. I do not know if a SD letterbox down converted signal would loose anything that would make the SD scope unreliable..

Your opinion is treasured as always..

[Bob Zelin]

my normal answer would be no (and your Videotek composite scope probably hasn’t been calibrated in 20 years !), but looking at a real scope – even in downconverted composite – is better than looking at nothing.

I come from a background of edit rooms that 100% had scopes in them. Today, most of my clients have NO SCOPES.

And many TV stations (particularly local stations) don’t care what you send them – they want the advertising revenue, and won’t reject anyone’s tapes (they own their own proc amps and legalizers).

But there is no question that crazy clients like Discovery and PBS will reject anything they can for any reason – and it’s for companies like these that you MUST have calibrated scopes, or your master delivery tapes will get rejected, and your clients will kill you.

As for the “in house” video – come on ! – no scopes necessary. No matter how “hot” those levels are, they will play back on the company’s board room plasma display or projector.

Bob Zelin