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What codec and resolution to use?
hi all!
i’m doing pre-production on video-content for a 6 projektor stage-design…each projektor will be SXGA, shooting at one of its six corresponding 10′ diameter round screens.
to plan the synchronization of the video loops with the music, i need to be able to visualize all six video loops/tracks simultaneously…the video-servers we’ll be using can only do one output each, so it’s impractical/impossible to preview all 6 clips simultaneously at this stage (something we won’t be able to do until rehearsals/programming).
so in the meantime i’m trying to find a way to preview all six streams together and was wondering whether Final Cut Pro 5 can do it? i have a Dual G5 2GHz with 4GB of RAM, and a 3 disk SATA RAID0 array (3x200GB), so disk-throughput and memory bandwidth shouldn’t be a huge issue.
sorry to be so long-winded…just wanna make sure i ask the question without leaving a lot of room for doubt.
most material will either come from my JVC HD10U (MPEG2 Transport Streams), or from a series of still-images (scanned and photographed)…so now the questions become:
– what codec should i use to compress those clips to for fastest display on the timeline alongside 5 other clips (6 total)?
– any chance of running the 6 screens at once in something larger than anamorphic NTSC (720P or 1080i/P)?
let’s leave it at that for the moment…i would really appreciate some pointers as to how to start.
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2 Replies
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Well I wouldn’t worry too much about resolution and codec if you are just trying to do pre-viz work. You should be able to use DV resolutio becasue as far as I can gather you just want to see how the program will run in sync on your computer display.
What I would do is bring all the sequences into FCP in DV resolution. The next step is kinda up to you but here are a few suggestions.
Setup a normal DV timeline and layer all your programs on top of one another so that you have 6 video layers. Now make all the tracks 33% of their original size. Reposition them on the canvas so that you have 6 separate images. Basicallly you will get the Brady Bunch effect. This should let you see the program play the way you want.
Another solution is to create a multiclip with your sequences that will play the same way and in the end may be easier to create. Check the manual as to how to create this multiclip.
My final suggestion follows the same theory as the first but with a slight change. FCP allows you create any size canvas you want for playback. I am assuming that the screens for your production are side by side. You could create a custom sequence that would alllow you to place all your material side by side and view it that way. (You won’t be able to see it on a monitor or anything but you could view it on the CPU). If you were to create this custom sequence and used DV resolution your settings would be 3840×480. This would allow you to have 6 pictures at 640×480 next to each other.
As you can see there are a ton of ways to do this. Once you pick one if you have any more issues post back and I’ll try to help. Codec and resolution however wouldn’t be a huge concern for me if this is only for previz and not for actual broadcast.
Good Luck
Bob -
thanks for the pointers, Robert…that’s exactly what i derived from doing a number of tests over the past couple of days…HDV would only keep up with 3-4 streams before it started to become unusable without rendering…in DV, however, i was able to have 6 streams on a 720×480 canvas (16:9 anamorphic) and get them to play pretty smoothly…
quality drops down to something a bit more pixelated than i was hoping, but it’ll suffice for the main purpose of getting an overview of how all the clips look together.
if only Cineform’s codec was ported to OSX already (i use it on my Windows XP notebook).
ok, back to work creating loops.
thanks again!
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