Michael Slowe
Forum Replies Created
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David & Brent, I also shoot on an EX (version 1) and cannot imagine a better camera for documentary work. It handles everything you throw at it in the way of lighting conditions, is as tough as old boots and handles brilliantly in emergency situations. I particularly like the easy access (through the direct menu) to PP’s where, if you have pre set Kelvins, you can re act to light changes in seconds. The instant change from manual to auto focus is also useful without having to look down for a switch.
The picture quality is quite up to the highest standards and will certainly not suffer unduly when matched to more expensive cameras.
Well done Sony!
Michael Slowe
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Sue, you are as confused as Anna is, please read my post addressed o her as well as this. Are you only talking about Blu-Ray? These are for HD material and are very different from DVD’s which are only for SD material.
For Blu-Ray I do not use Studio Pro, there is no need as Toast 11 Pro does the whole job provided you give it a suitable file which in my case is my exported QT ProRes HD (1920 X 1080i) .mov file. No I don’t believe you can just plug your hard drive into a TV.
Michael Slowe
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Anna, I’m afraid I may have confused you. There are two types of disc as you know. DVD’s on which you can burn SD video once it has been suitably compressed and encoded by whatever suitable software you decide to use. I use BitVice and into this software I can also feed HD video which it will downscale to SD before encoding. I do not use Toast to encode, only to burn the .img file which I get from feeding the M2V video file and the ac3 audio file into Studio Pro which gives me the .img .
The second type are Blu-Ray discs which are used to burn HD video and which can be played as HD using a Blu-Ray player suitably connected to an HD screen. I encode and burn my Blu-Ray discs using Toast Titanium version 11 Pro using a stand alone BD burner by feeding it the QY .mov HD file I export from my timeline.
I’m sure that there are many other workflows but these work very well for me. Remember that there are two different routes, depending on whether you want DVD (SD) or Blu-Ray (HD.
Michael Slowe
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No Sue, sorry, you misunderstand me. I don’t mix codecs, I’m only editing in Apple ProRes 422 HQ. It’s 1920 X 1080i and I keep that right through to my export to QT .mov I’ve never stayed with HDV, when I used to shoot that I upscaled straight away through the Convergent Design upscaler. Now I shoot 1929 X 1080i with the Sony EX 1 camera at 35 mbps VBR and take that in to Media 100 in the ProRes codec.
I’m afraid I’ve never written about burning Blu-Ray on anything other than a dedicated BD burner. I;ve heard that some people can do this in other ways but not me. I merely drag my HD ProRes exported .mov into Toast Titanium version 11 and that does the rest, provided of course, that I have my stand alone Lacie BD burner connected to my MacPro.
For DVD’s (which I understand you are concerned with) you probably won’t improve on what you’ll get by using BitVice as I’ve explained in a previous post. DVD is using MPEG 2 which is very compressed, there’s no getting away from this but my workflow makes the best of it I’ve found. I keep clear of Compressor and H264 although for certain outputs such as the web they are very useful.
Michael Slowe
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Absolutely! Outsiders don’t realise just how good Media 100 is. I mentioned it on another Cow forum only the other day – the EX one I think- and some guy wrote back “I didn’t think Media 100 still existed”. Needless to say I gave him the full works. A friend of mine in America (I’m UK) just had a run in with FCP and is purchasing Media 100. Boris should spend some PR money right now to capture disenchanted FCP users.
Michael Slowe
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Anna, as I’ve just written in another post, I never have this problem with the following workflow:
Export timeline to a QT .mov file, either HD or SD.
Drag the file into BitVice. Settings there allow for 2 passes at your selected average bit rate.
If the file is HD BitVice will downscale (brilliantly) before encoding.
BitVice also now prepares the Dolby ac3 audio file.
Then take the M2V (video) and the ac3 (audio) into Studio Pro for formatting to a .img
Take the .img file into Titanium Toast for burning.For Blu-Ray discs I merely take the exported .mov (still in HD) to Toast 11 for encoding and burning with a stand alone BD burner.
Never had a failure yet (touching wood) and my discs play everywhere with no stutters.
Michael Slowe
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I export my HD timeline to a QT .mov and do the encode in BitVice as I explained previously. BitVice does a great downscale at the same time and you can set the aspect ratio you want. I then format in Studio Pro and burn in Titanium Toast. I get a great DVD which plays in every machine I’ve ever seen.
Michael Slowe
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Bob, not only does it still exist but the many adherents who stuck with it through the bad days of ropey ownership, consider it the best there is. Bang up to date under the ownership of Boris Effects (it will even handle native Red files from the camera), it is still the most intuitive and sensibly planned editing application. Check out the site, you will be sorry you left, that is if you did, together with others who went to Apple and who are now sorry.
I hold no brief for Media 100 commercially but it saved my life when I had to leave film editing and it still sustains me.
Michael Slowe
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I use Toast 11 Pro for BD’s and am getting brilliant results although I do find that ‘fast forward’ only allows 2X before freezing, stepping forward through scenes is OK though. I earlier used Toast 10 (with BD plug in) but didn’t know that version 9 did BD’s. I have been advised to choose the MPEG 4 codec and I use the Toast pre sets for data which seem similar to what you quoted. My stand alone burner is the same as yours too. Try Toast 11 Pro, it certainly works for me. I’m editing 1920 X 1080i in the Apple ProRes 422 HQ codec and just dragging to Toast my exported file as a QT .mov.
Michael Slowe
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Christina, I heartily endorse the suggestion of BitVice as a DVD encoder. The new versions are brilliant and have solved all the DVD artifact troubles that put me off DVD’s for years. I too shoot on an EX 1, import into Media 100 with EX Transfer in the ProRes HQ 422 codec (just a re wrap into a .mov as explained above). After editing in HD I export (either Self Contained or By Ref) and drag the file into BitVice. It does a brilliant job of down converting to SD (this is the crucial step). BitVice now also prepares your audio ac3 at the same time as the M2V video file. I then finish in Studio Pro prior to burning in Toast.
If you’re in HD though why not stay there and produce Blu-Ray discs? When I compare a BD to a DVD on a big HD screen I am staggered by the difference. Complete absence of noise or artifacts. Can’t use BitVice for that, Toast 11 Pro does a great BD job.
Michael Slowe