[Alan Okey]

[Felgue] “I want a Dv-ntsc quicktime file with a rectangular frame size to create a DVD, I know a letterboxed 4:3 movie file will also work, but I want to learn how to do a quicktime file with a full rectangular size, because I know it can be done, just like the quicktime files that you see on the internet.”

You’re asking for two different things. Assuming you’re working with 720×480 DV source material:

To make an anamorphic DVD, encode the source anamorphic video as an anamorphic MPEG-2 file.

To make a 16:9 standalone Quicktime file, export from FCP using Quicktime conversion. Change the output resolution to “custom” and make it either 854×480 or 640×360.

[Alan Okey]

Sounds like you need to change your capture settings. Click on the Capture Settings tab of the Log and Capture window, then click Scratch Disks. Make sure that “capture audio and video to separate files” is unselected. Click on the Clip Settings tab in the Log and Capture window and make sure that the mono/stereo toggle switch is set to stereo capture – the two green speaker icons will have a line connecting them and the toggle switch icon will have two circles intersecting.

[Alan Okey]

I’ll vouch for the PVM-14L5/1 as well. I just got one last November, along with the BKM-120D SDI input board. It has SMPTE-C phosphors, 800 lines of resolution, and it supports a wide variety of SD and HD formats (1080/24, 1080i, 1035i, 720p, 480p, 480i). It looks fantastic.

By the way, the price of the HD-SDI input board recently dropped to $1500 at B&H. Back in November it was selling for around $3K. That means you can pick up the 14″ Sony with HD-SDI for right around $3K. Not bad. Then again, I’m not sure how visible the difference is between HD-SDI and analog component HD on a 14″ monitor…

Some people are saying good things about the JVC DT-V1710CGU and DT-V1910CGU HD CRT monitors as well, although I have not seen them in person. Specs are similar to the Sonys – they support the same SD and HD formats as the PVM-L series, and they have input cards for composite, Y/C, component, SDI and HD-SDI. The 17″ model has 800 lines, the 19″ has 900. Both have true flat CRTs. To get a true flat CRT from Sony, you have to pony up the big bucks for one of the higher end BVM models. The Sony PVM-L series monitors come standard with composite, Y/C and component/RGB inputs, but the JVCs don’t come with any inputs installed – you need to buy input boards for them separately.

[Alan Okey]

If you will be mainly editing DV format video, one of the least expensive options would be a DV/analog converter that connects to your Mac via Firewire. There are several manufactures of these devices, and in addition to monitoring your video output on a video monitor they will allow you to capture from and output to analog video devices (VHS, etc.) if you need to.

Check out these options:

Canopus converters –

https://www.canopus.com/products/ADVC110/index.php
https://www.canopus.com/products/ADVC300/index.php

ADS converter –

https://tinyurl.com/9r4xf

Datavideo converter –

https://www.datavideo.us/products/dac_100_main_page.htm

TV One converter –

https://www.tvone.com/dv1394a70.shtml

If you’re also shopping for a monitor and you have the budget for it, consider getting a Sony PVM series CRT like the PVM-14L1 or PVM-14L2. They are far more accurate than a TV set for judging picture quality.

At least make sure that whatever monitor you end up using has an S-Video connector. Component or SDI is even better, but that’s a whole other price bracket. There’s a big difference between composite and S-Video in terms of color noise.

[Alan Okey]

There’s no need to do that. Decklink HD also does SD.

[Alan Okey]

Extracting DVDs to a DV timeline is adding an unnecessary stage of compression. Simply extract the DVD material using a professional tool such as DVDxDVPro to an uncompressed Quicktime file and import it into an uncompressed FCP project. Export the end result back to MPEG2 and author a new DVD.

There’s no need to even use the DV codec at all. You won’t improve the extracted MPEG-2 footage any, but you also won’t be adding unnecessary DV compression to the extracted material before you have to recompress it to MPEG-2. Any titles/dissolves/color correction that you do to the material in your edit will benefit from not being DV-compressed before being ultimately compressed to MPEG-2.

As to why Final Cut Pro doesn’t import DVDs, there are many reasons. As has been stated already, MPEG-2 is a highly compressed delivery format, not an archiving or mastering format. Final Cut Pro is just that – Pro meaning Professional. Using MPEG-2 material from DVDs is a worst-case scenario, and hardly desirable.

Obviously you have to work with what you’re given, and if a client only has a DVD, then you’re forced to deal with it. However, to fault Final Cut Pro for not having DVD extraction built-in is a bit naive. Other professional editing applications don’t have this feature, nor is there a huge outcry for it from the professional user base. Final Cut Pro doesn’t support WMV files or muxed MPEG-4 files either. It’s not a shortcoming of the application, it’s that some people have expectations that are beyond the scope of use for which the application was designed.

With regard to archiving formats, anyone wishing to archive video material should use the highest quality format available. If the material was shot on DV, then DVCAM tapes would suffice. If the material originated on film or Digital Betacam, then D1 or DigiBeta would be the most desirable option as far as tape formats. Another solution would be to save the original footage to a hard drive. The basic rule is to avoid any further compression or generation loss at all costs.

[Alan Okey]

[Jan Bliddal] “People upgrading their After Effect or Combusiton will also benefit from a fast GPU. Adobe and Descreet has upgraded those programs Open GL part and thus the benifit of a fast GPU.”

Combustion only uses OpenGL hardware for accelerating composite previews. Final rendering is still CPU-bound, as only software OpenGL rendering supports all compositing modes and features.

[Alan Okey]

Combustion 4 on the Mac fixed this issue. Not sure about the Windows version, though. Which version of Combustion are you using on the PC?

[Alan Okey]

Karl,

Check out DVDxDV Pro, a software DVD extractor. I recently purchased it for a project in which a client wanted me to produce a DVD of material edited down from a previous DVD he had made.

https://www.dvdxdv.com/DVDxDV.overview.htm

The software works quickly and transparently, making it very easy to re-edit DVD material in Final Cut Pro or other applications. It’s worth every penny.

[Alan Okey]

FYI –

I downloaded the trial version of Combustion 4 for Macintosh and it appears to work just fine with the newest Decklink drivers on OS X v10.3.4 / Quicktime 7.