[Andy Mees]

Are you working with Stereo or Dual Mono grouping? If Stereo then try center panning both channels and see if raises it back up by 6dB. If Dual Mono then see if setting the Downmix to 0 for each channel instead of the -3db default.

[Andy Mees]

[Rafael Amador] “That the files shows up as HDV, doesn’t means that is plain HDV. The NANO files at 280Mbps I-frame, shows in QT as plain XDCAM 422/50Mbps.”

Thats very true Rafa, good call.

[Andy Mees]

Hi Patrick

[Patrick Fleming] “Also, there is what they call RENDERLESS Quicktime Export (.mov) which they state “re-wraps” the Tricaster’s MPEG2 file as a Quicktime audio/video file without recompression. Though, here, when looked at in a file inspector, it’s HDV 720p30, not 720p60.”

That maybe suggests that what you are really recording is HDV 720p30 and not 720p6 … and a 30p to 50i conversion will certainly look worse (more stuttering) than a 60p to 50i conversion. You might want to double check that your original source files are actually being recorded with 60 unique frames per second.

[Patrick Fleming] “Isn’t playing it back on a LCD monitor in Quicktime going to give me “proper” results? If not, what do people do if they are given 1080i50 footage on a Mac? What are other options other than buying a PAL TV?”

Nope, not at all. Quicktime will not be properly handling the interlacing, what you’ll be seeing is 25 interlaced frames per second, not 50 fields per second, so the motion will not be as smooth as it would be when viewed on an a monitor that is properly displaying those fields. Whats more, you may be looking at a scaled image too, so might see artifacts that are not present in the original, and worse, not see artifacts that are present in the original! What do people do when given 1080i50 footage on a Mac? Well they don’t watch is “critically” on their Mac’s display, they’ll instead use a professional I/O device to view the footage on an externally attached reference monitor … no need to by a PAL TV per se, you just need one that is multi-format capable. Even something simple, like a cheap Blackmagic Intensity card or an MXO2 Mini will allow you to view the content via HDMI to a suitable HDTV. It’s an expense … but if you guys have a Tricaster and are producing content for ESPN/STAR then you need to get all the supporting equipment for your post production chain. Comes with the territory I’m afraid.

Hope that helps
Andy

[Andy Mees]

>When I come across post like this I don’t want to feed information on a straw, just tell him everything
you might think can be useful for someone in his position.

Good for you Mio, thats to be applauded for sure. I think perhaps if that had been more clear as the advice you were offering in your first post we probably wouldn’t have got sidetracked 🙂
Cheers
Andy

[Andy Mees]

And here’s another … is there more of these since Apple started these latest releases without Nvidia chipsets?
https://blogs.adobe.com/davtechtable/2011/03/adobes-mercury-playback-engine-apples-new-macbook-pro-17-wthunderbolt-2.html

[Andy Mees]

Hey Mio
It’s not a big mystery and I’ve stated as plainly as I can. I’ll try one more time but if you still don’t get it after that then we’re going to have to chalk it up to “lost in translation. Here goes again. The poster asked for recommendations regarding a choice between new 15″ and old 15″ … I recommended new (for Thunderbolt), and counseled against old because of lack of ExpressCard/34. I also suggested an older 17″ might be considered because it does have ExpressCard/34. The new 17” is not being discussed in this thread by anyone except you.
Cheers
Andy

[Andy Mees]

Hey Mio
Kryštof specifically asked about the new 15″ MBP’s and the older 15″ MBP … not the 17″ models. The brand new 15″ is Thunderbolt equipped but has no ExpressCard/34 port, the older 15″ model that he mentioned has neither Thunderbolt nor ExpressCard/34 (ie its a bit lame, expansion wise). I recommended the new 15″ Thunderbolt MBP in my post and recommended against the older 15″ … but suggested an older 17″ MBP as an option that could be considered as it does have the ExpressCard/34 port that the 15″ lacks.
Cheers
Andy

[Andy Mees]

>Most all of the commercials I edit are pure graphics straight out of Photoshop

What’s the frame size and format of these graphics you are exporting? Are they optimal for your 1920×1080 FCP timeline?

>with VO’s in MP3 Format and music in AIFF

Any special reason you’re using MP3 for VO’s (am guessing you’re just receiving them that way). Whatever, I’d recommend you transcode the VO clips to 48kHz AIFF before you drop them int your projects.

>Otherwise if I do have video it is shot at 1920×1080 60i on a Canon XF300.

So 1920×1080 60i (interlaced) using the XDCAM HD 422 codec then ?

And how do you deliver al this stuff? What format? HD or SD, progressive or interlaced etc?

[Andy Mees]

New MacBook Pro … with a good fast and capacious storage array attached, absolutely. Premiere … yes that will work beautifully on one of these lovely new MacBook Pros too, the only caveat there is that the AMD chipset in the new laptops will not offer you any direct GPU benefit with Premiere. The Mercury Playback Engine will still perform really really well of course, but in software only mode. And yes, I’d certainly recommend going with 8GB RAM instead of 4GB to get the best out of the new hardware. Although FCP is still currently mired in its slow code, its set for a speedy revision that may be suitable for your workflows, due for a release next month … and even if not suitable for you, other apps will certainly want to tale advantage of it.

Hope it helps
Andy

[Andy Mees]

>… it takes roughly one hour to render 30 seconds of video with some basic keyframe motions … I’ve changed the sequence preset to DVCPro

Hi Chris
In short, yes, a more powerful machine will render faster than a less powerful machine … but I get the feeling you are not telling all there is to tell here. What is the source footage format / where is it coming from. You’ve changed the sequence codec to DVCPRO HD from what? It may be that your current issues with render time could be alleviated somewhat by adopting a more efficient workflow, but more info about your existing workflow would be needed to see if thats the case.
Hope it helps
Andy