[Ben Holmes]

SImple – but often asked question…

1) Open mp4 in Quicktime Pro.
2) Click on ‘Window” on the menu bar.
3) Click on “Movie Properties” in the drop down.
4) Click on “Video Track” in the pop-up box.
5) Click on “Visual Settings”.
6) Uncheck the “Preserve Aspect Ratio” box.
7) Alter the size of the file to a 16:9 ratio. You can multiply the height by 16 and divide it by 9 to get the width. Example: 320×240 becomes 426×240 (or 427 f you like to round up).

Either increase the width or reducet the height via the same method (multiply by 9 and divide by 16 for the latter). Opinions vary on the better method – I always increase the width as I am usually playing these mp4’s full screen so they get scaled anyway.

Hope that helps!

Ben

[Ben Holmes]

Recapture. The quality drop from reformatting your letterboxed sequence will be horrendous. Use the media manager to copy the project, making the media off-line and recapture. Make sure you back up your exsisting project and project files – Media manager can be a lttle tricky.

Ben

[Ben Holmes]

I’m sure you’ll get many different answers to this question, so of them along the lines of: “well, it’s DVD, so it doesn’t matter if you use a lower quality codec”. The thing to consider is, that if you want to do plenty of post of your footage, you should always work at the best quality codec you can sensibly handle for space and speed. Using a 10-bit codec will give much better results from just applying a CC filter for example, or a grad or vignette effect – removing the ‘banding’ you will see in DV codecs.

I’d be tempted to retain some if that varicam quality, and at least work in DVCProHD. If you would rather work in SD, using a 10-bit uncompressed codec (assuming you can capture via SDI output on the DVCAM deck) would give nice results throughout post, with pretty much the same speed in your workflow, albeit with more storage and faster drives required.

Alas – there is no definitive answer here – and DV50 is a good codec. I’d just bear in mind that you WILL see the difference when you master to DVD from a better codec.

Ben

[Ben Holmes]

[zrb123] “Every one I have tried it with FCP always wants deck control (FF/RW/Play/Pause) because the DVD Recorder cant give this it will not work”

Any source that FCP can see can be captured without deck control as long as the ‘non-controlled device’ setting is selected in the setup.

All of this is by-the-by. As has been previously said, that FW connection is not for output anyway – a DVD deck encodes to MPEG2, how would it send a DV stream over firewire? You have a DVD drive on your Mac, most likely, so you can put the DVD in the Mac and use MPEG Streamclip, which is free btw and very easy to use, to convert your MPEG2 to QT so you can use it in FCP. It will look horrible because DVD encoding is rubbish, and it looks much worse when played back in an NLE, rather than through the filters and electronics on a DVD deck.

Best of luck.

Ben

[Ben Holmes]

[PDPost] “After reading the Cow, Matte was the way to go. Someone even quoted that Glossy “is like looking in a mirror” and certainly nothing that you’d want to fight with while editing.”

Actually, you’ll find more people (who actually have a glossy) who rave about the glossy screens, and most of the criticism from people who haven’t got one, or saw it in a shop once.

The glossy gives spectacular colour for video (not false, over-coloured like the original ones) and you can only see any real reflection in it when the screen is off – the truth is that the brightness is so good now that either matte or glossy looks great.

And for what it’s worth, I wouldn’t want to travel with a 17″ lappy on a regular basis. Since any proper editing will require an external monitor, I’d rather travel with a Mac Pro and a 23″ monitor in a peli-case. That’s a portable setup! My 15″ is more than enough for the odd DV project or mess around – for anything else, why use a laptop?!

Ben

[Ben Holmes]

[Robert Broussard] “Wow, I was just reviewing some video from my (personal use) GL1 (via a disc created with iDVD 6 using the OneStep DVD option”

I’ve read here before that iDVD does not do high quality encoding (or at least as high as compressor) although I don’t know if that’s true. Certainly Compressor gives you the option to up the quality depending on space. All DVD material is pretty poor really, especially footage derived from a camcorder. Those Hollywood DVD encodes really are an exercise in engineering excellence – kind of like getting 200 mph out of a push-bike. Home-made DVDs will always look shoddy in comparison.

Mind you – it could be your camerawork!

Ben

Editec Broadcast Editing Ltd

EVS & FCP specialists for live OB operations. FCP systems just used on Sky Sports coverage of the Ryder Cup – live from the K Club.

“The Supercar Run” now available for international distribution from http://www.electricsky.com

[Ben Holmes]

What Kona cards? What type of video? Does the 2800 output SDI, or are you using a Kona card with Analogue inputs? Component or composite? Is the format set correctly on the Kona control panel?

The more info you can give us, the more likely someone can give you a quick solution.

Ben

Editec Broadcast Editing Ltd

EVS & FCP specialists for live OB operations. FCP systems just used on Sky Sports coverage of the Ryder Cup – live from the K Club.

“The Supercar Run” now available for international distribution from http://www.electricsky.com

[Ben Holmes]

Check how many tracks in the sequence – it sounds like it’s set to output 4 tracks, and tracks 3/4 are set to mixdown to 3/4 on the audio mixer. So, either:

1) set the audio output to one stereo pair or
2) Map A3/A4 to output from tracks 1/2

To find out how to do either of these, I recommend a good read of the manual – it’s pretty good for most of this.

Ben

Editec Broadcast Editing Ltd

EVS & FCP specialists for live OB operations. FCP systems just used on Sky Sports coverage of the Ryder Cup – live from the K Club.

“The Supercar Run” now available for international distribution from http://www.electricsky.com

[Ben Holmes]

[walter biscardi] “What Jerry said. Nest the Sequence, Apply the filter to the Sequence.

I’m assuming the entire sequence is all similar shots? Applying one Color Correction filter to an entire sequence is usually not the way to work with those filters. You want to CC each shot individually.”

That’s why I suggested Paste Attributes rather than nesting – you can go through the clips individually afterwards to tweak. Works well if the shots are all from same camera/shoot and need similar treatment.

Ben

Editec Broadcast Editing Ltd

EVS & FCP specialists for live OB operations. FCP systems just used on Sky Sports coverage of the Ryder Cup – live from the K Club.

“The Supercar Run” now available for international distribution from http://www.electricsky.com

[Ben Holmes]

Apologies for seeming flip – but have you tried posting this on the DVDSP forum? You are asking about an advanced feature in DVD creation – and I have seen similar questions asked there.

Based on some knowledge of quiz DVDs, a lot can be achieved with scripting in DVD construction, so ask the experts on the other forum, or get yourself a good book!

Hope that helps.

Ben

Editec Broadcast Editing Ltd

EVS & FCP specialists for live OB operations. FCP systems just used on Sky Sports coverage of the Ryder Cup – live from the K Club.

“The Supercar Run” now available for international distribution from http://www.electricsky.com