[Ben Wharton]

Apologies but I really don’t understand the very short reply!

[Ben Wharton]

Hi Joe

Thanks for the reply.

And yes, I thought as much. Any idea if it’s a feature in DVD Studo Pro 4?!

Meanwhile, I thought the same not-so-elegant Plan B and have rendered instructions into the video…

Ben

[Ben Wharton]

Shane –

Well maybe 50pn?!

N is the camera’s “native” shooting mode I think? Well, you tell me! I don’t think a very quick (poorly read) run through the manual qualifies me to have a decent conversation about the finer points of the issue.

Thanks so much for the link to the imagine site. I’ll check out the software and see if something can’t be done.

Ben

[Ben Wharton]

Hi Shane.

Thanks for the reply. Well, I think it may be something more basic than your suggestion. Sheer ignorance on my part. I guess only having a few hours with a new camera / unfamiliar HD codecs will do that!

What I’m saying is that I think it was a footage issue. I just can’t test it right now.

i.e. the footage was 720 50 / 60pn (PAL)

From what I gather FCP doesn’t support n footage or 720p 50. I think Avid will do (like at the end of the year…)

So does that chime right for you? If true it’s just frustrating that FCP doesn’t say something like “unsupported video format” in the error message.

[Ben Wharton]

Hi Jeff –

Thanks for the replay.

As far am I’m aware QT reference files are called .mov files so I’m not sure what you mean.

Ben

[Ben Wharton]

Oh how well you know me Bob!

Thanks for the swift reply.

I think building a machine with a Tyan MB would be the cheaper option as far as going the segmented PCI route is concerned is it’s a MUST. HP is just so overpriced.

I’m still under the impression that somone had got Mojos and internal RAID working on a non segmented PCI PC system. I could be VERY WRONG. Anyone else with alternatives to Bob’s “depressing” story? Or more of the same?!

Ben

[Ben Wharton]

Don’t you just use the resize tool and stretch your footage 133%?

Works for me – although if you have an early version of XPress Pro you’ll see a lovely green line at the tope of the frame after the render.

However I’ve heard the 3D effect is better quality than resize… Any clarify that?

Ben

[Ben Wharton]

Hi John

Thanks so much for the reply.

As I’d been naughty and cross posted this query, I had a discussion with Roadkill over at the Encore forum where I explined the pipeline more precisely:

DVD output (composite) -> OpenDL DV codec AVI

OpenDL AVI -> Avid Xpress Pro -> Edited Sequences -> QuickTime Reference File

QT Ref -> Procoder 2 -> MPEG2 files

And we discoveref it’s something to do with QuickTime Reference files.

Either Avid Xpress Pro is producing QT Refs that Procoder 2 doesn’t like
OR
Procoder just doesn’t handle QT Refs properly in the first place
OR
QT Refs aren’t an accurate way to pass information to any kind of encoding engine…

You can’t spot anything amiss on the QT refs. Whether that’s because you’re seeing a deinterlaced image of an interlaced file I’m not sure.

There’s also another thing in the mix – field dominance. As far as I understand, PAL DV is lower field first, but MPEG2 PAL should be upper field first. The video looks fine with this swapping of dominance (playback from burnt DVD on TV) but I wonder if it’s what causes a problem with Procoder’s encoding engine when going from black to video?

I’ve rendered out the sequences to DV AVIs, then put those throught Procoder instead and the cuts work perfectly in the resulting MPEG2 files. More rendering time… on this project it was just about OK, but on something larger? It’s all such a bloody hassle to be honest!

Your suggestion about the I-frames is kinda what I assumed at the start but, like, Why Should I Have To Do It?!

I guess I should go ask Canopus if they know what’s going on.

Thanks again.

Ben

[Ben Wharton]

Oh, yes, you gotta love QuickTime…

I rendered out a few cuts as a DV AVI file, went through Procoder and voila.

QT ref – what a CON!

Ben

[Ben Wharton]

Well I just did a quick re-author without the Override option and so far it seems OK. But when Encore throws up errors essentially saying you have to set them…

Meanwhile, yes, I’ll just do a short section and test. I’ll tell you what I find.

Thanks again.

Ben