Bill Russell
Forum Replies Created
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“Was this material theatrically released? Is the LtRt coming from a Digibeta master? Trying to ascertain if the LtRt was hardware or software encoded.”
It was mixed for theatrical. The stems were bounced to our hard drive directly from the original mix session a while ago at a sound house. (Original session is inaccessible at least for now, if it exists at all, I dunno.) The only way I know they are LTRT stems is from how they are named: “Diag_LTRT_LR.WAV” “Music_LTRT_LR.WAV” etc..
I don’t have ProTools myself, I’m working simply on a Final Cut Pro timeline for this one with the aid of SoundTrack Pro. I’ll try a hybrid stereo / LTRL test mix next week, find someone with a surround entertainment system and feed my test DVD through it. I’ll report back. Then based on results (with the aid of your kind wisdom above, thank you for all that!) I’ll know if I need to buy or access some kind of software mentioned here to downmix the LTRT to stereo, or just brave it as is. Stay tuned….
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Interesting, thank you Greg. I can do that. (In fact, I’ve figured I would need to test my work eventually on a ProLogic system.)
(So academically speaking, why / how would the encoding disappear anyway in DVD Studio Pro?)
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Thank you!
What I really need is some piece of software that can simply show me what is in my LTRT, can give me its separate LCRS tracks. Know of anything?
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The closest thing I ever had to this — and it is not quite the same thing described here — was a series of After Effects animations in Apple Prores HQ codec at 23.98. All was fine, even in real-time playback in Final Cut Pro, and stepping through frame for frame was perfect.
But then…. rendering these clips within my Final Cut Pro timeline, NOW there were repeat frames, a stutter.
I fixed it by using cinema tools to correct the AE output clips frame rate from 23.98 to the TRUE frame rate of 23.976. And here is the catch — even though the edit box APPEARED to round it back to 23.98, it was not the same. Actually entering 23.976 made all the difference. I had to do this to all of the After Effect results (23.98 -> 23.976). ALSO, if I rendered out of AE at 23.976 to begin with (even though it likewise appeared to round back to two decimal places) it prevented the problem from the start.
23.98 is not a real frame rate. 23.976 is. And this was a reallllly rare circumstance where it actually made the difference. And weird thing is — to reiterate — it ONLY reared its head AFTER final render in Final Cut. At every other stage there was no stutter.
The fix for me? Work in true 23.976, not 23.98 (even if the edit box APPEARS to round back to 23.98).
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Now then I’m stumped, if the stuttering is only on playback no matter how encoded, but frame-by-frame movement smooth. I’d almost have to look at a Quicktime clip to give my .02 (flash is too uncontrollable). Anyway, I’ll keep a mind out for what this might be! Cheers…
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I actually have an older HP xw4000 for my Avid, which I like a lot. This new computer will be for my wife’s work at her studio. But wow – I didn’t realize the HP workstations were so cheap! (I use Mac Pro quads all the time / Fincal Cut Studio, LOVE ‘EM, but don’t own myself, and won’t be shelling out the cash for the stuff.) CNET reviews does not have HP’s in the top tier currently, but I really like your endorsement. Question — I’ve had troubles long ago with WD, better luck with Seagate and Hitachi. Are you finding that WD is working reliably and long term these days? I’ve always taken their warranties as a good indication — WD is usually around a 1, Seagate 3-5 years.
Thank you for this!
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If you step through the export frame-by-frame, is there a pattern to the stuttering? Like every fourth frame repeated, or once every second? (It’s hard for me to tell looking at the web movie on this side.)
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I worked in local access in the early 90’s. Local access is a very important resource, but they typically have almost no personnel nor money, and are technologically rudimentary. I was in a city of forty thousand people total, and we broadcast from banks of VHS running at slow speed (to save tape costs and labor — only ONE paid employee for 24/7/365!) It’s not about quality, it’s about getting essential material out there on a shoestring.
Obviously no commercial broadcast station would ever source from a DVD, ever. But this is a local access channel, and it seems Meredith’s only options are DVD or pay ten bucks a pop of her own pocket to deliver each movie file. That adds up in the shoe string world. 🙂
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What are your dimensions, resolution, codec? What do you feed to iDVD? Meanwhile, I’ll make some guesses and recommendations:
If you’re generating and/or compositing graphics, then you may be noticing augmented issues from graphics and their colors.
Are you rendering to DV and then putting it in iDVD? DV has 4:1:1 color space which really uglifies detail around strong colors, and then that gets compounded when converted to DVD’s 4:2:0 color space. I don’t use iDVD, but if memory serves, it can only accept a DV file, is that right? In any case, if you can, export not as DV but as uncompressed or animation or max quality photo jpeg (pjpg saves space over the other two). You’ll want to encode two-pass at highest manageable bitrate (not too high or disk won’t play).
If you cannot encode from a non-DV source in iDVD, then… In Encore, Compressor or DVD Studio Pro you can encode DVD media from any high quality codec, and will get better results than from DV. If you don’t have any of these, google the internet for good DVD encoding software.
Other tips:
— Don’t put whites at 255. Keep then down around 229 at max. Will look better when broadcast.
— Likewise, make sure you have blacks near the bottom.
— Reign in saturation a whole lot. I think you’ll find that a bit less goes a long way after converted to broadcast video.
— You’ll actually want the mid-ranges too to be darker than what looks good on a computer screen. Strong imagery on a computer screen gets blown out in broadcast.
In normal situations, a professional would “color correct” your work to reign it in for pleasing video broadcast. But local access doesn’t have resources for that. You’ll want to “think TV”, realizing that your computer screen is not a good guide. You need whites to actually be slightly gray looking on your computer screen at their whitest, colors not too saturated, and mid-tones to be deep.
Broadcast limits are quite a bit more narrow than what you can see on your comptuter screen. Whites over 235 get clipped in broadcast, as do saturated colors. In other words, if you have a lot of detail in these upper areas, it gets thrown away! If your source before encoding is DV, that’ll make this too bright and too strong color problem all the more.
Let us know if any of this makes a difference!
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