[Blake Calhoun]

Thanks for the info on this company. I will inquire and see what they say. I did find out at the color correction house I’m using that they have a DVNR system (to reduce noise) with their Davinci 2K, so we’re trying that now.

Thank you to everyone!
Blake

[Blake Calhoun]

That’s kind of what I think will happen versus what the previous post from Michael says. The main reason I think this is because I actually did the offline with downconverts and really never noticed the noise was that bad. In NTSC it’s almost as if everything just kind of “blurs” together. 🙂 Of course I do want it to look good in HD, so I’m working on that.

Thanks,
Blake

[Blake Calhoun]

We’re grading this film right now on a Davinci 2K and that’s a lot of the reason (I think) I’m just now noticing more noise.

Of course I noticed it some earlier in the editing process, but it’s a lot more evident now when we’re bringing up the highlights, etc. and watching it on a large 37″ HD reference monitor.

We’re using a lot of power windows to keep the shadows and dark areas dark – and it’s helping hide the noise – but it is rather frustrating I must say. Looks like we shot on 16mm in some scenes! 🙂

Good news is that most people won’t be sitting three feet from a $20,000 HD monitor when they watch the movie. As a matter of fact, I think when it goes down to NTSC (and then DVD) it will hardly be noticeable.

I will definitely ask at the color correction house about the noise reduction systems you refer to.

Thanks again,
Blake

[Blake Calhoun]

Thanks Leo for the info.

Just to clarify… the camera was new to the rental house when we used it. Not new to the market per se. And, I’m not trying to improve (or rid of) the noise that’s already on tape, what I’m trying to do is NOT enhance it.

It’s a long, long story as to why we’re doing 1080i – because yes, we did shoot 24p – but we’re doing 1080i with pulldown for out final master. I just didn’t know if upconverting from the deck to 1080i is enhancing the noise? And if we went through the Terenax if it would help reduce this?

And it does make me feel better that I’m not the only one with the issues. 🙂

Thanks again,
Blake

[Blake Calhoun]

Actually, I was the producer as well as director. So all blame goes to me. 🙂

The rental house we got the camera from had an engineer and we did work with him in setting up and testing the camera. The settings we got from Panasonic looked the best and most filmic in our minds (and still does today). We did of course tweak the settings some here and there – mainly looking at pedastal, etc. and shutter angle. We shot the majority of the film at a 220 degree shutter finding it matched the look and feel of 35mm best.

When we shot over a year and a half ago the camera was basically brand new, so the engineer was not completely familiar with the ins and outs, but overall we got really great images except for noisey shadows and some dark areas.

So, what we have is what we have and now I know for the future to adjust the “Dark Compression” setting or at least try that. But, what I need to figure out is if doing a 720p online and outputting to D5-HD tape – then upconverting to 1080i via a Teranex box would look better than doing the upconvert straight out of the 1700 deck into the Avid DS Nitris. Any thoughts or experience with this?

Thanks for the comments.

Blake

[Blake Calhoun]

Oh, and I’m not sure about the “dark compression” setting? Not familiar with that one off the top of my head…

[Blake Calhoun]

We did set the camera up (as I recall, it was a year and a half ago when we shot). And, actually the card settings we used were from a Panasonic rep in Dallas.

Thanks,
Blake

[Blake Calhoun]

Excellent! Thank you for the info. I was hoping that was the case. I’m back in the edit suite on Monday and will give it a try.

Thanks again,
Blake

[Blake Calhoun]

Thanks for the info! I appreciate it.

Blake

[Blake Calhoun]

When you say “UC chipset”, is this referring to the 1700 deck? I’m not familar with that term. I’m an editor not an engineer. 🙂

Thanks,
Blake