[Bob Cole]

You think? I have lots of corporate clients who want .wmv files.

[Bob Cole]

[Media Productions Canada] “Going to do this for my first time and I’m looking on some advise on how to do this safley.”

Don’t know where I saw it, but there was a doc on people who do this for a living, most of whom seem to live in Hawaii. For spectacular shots, you need to get up close and personal in the midst of some very extreme conditions. It is a specialty, and if you want stunning results without drowning, you may want to contract it out.

– Bob C

[Bob Cole]

One of the reasons I chose an AJA product was that I heard their tech support was superior.

Proof of that was the accurate and quick reply to my tech support question about the deck control of the Panasonic AJ-D650. They emailed me a file, told me what to do, and the problem is solved.

I hope their management monitors this forum, and realizes how important their tech support team is to AJA’s reputation. And no, I’m not related to any of their employees.

— Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Wow. Thanks Gary and Bob so much for the fantastic responses. Getting closer. It’s the deck, but the same deck works fine in my old discreet edit system, so I’m still perplexed. When I try my Betacam 1800, everything works fine.

But this also has something to do with my new Mac/FCP/Kona, because my previous system didn’t have any problem with the Panasonic during several years daily use.

From the Panasonic, the error message is: “Tape Trouble. Check VTR. Do not attempt to eject tape or use tape transport without checking VTR first.” This is NOT TRUE. The tape keeps running, it looks fine… and when I tried other camera tapes, even from other codecs, I get the same error message.

I tried all of the following capture settings:
AJA Kona 525 29.97 10 bit
AJA Kona 525 29.97 8 bit
AJA Kona 525 29.97 DV
AJA Kona 525 29.97 DVCPro50
(I also tried all of the VTR control options that seem relevant.)

After pressing ESC to stop the deck, and Okay on the above error message, FCP says:
“Capture Now has reached the end of the tape. All existing footage between the point where you started the capture and the end of the tape has been captured successfully.” Not true, of course — the capture ends at the first error message, though the tape keeps running.

Good point to check the monitor out with character superimposed — nothing out of the ordinary. Tape kept running fine.

Any further ideas are most welcome. I uninstalled Kona software, installed the latest (October 2006) version. Checked Kona Control Panel, tried different settings there.

One definite conclusion from this shakedown cruise: I’m going to buy a voltage regulator to try to get rid of wavery lines, cut down audio noise, etc. Any recommendations for that are also most welcome.

re: the visual indication of audio noise: since I still see it when I unplug all inputs, I think it is a Mac/FCP/Kona thing. Gary, did you mean Quicktime is the culprit for the scopes/monitoring issue, when you referred to 7.1.3?

Thanks very much!

— Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Just guessing that the ipod commercials are shot greenscreen. There is some shadow detail occasionally which would not be possible with your #2 shadow technique.

I read somewhere that they are also heavily rotoscoped for the detail of the ipod headset cord — and if they do that, they may be refining lots of other details as well.

Do it and let us know what worked.

— Bob C

[Bob Cole]

That’s interesting about the “gear change.”

Sorry to beat a dead horse, but my original question was about media, not the actual burning speed.

The question is: If a DVD-R is rated for 16x does that mean it is of higher quality, even for a 4x burn, than media rated 8x?

[Bob Cole]

Thanks, Pierre-Luc.

I’ll burn at no faster than 8x, but as far as the media itself, is the 16x rated media a higher quality level than the 8x rated media?

[Bob Cole]

Dennis, I’d love to hear more about what makes a fresnel look so much better photographically than an open face. I can see it, but I can’t describe it.

— Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Thanks guys, for the great ideas. This is usually in a documentary setting when I see it, so dye won’t work, but all the other ideas will really help.

— Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Thanks Frank. After all that, the client decided on a gray background.

More generally, with the Sony Z1 HDV camera, how does it handle blown-out areas? I’ve been amazed by the amount of light this camera wants, and wonder whether that has something to do with the latitude you’ve observed.

— B