[Bob Cole]

[Bob Cole] “The cards are only the through port, they add nothing to the RT capabilities of your system. The card is just the Piepline, that’s it.””

There’s a thread above this one that seems to suggest otherwise. I don’t understand.

— BC

[Bob Cole]

[David Battistella] “I just don’t see where the cards “extra” processing power is coming from.”

Now I am really confused. I posted in an earlier thread a question about the diff. regarding RT effects, bet. the HD 4:2:2 (which also handles SD) and the forthcoming Matrox Axio.

The answer was, the Blackmagic card is strictly i/o, all processing for RT effects (dissolves, etc.) is on the CPU.

This thread seems to suggest otherwise…? Or am I reading too much into it?

— BC

[Bob Cole]

The lens hood has a drawback in that it sometimes makes it harder to see the front of your camera lens. Okay, I’m speaking personally here: I put on a lens hood once and as a result failed to notice that the front element had a piece of gunk on it. It was almost impossible to see, until I saw the footage on a big monitor.

With small cameras, one of the biggest shot-killers is that tiny piece of gunk on the front lens element (or filter). It will be enough in focus on bright exteriors, that it will ruin your pretty scenic pans by staying in exactly the same place while the scenery moves.

I don’t know your camera, but if it doesn’t have a filter wheel with ND, an easy-to-add ND filter would be another good accessory for your lens hood or matte box. The ND will make you use a wider aperture, throwing any front-element gunk out of focus.

— BC

[Bob Cole]

I’d like to read the dolly/boom rec’s too, but I’d like to the mix, what about the various new Steadicam-like devices for small cameras.

— BC

[Bob Cole]

While a bit pissy, this thread brings back a funny memory. I don’t want to make the thread go longer but I have a little anecdote to share.

About 33 years ago my college professor, an English Dept. guy who thought he knew movies, taught a film appreciation seminar — very competitive to gain entry to. I was the only freshman in the group, because I had a visual arts background, and I was a bit scared to talk.

The prof was really very good about a lot of things, but one day he said, “Notice how the camera ZOOMS down the table…” I was intimidated in this class, but I was so offended that I raised my hand to interrupt him, “Actually it trucks down the table, there’s an important difference.” Man was he mad — and he absolutely could not get it — nor could any of the other students. They were all very smart and far more knowledgeable about film history than I’ll ever be, but the diff. bet. trucking and zooming eluded them all.

Why? I guess, because all they saw were old movies, and there was no zooming to compare to the trucking — while the only cameras they saw were zoom lens-equipped — so they assumed that the way you did that shot was to zoom.

— Bob Cole

[Bob Cole]

[David Battistella] “NEWS FLASH. The cards are only the through port, they add nothing to the RT capabilities of your system. The card is just the Piepline, that’s it.”

That’s what I wanted to know. Thanks.

— Bob

[Bob Cole]

[Bill Stephan] “MPEG audio is not supported for NTSC DVD and many DVD players will not play it.”

Right. The original suggestion from Borjis was that I use Dolby AC-3 audio, which doesn’t seem to be an option in my first, encoding stage with Stream/Digital Rapids/Mainconcept encoder. MPEG Layer 2 and PCM are the available options.

Using PCM to encode results in a single multiplex file. I would then need to demux so I can treat the audio separately in Adobe Encore.

When I encoded with MPEG Layer 2, Stream gave me separate audio and video files. Encore transcoded the audio file; Dolby is an option. Is that workflow, then, your recommendation?

— BC

[Bob Cole]

[Borjis] “and also be sure and compress that audio to Dolby AC-3
at around 256kbps.”

How do I do that?

I have a Digital Rapids 500 card & Adobe Encore — would be willing to upgrade if it would help solve such problems.

I’ve been using PCM audio with the Digital Rapids Stream/Mainconcept MPEG encoder because of data rate problems with MPEG Layer 2 audio, and for the convenience of the multiplexed file. But I don’t see a way inside Adobe Encore to transcode the PCM audio to Dolby Digital without transcoding the video as well, which is unnecessary and would affect its quality adversely.

[Bob Cole]

[Borjis] “Give them a good price with a good quick and painless process such as a dvd recorder. Panasonic I recommend because of excellent quality, reliability and playback for the masses.”

Which Panasonic model, and what’s a good pricing structure? I’ve seen some on the Internet which are very low.

— Bob

[Bob Cole]

Leo, when you use a net this way to reduce background luminance, do you have to be careful not to have any light from the key falling on it, or does that really matter?

There is a cheap-cheap solution used in booths at ballgames. When the producer wants to shoot the announcer in the booth, while showing the field in the background, they just tape up some dark screen material in the window. It seems to do the job.

— Bob