[Bob Cole]

[john sharaf] “It’s a good strategy to reframe if possible to eliminate the overexposed area!

All cameras have “white clip” circuitry, and the level canj be adjusted on professional gear. I believe the nominal level is 108 ire, but often folks set it down a bit, especially for live satalite broadcast, where I often adjust it down to 100 ire.”

John, if you do adjust the clip level in the camera, is it then safe to have part of the frame blow out?

I don’t know how prevalent this is, but I just saw another technical gotcha in a PAL flavor. On a trip to Italy last week, we sat in a bar to watch a soccer match (hearing the commentary from the viewers was as good as the game). The bar used an overhead projector, which did fine for the game, but when the ads came on, with their dramatic lighting and white backgrounds, the image actually rolled, rather than buzzed. A good third of the ads were affected this way.

— Bob

[Bob Cole]

[john sharaf] “if you have to open up to see the subjects face (rather than sillouette) then you’ll might have to live with a white, clipped sky”

This comment, and the remark about the buzzing in the title for Six Feet Under, really make me think.

John mentions “clipping.” In my NLE, my Matrox DigiSuite takes care of illegal video. Is there some camera setting which limits (clips?) the exposure to a legal level?

I’ve often had just the situation John describes, of dark face against white sky. I have always just chickened out and reframed.

— Bob

[Bob Cole]

This forum is going to the birds.

[Bob Cole]

I hadn’t actually heard of the 35mm lens/ground glass technique. Is this link what you’re talking about? https://www.xl1solutions.com/ This adapter only works with the Canon XL1.

The trend toward smaller CCDs and smaller/cheaper cameras seems quite powerful. I’m about ready to jump on that bandwagon but the DOF problem really bothers me. Most environments don’t allow for huge tele shots, nor putting the subject miles away from the background — not to mention that I much prefer the look of having the subject fairly close to the camera.

Leo, in your experience how big a frame do you need for the single black net solution to work? I imagine it would have to be some distance from the subject to avoid being lit by the key, which in turn implies a rather large frame.

— BC

[Bob Cole]

Very nice and simple. Thank you.

— Bob

[Bob Cole]

Have you tried TMPEnc/MPEG Tools?

— Bob Cole

[Bob Cole]

With that kit I’d hang a large shower curtain and blast all your lights through it. Put it far enough away that the light doesn’t drastically fall off from the nearest to the farthest person.

— BC

[Bob Cole]

Stream has an “advanced settings” area for the Mainconcept mpeg encoder; included is an option to multiplex. (There were no options about bitrate or depth.)

So I chose PCM, selected multiplex, and imported the single a/v multiplexed file into Encore, and it worked.

[Bob Cole]

More data:

I encoded via the Digital Rapids card, MPEG Layer II audio, 192 Kbps audio bitrate.

Attempted to import as Timeline into Encore. Encore accepted the files but told me (as before, first post) that the audio file was only a little over a second in length.

So I renamed the audio file’s extension from .mp2 to .wav. Encore accepted the same file with the new extension.

So here is what works for me:

— an MPEG Layer II audio file, at a lower bit rate (96 Kbps).

— an MPEG Layer II audio file, at a higher bit rate (192), IF I rename the extension to .wav file.

What won’t work, so far, is anything encoded as PCM via the Stream/Digital Rapids path.

[Bob Cole]

Dave, I tried that. Encore saw through my evil plan immediately, and said “File may be corrupt or the file type not supported.”

I’ve been using MPEG Layer II Audio successfully, but every now and then Encore gives me an odd error message that NTSC wants PCM (or something else, I can’t recall right now).

My Digital Rapids software gives me only two choices: MPEG Layer II and PCM. Why won’t Encore accept my PCM files?

— BC