[Chad Brewer]

I’m not too familiar with this model, but have you checked menu item 750 to insure that audio attenuation for DV playback is turned off?

Many of the Panasonic decks have menu based settings that affect the audio output levels and considering you rented the deck, you may want to check that menu setting and/or restore the deck to its factory default settings and see if anything changes.

That’s just my guess…

Chad Brewer
Senior Broadcast Videotape Operator
TeleVersions, LLC

[Chad Brewer]

Mark, I agree with Bob.

In the Broadcasting forum which I thought should have remained the Broadcast Video forum, I was embarrassed when I first saw my video cable icon on the right of Bob’s picture making it look like the cables were coming out of Bob’s head!

I’ve read countless great, informative posts from you Mark, and pieces of paper that you can hang on the wall don’t necessarily separate you from anyone else in this industry.

This is from your profile as a COW Leader:
“20-plus years writing, directing, shooting, editing”

Now I’m embarrassed.

I think we all go to bed at night smart and wake up in the morning stupid. If we do that everyday, that means we’re keeping up with the industry.

Chad Brewer
Senior Broadcast Videotape Operator
TeleVersions, LLC

[Chad Brewer]

Thanks Jeremy.
I guess I missed that looking on their site earlier because usually a FREE download isn’t under “online store.” But it was also off to the side somewhere else and I missed it there too:)
So it works for this file now, but guess what – despite what the site says it isn’t always a real-time playback codec – our favorite type of codec! Thus, I get to render it all which gives me more time to work on this collage of pictures of you I’ve been working on.
It seems the AJA/Cineform collaborations are pretty much geared towards 3D and the Kona 3G because from what I hear, 2D video is over. 2D even in HD just wasn’t real enough. I also heard the fan mounted on the Kona 3G cards is really aimed at the future capabilities of reintroducing “smell-o-vision” for when 3D isn’t enough.

Chad Brewer
Senior Broadcast Videotape Operator
TeleVersions, LLC

[Chad Brewer]

Joseph,
I’ve dealt with some similar RS422 issues with one of our Kona3 cards on an older MacPro. What vintage is your MacPro, what version of Kona drivers are you running, and like Jeremy said, what decks (I assume you meant decks when you said external drives) are you looking to control?
If your issue is similar to one of our edit stations, I MAY have a simple solution to the problem from my what I’ve encountered, but I can’t say without knowing what you have at hand.

Chad Brewer
Senior Tape Operator/Engineer
TeleVersions

[Chad Brewer]

I think they would make good stocking stuffers this Christmas.
Grandma’s gotta back up her photos too!

Chad Brewer
Senior Tape Operator/Engineer
TeleVersions

[Chad Brewer]

Tom,
I hope you find this response, despite it being a week since your post.
Start in the Broadcasting forum. Be specific first about your budget and what your specific deliverables will be, if you know at this time. Also include what computer platform you prefer to work on and what formats you plan on shooting – assuming an HD variety of some sort these days. You should get initial feedback in the Broadcasting forum which will help you branch out into the other specific forums regarding cameras, NLE’s, video hardware, software, etc.
Hope that helps get you started on the right path with all the knowlegable and helpful people here on the COW.

Chad Brewer
Senior Tape Operator/Engineer
TeleVersions

[Chad Brewer]

Jason,
The Kona 3’s we have can capture VANC for 708 CC on capture. The closed captioning remains fine in Quicktime, but going back to a VTR via SDI doesn’t retain the CC. We’ve been up and down this every single way possible with all of our hardware. Retaining the VANC data between computers and VTR’s is a hard thing.
In your circumstance, I think the only way to re-insert the CC on your insert edit is to use the FCP7 edit to tape with the CC file option which will require an .scc file of the that specific portion of the the closed captioning.

Chad Brewer
Senior Tape Operator/Engineer
TeleVersions

[Chad Brewer]

Even after switching the J-3 to PAL, this really has nothing to do with the deck, but it is a good idea to have PAL reference feeding that model or at least not NTSC reference going in if it’s set to 625. PAL footage from a PAL deck will be displayed on an NTSC monitor as black and white. There is nothing wrong or incorrectly set on the deck. It’s probably because you aren’t viewing on a PAL monitor or a monitor that has both NTSC and PAL cards in it to switch between the two.

Chad Brewer
Senior Tape Operator/Engineer
TeleVersions

[Chad Brewer]

My method would have worked, but Walter’s workflow is better going through Compressor first. We’ve done it that way too with success. There are some that suggest using Compressor to go to H264 instead of MPEG2 for Blu-ray in terms of higher quality, but that might involve transcoding again in Encore where the Compressor MPEG2 way is cut and dried once you are in Encore.
As far as menus go, I create complex menus in Photoshop for Encore all the time. I don’t like Encore, but we don’t have DoStudio. I actually hate Encore, but my menus have always worked fine…

Chad Brewer
Senior Tape Operator/Engineer
TeleVersions

[Chad Brewer]

[Chris Alsop] “So I’m working on FCP Studio and just finished editing a project which was shot on HD 720 24pn. I now want to create a blu-ray using Encore cs4 but Encore is on a separate system (a PC to boot)
1- what file type should I be exporting from FCP ( a regular self contained QT?)
2-This is a large project, will Encore automatically “compress” the footage to fit on the disk?
3-should i be worried at all about the frame rate?
4- will encore recognize chapter markers set in FCP or will I have to re-create them?”

Unfortunately neither Encore or Premiere will recognize a Quicktime. I would export a self-contained Quicktime of your project @720p24 and then use Quicktime to export to AVI. Encore will recognize an AVI.
Encore will not automatically compress to fit the Blu-disc, but you will have all the transcoding options in Encore for bitrates and audio settings that will determine the size of your final build. In the build window, it will estimate the size of your current project so you can determine whether it will fit on a 25GB disc. I would suggest getting Dolby SurCode as a plug-in from Minnetonka Audio or transcode your audio to ac3 in Compressor to allow more data room for the video.
The encoding bitrates for your video depend on the length and content of the video as far as motion and complexity goes. You usually don’t want to exceed 30MBPS as a max..You probably want to be in the mid-20’s as a max if the program is really long. This you’ll have to dial in on your own.
Don’t worry about 24fps..That will be fine in Encore and on a finished Blu-ray.
I don’t know of any way to get FCP chapter markers into an Encore project unless there is some MXF workflow I don’t know about.

The easy way we do this is we have FCP and Premiere workstations with SDI video capture cards on both ends. So, we can just play SDI from FCP into Premiere and then it goes right into Encore as an AVI.
We do this all the time as we are an FCP based facility, but utilize Encore for Blu-ray.
If anyone else has other advice for you, hopefully they’ll chime in.

Chad Brewer
Senior Tape Operator/Engineer
TeleVersions