Chris Tomberlin
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[walter biscardi] “If you capture DV25 via Firewire and DV25 via SDI, they are one and the same quality. If you capture DV25 to Uncompressed SD 8bit, they are one and the same quality.
It is only after you apply any type of filtering or graphics that the advantages of an uncompressed timeline will be evident.”
Again, respectfully, this is simply not the case. Have you ever actually done the test? Consider this – when you put a DV25 tape in a deck that has an SDI output, is the deck not doing a hardware conversion from the DV codec to an uncompressed SDI stream? It IS. Therefore, it cannot be an identical copy to what comes in via firewire which is supposedly native DV – having undergone no conversion until it is decoded (via software) in the mac. Now I know theoretically the act of modifying those ones and zeros in any way is normally considered bad, but the effect of converting the DV25 footage to an uncompressed SDI stream via hardware in my deck has a visable and pleasing effect. It does look better than DV25 captured via firewire. Do the comparison, blow up both captures in AE to %400 and look at something red. You’ll see a difference. Sometimes reality, no matter how unlikely, is just reality.
BTW – I’ve read many of your posts and find them generally to be insightful and informative. I just know what I see on this particular issue.
Chris Tomberlin
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[walter biscardi] “[Andy Taplin] “Using DVCAM you’re saying there is no difference between Firewire and SDI?”
Nope, capture quality will be exactly the same.”
Walter, I have to respectfully disagree. Have you every actually captured some DV25 footage via firewire, then captured the exact same thing via SDI and compared the two? I know all the theory about how firewire is lossless, you don’t get anything more than what you started with, digital is digital, etc, etc,. BUT capturing a DV25 tape via SDI to an uncompressed codec looks better than capturing straight through firewire-primarily in terms of chroma smoothing. The colors hold up better through color-correction presumably because your 4:1:1 color space now resides in a 4:2:2 world – even though you don’t end up with more color resolution than you started with. I know there are many opinions on this, and that Natress has some filters that do essentially the same thing I’m talking about here, but you don’t really know until you do a test and look at it with your own eyes. Now, I’m not saying you haven’t done this, but I have, and to my eyes there is a clear advantage to bringing in DV25 over SDI into an uncompressed codec – especially if you are going to do any color-correction.
Chris Tomberlin
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Hey guys, looks like this might be the “next big thing” for displays. CRT performance, LCD size and weight:
https://www.canon.com/technology/display/
Chris Tomberlin
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I can certainly echo what Wes is saying here. I use automatic duck all the time to get timelines from FCP to AE for color correction in CF. I used QT reference files a long time ago and would NEVER go back. It will work, but it will get very messy on anything other than a really short program.
Chris Tomberlin
Editor/Compositor/Owner
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[Jeffrey] “So even though the tone went through at -12db (FCP) and 0db (Beta), and the audio is bouncing at -12db in FCP, the program audio is wayyy too low on the Beta deck!!! Am I missing something here?”
The real issue here is the difference between the analog and digital worlds. We still have one foot in each. Contrary to an earlier post, things like signal to noise ratio and headroom still apply in the digital world but in a different way. The “noise” in digital audio is dithering noise, for instance. I know this may be unconventional, but I master to a digital tape format from FCP with reference tone at -20 and program audio peaking anywhere from -6 to -3. When I make a BetaSP or other analog dub from that digital master, I adjust tone on the analog tape to be 0db with program peaking around +3. I do this by using the playback volume knobs on the digital deck – when they are popped in (unity), the -20 tone is 0db on the beta deck, but after the tone plays I pop them out to an adjusted lower level that puts the program on the beta deck peaking around +3. This method gives me the best signal on both the digital and analog tape formats.
Chris Tomberlin
Editor/Compositor/Owner
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I hate to sound like a “me too”, but “me too.” Also, thanks for a great idea Walter, I’ll be posting something similar before long. I think this is a good approach, plus anybody who has the pro video support should call and pester them in person too.
Chris Tomberlin
Editor/Compositor/Owner
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[Walter Biscardi] “Instead of concentrating on all this “Gee Whiz will you look at all the new features” it would be nice for the FCP team to actually keep basic functionality working.”
I could not agree with this more. Unfortunately, Apple marketing realizes that the slogan “Final Cut 5 – It actually works now!” doesn’t sell new copies of the software.
Chris Tomberlin
Editor/Compositor/Owner
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[isoprophlex] “This is happening with and without wacom. “
Be advised that the Wacom tablet uninstaller does not actually uninstall everything. You need to remove all tablet related files in the following directories:
Applications
Library/PreferencePanes
Library/Preferences
Library/StartupItemsRestart with the tablet disconnected. Once I did this, moving the mouse would briefly pause shuttling, but would not make it hang. It would be great if you could verify this behavior.
[isoprophlex] “Problem is that editors do not realize that they are moving the mouse when their pen hoovers over the tablet.”
Absolutely. Decreasing the “range” of the tablet would help, if that were possible. We probably need to get Wacom involved in this…
Thanks
Chris Tomberlin
Editor/Compositor/Owner
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Are you using (or have you used) a Wacom tablet on your system? When you are shuttling and you move the mouse, does playback stop permanently, or does it start back up again as soon as you stop moving the mouse? I have the same issue here, and am trying to determine what role my tablet is playing in causing this problem. Essentially, the tablet will stop shuttling all together and cause FCP to hang temporarily, while removing all tablet software and moving the mouse causes shuttling only to pause briefly then start again.
Thanks
Chris Tomberlin
Editor/Compositor/Owner
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Are you using OSX 10.4 and FCP 5.0? Does your system have drivers for any i/o card like a Decklink, Kona, iO or anything installed, or are you doing everything via firewire? There is a problem right now with Tiger FCP5 and AE where a gamma shift occurs in many situations when viewing or rendering out of AE. I don’t usually work with DV, but I can definitely make it happen with uncompressed and HD. The only complete fix I am aware of is to work in Panther with FCP 4.5.
Chris Tomberlin
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