[Christopher S. johnson]

No. I dont have a BM card yet. This was an exploratory question before buying the card.

Anyone else have a BM captured UC, DV, or DVCPRO-HD file they can share with us?

Thanks,

-Christopher

[Christopher S. johnson]

OK, this is from Blackmagic tech support today! I wrote them about this.
————————————————————-
“Christopher,

Okay…so long as both of you are using a modern version of FCP (5 or later)
then it should work well as both Blackmagic and AJA use the native QT
codecs. There should be absolutely no difference between them.

There may be problems on older versions of FCP as both AJA and BMD had their
own codecs to make up for the lack of proper codec support for QT.

Joshua Helling
Director of Support
Blackmagic Design Inc.
http://www.blackmagic-design.com

On 8/11/07 11:44 AM, “christophersj@earthlink.net”
wrote:

> Name: Christopher S. Johnson
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Product: DeckLink Extreme PCIe
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Driver Version:
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> OS: Mac OS X
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> OS Version:
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Message:
> Hi, Im wanting to buy the HD Extreme card for Final Cut Pro. My question is
> this.
>
> The files I capture in DV, DVCPRO-50, DVCPRO-HD, and Uncompressed SD and HD —
> can my client, who has an AJA Kona card, play them back and edit them with NO
> RT performance hit. Are the codecs exactly the same on both sides? Or are
> there small differences that will make green RT bars show up on an AJA?
>
> I need my client to not notice any difference between my captures and his —
> in HIS FCP timeline.
>
> Thank you.
>
> -Christopher
>

[Christopher S. johnson]

“Any chance, Chris, you can post a 2 second dv capture somewhere so I can download it and see what’s going on?”

Im on another job right now with just plain FW Macs. Mattso, can you provide one?

-Christopher

[Christopher S. johnson]

What I mean is, I have a creepy feeling that if I capture say…DVCPRO-HD through SDI on my Blackmagic Mac, that my clint, on his AJA Mac, will get a file that is MOSTLY right but is still little different and makes for an RT effect just for him to play aback and edit.

My experience is with AJA and I know that even on that single system a DV file captured over SDI or Component, vs. just FireWire will not behave properly in each other’s Sequences. There is an AJA DV Sequence and a FireWire DV Sequence, and if you transplant, you get a dark green render bar.

It shouldn’t be, but I think this might happen between a BM Mac and an AJA Mac. And that would hurt my relationship with my client.

I’m looking for someone who knows that, not just the Uncompressed, but all of the DV based codecs also playback cross platform and with NO dark green render bars in each other’s timeline/ Sequences.

Thanks guys, this is educational.

-Christopher

[Christopher S. johnson]

And the same would go for say DV, or DVCPRO-HD between systems? No dark green RT bars? Because even on the AJA alone, DV files seem slightly different between FW capture and SDI-to DV capture. Cross pollenating DV files from either method results in dark green RT bars.

Thanks guys.

[Christopher S. johnson]

So they will play, but…

The files I capture with Blackmagic in DV, DVCPRO-50, DVCPRO-HD, and Uncompressed SD and HD — can my client, who has an AJA Kona card, play them back and edit them with NO RT performance hit. Are the codecs exactly the same on both sides? Or are there small differences that will make green RT bars show up on an AJA?

I need my client to not notice any difference between my captures and his — in HIS FCP timeline.

Thanks for the clarification.

-Christopher

[Christopher S. johnson]

Coolio. Thanks.

[Christopher S. johnson]

Hi, I’m one of those editors who can both troubleshoot the NLE, capture card, deck, and story-tell. Sometimes when not editing documentaries, I even gig as just a FCP Techie. So there are no sour grapes when I say this:

I dont know about the kinds of projects you guys are working on, but in documentary and doc series, story-telling is king. I have seen my share of technically knowledgeable editors who couldn’t come up with appropriate emotional cues or empathize with the client’s talking points and they were let go. out-the-door-goodbye. Nobody would have fired them for not knowing how to look at a deck menu!

I can do some audio sweetening, because I forced myself to learn on low budget jobs. And I can do some graphics, because I was the only one with an inkling to learn on a project. But people who are dedicated to these professions can KICK MY ASS at these! There is no way to become the best at everything and if you do, you will most certainly only be mediocre at most of them. There arent enough hours in a day.

For documentaries, if you find a good storyteller, keep them. A techie can be hired on an “as needed” basis. You can hire a graphics and sound mixer later.

I think some of us are just “lucky” to be both story and tech proficient. Expecting this as a standard may produce many plain-janes who really dont have a lot of talent in either but “just pass” in both areas.

A good storyteller is worth their weight in gold.

-Christopher

[Christopher S. johnson]

Hmm. So if my client was shooting with the JVC camera I would have to ask them to shoot in 30p instead? Or what if I am transcoding to DVCPRO-HD on the fly anyway? Wouldn’t 24p with the pull down frames added behave OK? I dunno.

-CJ

[Christopher S. johnson]

It might work,but it would still be an MPEG stream that FCP wouldnt know what to do with. Im pretty sure you would have to transcode to another codec.

The analog solution may look fantastic if you are going to standard def anyway.

-Christopher