[Craig Seeman]

Unless one can switch NLEs and eat the cost as they become defunct, it’s a risky purchase IMHO. I know facilities that took a hit when Discreet Edit was abandoned. It took Apple some time for many to take them seriously as a LONG TERM player.

Even on the Mac said there’s a bump or two in the workflow. FCP can import P2 but it loses the metdata. Some might want MXF import. Telestream makes an MXF importer (Flip4Mac) that handles XDCAM source in FCP. There might be a market for that for P2, which seems to be different variant of MXF implementation. There’s also the cross platform work flow. One can’t Export MXF from FCP and that would be useful. While one can wrap DVCPro50 in AVI, Quicktime doesn’t have a means to wrap DVCProHD. Same issue for DV stream (supports 50 but not HD). Right now you can export DVCProHD wraped in mov but many Windows NLEs can’t use that.

[Craig Seeman]

Open your WMV file in WMP9 Mac and use File/Get Info. That’ll tell you what WMV variant you have. Post the info here if you’d like. CM should work as Charles states but in certain cases using Flip4Mac Player Pro which will work in most any Quicktime based app, may handle some variants that CM can’t.

[Craig Seeman]

You can set bit rates MUCH higher than the presets. You should be able to encode at least to 6000kbps by typing it in. Certainly try typing in 800kbps. Make sure you set Input Frame to Interlace UPPER field first, Output Frame Progressive. You have access to processing filters if you encode in Compressor 2 which Flip4Mac works in.

[Craig Seeman]

DV/DVCAM is not quite the same as DVCPro25. They’re all 25Mbps BUT there are some differences to the tape format. There’s DVCPro25 (sometimes called standard), DVCPro50 DVCPro100 (also called DVCProHD). While the DSR11 may play DVCPro25 it’s not “officially” supported by the Sony DSR11 (whereas the DSR-1500 does).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DV#DVCPRO

[Craig Seeman]

Just to be clear both iDVD and Compressor are creating an MPEG2 file for the video. iDVD is creating PCM audio whereas Compressor 2 or APACK are creating a smaller AC3 audio file giving you more room for a higher bit rate MPEG2 video.

[Craig Seeman]

iDVD using the Best Quality setting in preferences should give you a pretty good encode. That may be the safest route for you given the short file.

iDVD encodes the audio as PCM which takes up a lot of room. iDVD doesn’t really give any feedback to the user regarding its data rate though. With Compressor 2 you can encode the audio using the AC3 setting which creates a smaller audio file. This gives you more room to up the video bit rate (within reason) which could give you better quality. If you’re still using Compressor 1 you’d have to use APACK to compress the audio. You do have to have an understanding about what settings to use though to go this route.

[Craig Seeman]

I’ve heard people have been able to play DVCPro25 tapes from a DSR11 although output through analog only. You might try taking the S-Video and RCA audio and put it through another device (camera for example) and then take the firewire out of that into FCP.

[Craig Seeman]

Wouldn’t DVCProHD play through firewire? Much higher resolution. Still compressed but 4 times less than DV. DVCPro50 might be a compromise.

[Craig Seeman]

” . . . some post houses will have a transfer service from external hard drive to dvcpoHD tape ??
it may not work for production but it is needed in post for archives/backup”

I’m sure that’ll be available too as well as renting Panasonic’s $25,000 DVCProHD deck to output to tape. I do think BluRay will actually make more sense for archival purposees. A 45 minute DVCProHD data file can be recorded to disk. Barring a scratched disk it’l probably have better longevity than tape. One can access points on a disk near instantly compared to tape shuttle. One will be able to copy a disk or any section to another disk much faster than real time. Even if the first BluRay burners are $5000 and 50GB disk $50 each, it’ll be more cost effective and time efficient archival than DVCProHD tape.

See this news release from Panasonic
https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_read_post.cgi?forumid=105&postid=855298
although it’s about replication, my hunch is that’s not the only BluRay use they’re working on.

[Craig Seeman]

A not there yet fantasy of mine –

A portable powered 50GB BluRay disc burner. Burn the disc after the shoot at 2x or 4x speed from the Firestore/CinePorter/CitiDisk
OR
Add files to a BluRay disc from the P2 cards. Shoot’s done, disc’s done.

Have two self powered burners and you’d even be able to clown the disc at 2x or 4x and they leave with a master as well as you – much faster than having to clone a tape at the studio.

I can’t be the only one thinking this way. Given Panasonic is working on BluRay recording (not just Sony) I can’t help but think they’re thinking in that direction. The workflow may even prove to be an alternative to XDCAMHD.

Alas, I can dream can’t I?