[Craig Seeman]

BTW do you have QT 7.3?

Try trashing your prefs. If that fails do reinstall your ProApps. That’s not too painful because you don’t need to reinstall all the media, just the ProApps.

I’ve seen some issues with QT7.3 and Compressor 2.x so I don’t doubt certain OS and/or QT combinations may “go beyond” compatibility . . . although I can’t confirm that yet.

There’s often a “suite/sweet” spot where software versions were designed to work together. It’s possible that updating some software and not others can begin to cause issues.

[Craig Seeman]

There was a time when you could do a really good quality (high data rate) Flash encode for YouTube and they’d accept it without re-compression.

Those days are gone though.

I’ve seen several “formulas” for encoding for YouTube. One viable method is to encode to H.264 at 320×240 (they scale from that) at the highest possible data rate that keeps you under their 100MB file size limit.

[Craig Seeman]

While Flip4Mac can certainly play back that codec on the Mac, I can’t even FATHOM why you’d want to encode to MPEG4v2. Is this for playback on antique computers?

Heck I don’t even think Windows Media Encoder on Windows encodes anything older than WMV7

Even Windows Media Player 7.1 can play back Windows Media Video 9 files. WMP7.1 works on nearly 10 year old Windows 98. If someone hasn’t moved beyond WM98 SE then I’d either get them an OS upgrade or a new computer.

[Craig Seeman]

Once you render to add FX in After Effects and then compressing again to WMV you’re going to have SIGNIFICANT loss. Sorry but there is a fundamental issue with your workflow if quality is important.

If you must work with WMV source IDEALLY it should have been compressed using “Quality” encoding which is 1 Pass VBR with Quality set to 100.

What you target for final export depends on intended use. If your result is for archival or future reuse as a source, use 1 Pass VBR with Quality set to 100.

Any work you do in After Effects should be in the highest quality codec you can manage so your rendering does the least damage.

[Craig Seeman]

Keep in mind there are many advantages to the EX1 over the HVX. I suspect if you were recording DVCPro50 4:2:2 in the field for Green screen the HVX would have an advantage.

The EX1 is 4:2:2 Uncompressed both Hi Def and Standard Def out of HD-SDI from the camera head.

I do think 4:2:0 (especially progressive) will key well. Many good keyers today will have “chroma smoothing” filters to help it. It may not be “pushed” as far as 4:2:2 though.

[Craig Seeman]

The first people in Europe started getting them around Nov 19. One person in the USA that I know of got it on Nov 21. Several people have been getting them in US and Europe since Monday of this week.

It seems far far far fewer cameras shipped then are pre ordered. My own dealer got two, their show camera and one rental unit. I’m number 3 (next) on the list. I was told the end of next week or the beginning of the following. (Dec 7 or 10). Other have reported also hearing mid December.

I think the reason you, and others, are hearing January, because it’ll probably take all of December to fill the pre orders.

But clearly from what my own dealer has said. Rental units are available (but I can imagine those are being/have been rented very quickly).

[Craig Seeman]

[dvproducer] “What really pisses me off, is they wanted changes made after the fact, they still haven’t paid but they are still airing the commercials. “

Airing the Commercials!!! How about suing for copyright infringement. There’s been NO transfer of rights. Why the heck would any hand over finished material before payment?!

Even if you didn’t collect a penny during the whole process you could have given them Window burn in or Watermarked dubs for “approval” and they’d either pay up or get nothing.

I am not a lawyer and you may certainly need one but I can’t imagine how they can claim they own the copyright on anything when technically it isn’t even a work for hire since they’ve yet to have consummated even a nominal transaction. Handing someone video does not give them the right to use the content.

[Craig Seeman]

Gosh, I’ll bet you know most of the answers you’ll get anyway with 20/20 hindsight.

You should have had a contract although even that doesn’t guarantee payment.
ALWAYS get money up front whether it be 1/3 or 1/2 or some other formula.

Sometimes when I do hourly I don’t have a contract but that means I get paid at the end of the day. You shoot you get paid. You do edit or graphics work you get paid that day. You can give them window dubs (I charge for that too) as proof of work done but you get paid every step of the way doing that.

Just because they say they’ll pay you 2/3s doesn’t mean you’ll get that either. They can string you along for months.

Even winning in small claims court doesn’t guarantee and if you have no paper trail they may well claim it was your friend of friend who made the promises, not them.

In addition, I’d do the donuts and spots as two separate jobs. Spots don’t happen until donuts are paid for.

As a business my PRIME DIRECTIVE is to keep the business IN BUSINESS.

I’d very politely sit down with them and say that you must get paid in FULL for the donuts before doing anything else with the spots. If they want to discuss the number of spots that’s a separate deal. I simply would not risk continuing to get nothing. If the 2/3s is a tolerable compromise for you then you should get THAT immediately before proceeding with any work.

In short I’d do NO FURTHER WORK unless some satisfactory amount of money hit my bank account.

NEVER allow yourself to be put in this situation again. Again I’ve done hourly without a contract but that means I get paid at the end of the day. With contract I always REQUIRE money up front.

[Craig Seeman]

[heath firestone] “ony records at 1440X1080”

The EX1 records at 1920×1080.

[heath firestone] “o a live capture off of HDSDI, your can actually capture 4:4:4 if you capture uncompressed”

The EX1 HD-SDI output is 4:2:2 uncompressed (either 10 bit or 8 bit with 2 “dummy” bits – that’s being debated by some).

[Craig Seeman]

Most PC are using NTFS these days (I believe). Yes the card splits the clips after 4GB but through “magic” you can keep them joined. It’s actually why Sony says use the ClipBrowser to xfer rather than Finder.

Alas ClipBrowser only works on Intel Mac but XDCAM xfer 2.1 works just fine on G5.