[Craig Seeman]

Since nearly everything I do is going to SD DVD, I’m thinking of Flip4Mac Pipeline which can take SD from SDI and realtime downconvert to DVCPro50 and IMX50.

I’d like to find out if the time code will match. If so, then I can edit in SD and “auto assemble” HD from the SD timeline if I need to do an HD version.

I suspect the HD to SD downconvert in Compressor (which should like nice) may be very slow.

Basically since SD still is dominant amongst my clients I’m thinking if I can convert to SD realtime and auto assemble HD as needed that would be the fastest workflow.

[Craig Seeman]

I strongly expect that 35mbps VBR with 1920×1080 (and that can be 1080p not just 1080i) source from 1/2″ CMOS chips will look better than the Z1 with 25mbps CBR and 1/3″ CCDs.

We need to see how the downconvert looks coming out of the HD-SDI port and that may vary depending doing it “live” vs off the compressed video on the cards.

[Craig Seeman]

[jiri vrozina] “Don I meant HDCAM or DigiBeta recording to SxS cards,same as on HVX200-DVCPRO50 or 1080i recording to P2 . “

So you want data rates so high that the record time will be much shorter on cards than the HVX200. I guess you want the cards to cost $5000 each? Maybe it’s the 4 way striped portable hard drive attachment sorta like the CinePorter that didn’t happen only much more expensive and more years development time. .

Heck why not just take HD-SDI 4:2:2 1920×1080 out to a raid from the EX-1. That’s “uncompressed” and untouched by the MPEG2 codec . . . hmm well you can actually do that with the camera . . . now where to find that protable raid belt pack with quiet fans.

[Craig Seeman]

I’ve heard the rotating wrist strap really helps though.

Get a set of 10lb weights and do some wrist curls.

I’d be skeptical about assertions on codec wrangling since the NLEs (and/or Sony) may not have updated importers yet to handle MPEG2 wrapped in MP4 (rather than MXF).

[Craig Seeman]

[Michael Slowe] “hey seem to doubt that there will be much demand!!!”
Maybe they meant they didn’t think there’d be much demand for Media 100s these days.

Media 100 has been resurrected so many times I could have sworn I saw a zombie carrying one in Sci Fi Channel feature.

Well I guess that’s when you know it’s time to move on to another NLE. The EX isn’t using the MXF wrapper (so I’ve read). It’s MPEG2 in an MP4 wrapper.

HD World is in NYC on OCT 10,11 (in two days) so I’m hopping Sony will have one there as well as someone at the both who can answer questions. These days I’m having mixed results with booth critters knowing what they’re talking about at trade shows.

[Craig Seeman]

You can do an auto start DVD in iDVD but I don’t think you can do a loop though.

DVDStudioPro can compress the file for you. It’s using the same engine as Compressor (although with less tweaks). Try importing the dv .mov file straight in DVDStudio Pro and build and encode in that.

Check the COW DVDStudioPro forum to double check how to autio and loop. I suspect that might be simple enough to do and make your deadline.

[Craig Seeman]

DG has changed a couple of things so I haven’t tested with revised preset but I’ve passed their DropBox test before. I can email you a preset to test though. Give me your email and I’ll send it to you ASAP.

I edit with FCP these days though. Make sure your audio and video levels are to spec before encoding.

[Craig Seeman]

I’m sure many NLEs will include ways to import the files directly (MPEG2 wrapped in MP4 – interestingly enough).

You might want to contact the folks who currently develop Media 100 (Boris I believe). It might be a good question to ask on the Media 100 Cow forum.

These days it’s quite common for SDI to carry Video, Audio, Time Code.

[Craig Seeman]

q[sam100] ” exported full quality into QT”
Depending on how you interpret “full quality” you may have done a compression to
h.264 .mov. You want to keep it as DV .mov.

If you’re encoding to DVD your best judge is TV, not laptop screen where video may be scaled up or down and hide artifacts.

If you compressed in Compressor, Toast is compressing again. Toast will handle TS folders with VOB in them without further compression but you’re not going to get that out of Comressor. DVD Studio Pro can build TS folders for you but if all this is beyone you, you aren’t going to learn this and get it done in two days (although you could with a good tutorial, some human help, learn the basics in not much more time).

iDVD is designed for just this situation. You can take your full size full quality edited DV .mov and drop it into iDVD and design the menu and what you’ll get will look good if you set quality to Best (the settings and quality are slightly different between iDVD 06 and iDVD 08).

[Craig Seeman]

I can only guess that you’ve compressed this multiple times given your workflow.

To be blunt honest I don’t think you’ll learn how to do this correctly in two days with a workflow like that.

My suggestion. After editing in iMovie simply send it to iDVD and set quality to Best.

You don’t mention your source codec (DV, HDV, ?) but unless you export out of iMovie in the source codec, you’ve compressed the video. You may well have compressed it again exporting out of FCP. You’ve compressed it again using Compressor and then compressed it again using Toast (which is a FINE app if you know how to use it).

Solutions
1) as I mention above, after editing in iMovie export to iDVD
2) Edit your entire project in FCP only and then export self contained and compress in iDVD
3) If you compress in Compressor then design the DVD in DVDStudioPro
4) If you don’t use solution 1 I suggest you hire someone who knows what they’re doing to do this.

You may be able to learn how to do this correctly in a few days but not in time to get this project done IMHO.