[Dan Charrington]

I’ve run into this as well using the KONA cards. It’s peculiar and rather a pain when the workflow involves programs like FlipFactory.

We’ve just resorted to re-exporting any file with a quirky framerate or aspect ration out of QT Player 7 again with fixed values. It’s a pain and really kills an efficient workflow.

Hopefully they will correct and account for this issue when Final Cut 8 is announced.

Wait…

–

Dan Charrington
Supervisor, Non-Linear Technologies

MIJO
635 Queen St E. Toronto, ON
416-964-7539

MacPro 8-core Xeon 2.8GHz, 10gb Ram, AJA Kona 3 SD/HD

[Dan Charrington]

Thanks for the tips Dave.

It is huge. Nears 700 gigs.

A Compressor render makes sense. I guess we figured render in FCP vs render in Compressor… six up, half a dozen down. Guess in this case, that’s not the case!

I’ve managed a work-around for now. Still, good to know for the next wonky job.

Can’t say I’ve met mister Roberts. Toronto is a big place. I’ve only been here for about five years.

Thanks again!

–

Dan Charrington
Supervisor, Non-Linear Technologies

MIJO
635 Queen St E. Toronto, ON
416-964-7539

MacPro 8-core Xeon 2.8GHz, 10gb Ram, AJA Kona 3 SD/HD

[Dan Charrington]

It’s a moot point at this stage, since I’ve learned that is all a quick fix to a problem that apparently is going to get reworked by our engineers down the line, so I’m really not about to waste my (or your) time with it much further.

I was mostly just probing for answers out of curiosity. Thanks guys.

–

Dan Charrington
Supervisor, Non-Linear Technologies

MIJO
635 Queen St E. Toronto, ON
416-964-7539

MacPro 8-core Xeon 2.8GHz, 10gb Ram, AJA Kona 3 SD/HD

[Dan Charrington]

No, Rafael. I really can’t. Mine is not to question why in this case. Mine is to give them what they want or they will cry.

I’m with you though. Of all things, why they want an H.264 is really beyond me when there are much better options.

–

Dan Charrington
Supervisor, Non-Linear Technologies

MIJO
635 Queen St E. Toronto, ON
416-964-7539

MacPro 8-core Xeon 2.8GHz, 10gb Ram, AJA Kona 3 SD/HD

[Dan Charrington]

Thanks for the input guys.

Just to clarify, I’m actually not using Final Cut Pro at all in the encoding process. The Quicktime (XDCAM codec) files are going from XDCam Transfer right into Compressor.

I did some tests with exporting H.264 files out of Final Cut Pro, but I’m really not that impressed with how FCP handles interlaced content when encoding H.264. I like what Compressor does better.

The only reason I’ve been using FCP is to clearly check (with the waveforms turned on in the timeline) where the audio information ends up.

John, in the Inspector, I have indeed tried settings other then Stereo. I mentioned using the Linear PCM setting with both the STMPE DTV configuration as well as all the 7.1 variations, as well as AAC audio with all its 8 channel configurations. It’s the same thing. (Although oddly the audio gets mixed down to channels 2 and 3).

Rafael, your theory is one I also experimented with, and yes, that’s a viable option, but not within the time constraints and volume capacities I have to fire these out in. We get dozens of clips worth of material daily, and I can’t be anchored to the FCP station churning them out. Realistically, it’s Compressor (or some other form of set-it-and-forget-it batch exporting option, or bust.

For now, the “Pass-through” option seems to be making everyone happy, so I’m sticking with that. Jeremy, I will attempt your experiment down the line if I have time.

Thanks again.

–

Dan Charrington
Supervisor, Non-Linear Technologies

MIJO
635 Queen St E. Toronto, ON
416-964-7539

MacPro 8-core Xeon 2.8GHz, 10gb Ram, AJA Kona 3 SD/HD

[Dan Charrington]

Sorry Don. I didn’t build these machines. I just use them as best I can.

Wish I could be of more help. Good luck, regardless.

–

Dan Charrington
Supervisor, Non-Linear Technologies

MIJO
635 Queen St E. Toronto, ON
416-964-7539

MacPro 8-core Xeon 2.8GHz, 10gb Ram, AJA Kona 3 SD/HD

[Dan Charrington]

Not to worry Joey. The majority of stuff that we receive in the production room for all the movie clients is always pristine. (I can’t speak for the guys upstairs in the Post department).

Most of the material that is afflicted is commercial material.

–

Dan Charrington
Supervisor, Non-Linear Technologies

MIJO
635 Queen St E. Toronto, ON
416-964-7539

MacPro 8-core Xeon 2.8GHz, 10gb Ram, AJA Kona 3 SD/HD

[Dan Charrington]

Good thought. It makes sense since a lot of the material I work with is commercial material. Chances are they are mastering to 23.98 SR tapes and pulling 29.97fps files from those to send to us for distribution to televisions stations and the like.

Thanks for the insight.

–

Dan Charrington
Supervisor, Non-Linear Technologies

MIJO
635 Queen St E. Toronto, ON
416-964-7539

MacPro 8-core Xeon 2.8GHz, 10gb Ram, AJA Kona 3 SD/HD

[Dan Charrington]

Good call Rafael.

The problem I have with the monitors at least is that the bosses are all dead set on replacing our CRT monitors with big shiny flat screen JVC monitors. My co-workers and I hate them. They never display interlaced material properly since they are HD monitors and act like progressive scan computer monitors.

The added pull-down you mentioned… what would that be a result of? I’ve noticed that any footage we digitize into our FCP system via our KONA 3 card tends to pick up a slightly less severe amount of that as well. Is it something that is added via exporting from certain software? Is it something that can be controlled through a setting?

Thanks, as always, for your time.

–

Dan Charrington
Supervisor, Non-Linear Technologies

MIJO
635 Queen St E. Toronto, ON
416-964-7539

MacPro 8-core Xeon 2.8GHz, 10gb Ram, AJA Kona 3 SD/HD

[Dan Charrington]

Thanks for the response Rafael.

I wouldn’t dream of relying on the scopes in FCP. Not when I have hardware scopes to rely on.

I did the tests you suggested. The only way I could find to change the mapping option you suggested in FCP was to dive into the Capture Preset Editor on one of the codecs I’ve been using. (The 10-bit RGB AJA Kona3 one).

In the Advanced tab under the Quicktime Video Settings, there was an option to switch the “Range” from SMPTE (64-940) to FULL (0-1023)

I digitized some 4:4:4 footage under both settings, but the results were the same.

At this point, I’m merely fishing around for insight purely for my own curiosity. Down the line though, if I ever have to end up working with 4:4:4 footage again, it’d be nice to have a solution to the whole levels-being-altered thing besides simply fixing it with a simple filter, render and export if it turns out an exported file is the desired outcome.

Again, though… thanks for the insight.

–

Dan Charrington
Supervisor, Non-Linear Technologies

MIJO
635 Queen St E. Toronto, ON
416-964-7539

MacPro 8-core Xeon 2.8GHz, 10gb Ram, AJA Kona 3 SD/HD