[David Eells]

Have you ruled out shrinking the footage to make room for the timecode window?

[David Eells]

Thanks for the warning. This is just for the offline, I think. But if it’s also the final, I’ll be back with more questions….

[David Eells]

Thanks, Oliver.

I like you suggestion because I think it makes the current situation look more viable (I don’t think the team will put up with the effort of option 1 or the expense of option 2)

[David Eells]

Hi Jeremy and Gary

The Beta SP material is fine for the most part, and working as expected. I brought it in as 60p, and it plays on the 24p timeline when we enable Unlimited RT, and of course if we render it plays in Safe RT. The DVD-ripped stuff is a little more trouble.

I’m thinking that a film (true 24p) converted to an NTSC DVD, and then ripped to DV, and then laid onto a 720p23.98 timeline is bound to show some artifacts. I’m amazed it looks as good as it does. I want to suggest that they play the DVD into a varicam deck and ingest from that.

The bonus question is how come we can’t pull match frames from the DVD material. Maybe because it never had timecode to begin with, then it goes through a black box (DVDxDV) and then it’s just dropped into the 720p timeline.

I may ask them to rethink their workflow…

Gary –

Thanks for your perspective on this. I can’t believe anyone expects this to work as if all the material were 24p origination.

[David Eells]

Hey Walter

I’m not clear how to play the DVD into the Kona – doesn’t it accept only SDI?

Bud

[David Eells]

Thanks, Walter. I’ll live with it. It’s mostly an annoyance at this point.

[David Eells]

I meant to say a little off. As Walter says below, in this configuration FCP knows only non-drop timecode. It’s capturing the right stuff, but converting the timecode. An annoyance, really.

[David Eells]

A little history on this project:

It’s a two-hour science documentary that was begun by another team of producers. How and why they chose the format they did, I don’t know.

Because of creative differences, the Executive Producer took the project away from the original team and brought it in-house. The facility is healthy-sized, with a subtstantial installed Avid base, but a desire to move to Final Cut. The techs know Avid but have never seen a BM or Kona card. Contractors like me are not supposed to alter the equipment, even though I was brought in for my “technical knowledge” (it’s true!)

The lead editor (I’m the assistant) is also an Avid guy, but knows some Final Cut. So I’m a support player, and expected to be able to solve technical issues and FCP questions.

We start with a BlackMagic card, but word is that the editor wasn’t happy with it, so the techs swapped in a Kona card. At that point we leave my area of expertise, such as it is, and I turn to you guys ( tech support managed to install the Kona before I got in, and left me nice note to the effect of, “You’re all set, except for picture and sound.”)

Just to add to the fun, I had a detailed set of instructions given to me directly by someone at AJA, who gave me the wrong settings. I found it was possible, but not desirable, to upconvert 525i to 23.98p.

Yes, it was a headache and it cost me a half-day, but thanks to those of you who responed, I found my way through the thicket.

It may sound like a nightmare, but I’m a freelancer and some of this goes with the territory. On the plus side, it pays reasonably and I like the project.

So thanks again, and good luck to you all.

Budrick

[David Eells]

Yes. Did you catch the intended irony? (!)

[David Eells]

That’s the key