[Dino]

The latest FCP is 6.0.5. have you run any other system or Pro App updates recently? There was a bug that caused this, cant remember if it was 6.0.1. Time to update Final Cut.

First try a full shut down and restart.

[Dino]

You have over 100 half hour shows that exist only in your Final Cut system? Are there no tape masters? Are these still timelines of edits or single complete files of entire episodes?

If you don’t already have properly formated, quality controlled, content checked master tapes to simply copy and need to come from a timeline, this moves from a dub with conversion to a mastering job with the added complication of mastering to a different standard. I would charge a lot of money for this and they should too.

I would say that with the time this requires, you are better off renting the equipment and doing it yourself (and maybe hire a video engineer to at least set it up) except I don’t know how you are going to get proper timecode across standards coming from FCP.

[Dino]

I’ve had decent success with that method for HDV tapes. I was merely suggesting a possibility.

[Dino]

Considering that you need “Digibeta SP” it might be best to outsource it to someone with the proper hardware. Also, mentioning what your source is might be nice.

You make no mention of your location in reference to asking for commendations for a facility. In the New York area, I have had much success with Devlin Video.
https://www.devlinvideo.com/

[Dino]

Under User Preferences, On timecode break, “make new clip”

Set yourself up with the capture window.

Rewind the tape.

Press play on the deck.

Under Capture, Hit “Now”

Should automatically build a new clip at every timecode break.

Once it gets past the last recorded material, Final Cut will keep playing tape until the end, looking for timecode. It’s okay to stop it once you know you are past all recorded material.

This might work. And speaking of what might be, reading through your post, all we can gather is that you have tapes and Final Cut. It would be helpful to all if moving forward any questions provide lots of specific details. The more detail there is, the easier it is to provide an answer.

[Dino]

I would just go with the files from the P2 cards. They are as high a quality as they are going to be at this point. AVC intra is a full raster format so there is no mucking with interpolation in the timeline.

Adding the extra step of the P2 to HD-SDI seems an unnecessary burden.

[Dino]

First of all, Digibeta can be 24P, just like so many other camcorders claim to be. That is, acquire a 23.976 frames per second progressive image, add pulldown, record to tape at 29.97. the DVW970 does just this. The tape can also be (as is the case here) a film transfer. It can also be a downconvert of 24 frame HD.

Certainly, Digibeta can’t actually be 24P (unless you have the rare slow PAL deck). However the image on it can have been acquired as 24P. I don’t want to get into a big discussion of what people mean as opposed to what they say or what they say when they don’t know what the mean… Suffice to say that nobody knows everything and very few people know most things. The trick is to know enough that the more that you know is worth someone paying you for knowing it.

That said, you can capture 24P (23.976P) from Digibeta. Blackmagic has, since before they did HD, offered the ability to do a live pulldown removal on capture (still SD only). It’s one of the supplied easy setups.

I must be bored, hitting an old thread like this.

[Dino]

In a Component Digital High Definition, Y, Cr, Cb 1080 full raster image
Y has 1920 samples per line, Cr and Cb have 960 samples each.

In HDCam
Y has 1440 samples per line, Cr and Cb have 480 samples each.

In DVCProHD
Y has 1280 samples per line, Cr and Cb have 640 samples each.

In HDV
Y has 1440 samples per line, Cr and Cb have 720 samples per every other line.
(each color channel exists only on every other horizontal line)

[Chris Rogers] “HDCAM playing back at 4:2:2”
Any format that stores a sub sample raster has to resample a full raster image for transmission on a fixed standard such as HD-SDI or HDMI. All that Sony means by this is that regardless of what the deck actually records, the signal delivered at the output conforms to the established standard (in this case, SMPTE 292M).

Why 4:2:2 can fail to describe quality:

In hypothetical A
Y has 256 samples per line, Cr and Cb have 128 samples each.
this is defined as 4:2:2. I’d hate to the fool trying to sell that.

In hypothetical B
Y has 3840 samples per line, Cr and Cb have 1280 samples each.
this is defined as 3:1:1. That would be lovely.

[Dino]

the 4:2:2 and it’s variants are an awkward bit of nomenclature. They are defined by a set of rules in which any particular instance can only reference itself. They can not necessarily serve as a means of comparison between different items. I would also say that 4:4:4 is almost a misdirect as what it conventionally means is RGB. Why can’t we just say RGB?

What you need to know:
HDCam and DVCProHD are both 8 bit sub-raster, filtered formats with high compression. They have certainly proven valid and acceptable in the professional world. They are however far from ideal.

HD-D5 and HDCam SR are both 10 bit full raster with milder compression. HDCam SR is the newer and better of the two. It has quickly become the delivery standard in many parts of the industry.

What you output to depends on what is available to you and what your client wants. If you have no client, HDCam is the most universal. that is, you should have little trouble getting at an HDCam deck most anywhere in the world.

Your high quality master could just be a ProRes file which you can always output to whatever is needed once the need arrives. Just keep more than one copy, please.

[Dino]

Might be a menu option for setup on output. that is, analog output at 7.5 ire. I know some of these little Sony decks just offered the Japanese standard of black at 0 (DSR-40, DSR-20). Other decks offer an option through the menu. If your deck has no menu option, I would say it only offers analog black at 0.

For a point of reference, see what options you have on your other deck, which is?