Don Greening
Forum Replies Created
-
[Marc Chapuis] “Do I just strap on 2 different receivers with antennae onto the camera”
Yes, you could do that. Probably the cheapest way to go. Here’s something to keep all that clutter under control:
[Marc Chapuis] “Is there a system where you just have 1 receiver box and it can pick up two simultaneously and then just go to 2 xlr’s out?”
Yes, there are wireless systems that can receive 2 lav signals with one wireless receiver but I can’t remember manufacturer names off the top of my head. I think Sony makes one or more models that do this but they’re not cheap. I’m not sure if the receiver has 2 XLR outs to keep the lav tracks (pun) separate for the camera.
As you mention in point #2 the best would be to have a sound recordist in charge of the lav audio and sending you a mix directly into your EX via XLR. The sound person would also be able to record all audio sources to separate tracks on his gear. Then you have backup.
For myself I use 2 Sennheiser systems plugged directly into the camera using both XLRs. Normally we shoot with at least one more camera so I have that for ambient and room tone.
Hope this helps.
– Don
-
[Charles M Clemmons] “The cost of the camera is the main reason I wanted to try to avoid upgrading the G4 to a MAC Pro right now. “
The cost of the camera is just part of it. Having a reliable workflow in place that’s tailored for what you’re shooting is very important and should be in place before you even turn the camera on. The camera is just one piece of a system, and when you buy the EX you’re also buying into the whole system and its companion workflow.
Craig and I are just trying to figure out the least expensive way for you to achieve what you want, and that is to have SD masters of EX footage for you to use in FCP 5.0.4. Unfortunately, even an SD downconvert from the EX SDI port may be too taxing for your G4 to handle without spending money, which, even at that, is a temporary solution. If you’ve already got an SDI workflow and hardware in place with your G4 then that’s great, you just need the camera now but you’ll still have to lug your G4 around to all your shoots and have the EX hooked up to house power because the stock battery won’t last more than an hour at best.
If you don’t have an SDI workflow with the required hardware in place then you might be surprised at the cost involved and whether you can even get a PCI SDI card for it. That’s why Craig mentioned the Mac Mini and Sony’s Clip Browser app. as the cheapest solution. It’s up to you to decide which way to go that will see you reaching for your wallet the least amount of times. The EX was designed from the ground up to be a whole lot faster workflow than tape based cameras. This results in more revenue in your jeans because time is money, but if you bog yourself down by trying to marry a cutting edge camera to past technology you’ll soon lose that time advantage.
– Don
-
[Jeremy Garchow] “Hope it’s fixed soon as SmoothCam is the bee’s knees.”
I heard that. Funny thing about the smooth cam renders. If I do smooth cam on the native XDCAM 1080p 30 clips the renders are never there the next time I open the project. But awhile back I down converted some stuff to DV NTSC first and then applied smooth cam to a few clips that needed it and those renders are rock solid. weird.
– Don
-
[walter biscardi] “In the meantime we’ve got our HP machine here now and by next week we should have DoStudio installed and be testing that out. “
Yeah, I’ve been following along on your PC adventure and I hope things work out for you on all fronts. Goodness knows that after all the Encore headaches it’s about time something worked right for you. Good luck with that.
Thanks for your kind offer of assistance but for the moment I’ll be content to just demo in HD and deliver in SD with the promise of keeping the HD versions on hard discs for awhile. Full res EX clips really don’t take up much more room than DV NTSC. Maybe 30 to 35% more space, which is nothing with today’s relatively inexpensive FW drives. I’m waiting for the updated XDCAM disk drive (PDW-U1), then I’ll just transfer everything to XDCAM disk.
– Don
-
[Charles M Clemmons] “Would the SD-SDI stream include all the information I would need to create the SD EDL for use later in the HD edit (e.g., audio, time code)?”
Yes, the SDI port outputs imbedded audio and TC. Your problem will be deciding what to use to record the camera’s SD-SDI stream. Are you the one who owns the camera or are you just receiving the video files from someone else?
The latest version of Sony’s free Clip Browser software will do an HD to SD downconvert but the program is Intel only, so that won’t work for your G4.
– Don
-
[walter biscardi] “Funny his Compressor settings are not what I would recommend for BluRay. “
Perhaps the settings are lifted from the manual as well. Anyway, I just thought you’d be interested in having a look. I just glossed over the article myself, as my intention is still to wait for Apple to do something. Your business is quite different than mine in that some of your clients already want BluRay but very few of mine ask about it. We have a big corporate trade show coming up and I’ll be using my laptop with a connected LCD TV to show my Sony EX footage in HD.
– Don
-
An in-depth article has just surfaced on the Ken Stone web site about how to author BD-R’s with FCP, Compressor and Encore. Might be worth a look:
https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/blu-ray_fcp_fields.html
– Don
-
Have you tried trashing FCP’s preference files yet?
– Don
-
[Annu Lilja] “Error while encoding file”
Your error log has told you that it’s a corrupt piece of video/graphic or a render file. You could watch your FCP sequence during playback and look for something obvious but the most common reason is a bad render file. It would take time to find out which render file is the bad one but since your project is 20 min. my recommendation is to trash all render files and then re-render. Then export your project again for encoding.
– Don
-
Thanks, Jeremy. The cause is officially joined. Thanks for the link.
– Don