Dylan Reeve
Forum Replies Created
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This comes up a lot with the ‘younguns’ of the DV era…
Here is a thread from the Avid forums about it.Basically in older times, when non-linear editors were quite different the editing process worked very differently. Limitations of computing power and disk space meant that digitised footage was often much lower quality than the original recording. This was ‘offline quality’.
The offline editor digitised all the source footage at low res and edited from that.
The online editor took the EDL from that offline edit and then recompiled the problem at full quality with only the clips required to make the finished product. This online process is also where effects and transitions were created, as these features were often unavailable on the offline system.
Increasingly the distinction between the two is blurred, as computers get more powerful and video is increasingly all digital (and often file based). It is now possible (and common) to have all the footage available to the editor at full resolution for editing, and it can all be finished in one pass.
Often now, the online editing process would be more accurately referred to as ‘finishing’ where an online editors polishes the edit for final broadcast. This may include standardising transitions, tidying up or adding baseline keys and graphics, colour grading and ensuring all necessary standards are met.
Still in large productions the offline/online workflow is somewhat maintained, with an online editor reconforming the program from a supplied EDL or timeline from the original tapes.
The specific expectations and roles vary from place to place and job to job, but generally the offline editor cuts the show, and the online editor finishes it for release.
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Our Philips and Panasonic recorders both have no problem with DV video from our Avid Mojo box, and the Philips has definitely worked with DV from the Firewire out on our other HP workstation – I can’t see why they wouldn’t work with Macs and FCP. Our FCP suite is still in it’s infancy, so I haven’t tested with them yet, but the Panasonic (DMR-EH57 I think) is a very good recorder.
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Danger danger!
You can not digitise 25fps material shot on a Varicam into a 25fps project in FCP (or Avid) via Firewire.
The problem is that Varicam always operates at 60Hz (or 59.94Hz) no matter what it shot on it. The signal coming from the Firewire on the AJ-HD1400 will always be at 60Hz.
For this reason you simply cannot capture into a 50Hz-based project (anything 25fps or 50fps) from Firewire.
The HD1400 has a mode called ’25(HD)’ designed to cope with this, which generates 50Hz signals (specifically 1080i50 25PsF) from the 25fps Varicam footage. However it will ONLY output via HD-SDI and HD-Component – the Firewire signal will still be carrying 720p at 60Hz.
The only way to work with Varicam at PAL framerates is to capture using an AJA or Decklink card. the IoHD would be another option, but with only FW400 on your laptop, isn’t going to work.
The only software I am aware of which can capture the 25fps footage from the 60Hz Firewire signal is Grass Valley Canopus Edius Broadcast. Which is a Windows application.
This has been my nightmare for the past two months.
Our workflow now is using the ’25(SD)’ mode on the deck to capture Analogue SD video out (Firewire is still 720p 60Hz in that mode) into Avid for offline. Online will be in FCP, using the ’25(HD)’ mode on the deck, HD-SDI with a Decklink card.
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I’ll look at those tools, but I still don’t think I understand the out of order thing.
Files within directories can be ordered by many different attributes (name, size, creation date, etc).
How does this disorder represent itself to the user, and what impact does it have on the system?
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When I finished I ran DiskWarrior and I found that the 32% of items were out of order. With a system in such a conditions you start having problem as soon as you start any application.
I saw that post – to tell you the truth, it scared me a little.
What do you mean about ‘items out of order’ – is this disk fragmentation?
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But MacBooks are pretty cheap now. just getting one of those for everything but editing isn’t so bad, again if you’re getting paid to do this.
Silly as it might sound here – why not buy a ‘PC’? A fairly grunty Windows (XP, don’t punish yourself with Vista just yet) machine with a half-decent monitor is cheap as chips. For the types of things we’re talking about here, it’s hardly going to make a difference to anyone (email and web is the same on anything) – plus it gives you a little more diversity for those times when it’s just handy to have other systems.
Personally I wouldn’t be shelling out the extra $$$ for a Mac if I didn’t have to (obviously FCP is a ‘have to’ situation) but for all the other stuff, it’s all pretty much the same.
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Personally I feel that this is very much a left over from the PC editing world. I’ve edited on Avids for years and would suggest that they are only used for editing as they are way more sensitive in my experience.
I don’t think that is a realistic criticism any longer. Aside from a few specific conflicts, Avid is pretty resilient to other applications. I’ve had no problems with the majority of apps that you might reasonably want to use in this sort of situation.
There are a few gotchas (Avid can be pretty picky about graphics drivers and Quicktime versions) but mostly it’ll play happily with others (kind of like my two-year-old).
Certainly applications within reason should cause no problems. Perhaps games and things (likely to mess with things like graphics drivers) should be avoided, but general workstation apps are fine. I’ve run the full Adobe CS suite with Avid, no problems (even with Avid, AE, Photoshop and Encore open at once). I can even use Avid and Edius at the same time (as long as I start Edius first).
Don’t get carried away with it, but don’t freak out either I’d say. There’s plenty of GB and GHz to do around 🙂
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I can’t make any comment specific to Macs/FCP as I don’t have one just yet, but in the past few years, I’ve only edited in one suite that didn’t have at least a browser and email client on the editing computer, and that’s because it was a Linear online suite and didn’t even have an OS. However the character gen machine had browser, email and a few other apps.
On the suites I’ve installed an managed, I always install (beyond necessary editing stuff)
– Browser (typically Firefox)
– Email Client (typically Thunderbird)
– Office Suite (typically OpenOffice.org)
– CD/DVD Burning apps (typically Nero)
– Instant Messenger (typically MSN/Live Messenger)
– Virtual CD device (typically MagicISO thing)
– Media Player (typically VLC)Also, anti-virus and such.
I no-longer see browsing as a huge security risk (at least not with MSIE), nor email. But I also set Windows to disallow Outlook Express and MSIE from operation, as I don’t trust either of them.
As for viruses and other such nasties, I’ve found we’re far more at risk from client USB drives and the like than from email or web browsing. That should be even less of a concern on OS X with a properly implemented permission system.
I find it too difficult in a work environment to not have most of these things. While it is possible to setup another computer for these activities, it can be a pain.
I don’t think it’s a great idea to install any old thing, but at the same time, I don’t think you need to go overboard. Even Avid, which has been known for been picky about what it resides with, seems to have no major problems with anything I tend to install these days.
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You can use any DB9 switcher, it needn’t be an RS422 one specifically. It’s a simple serial connection, no need for any complex timing or anything – a simple mechanical switch is fine.
You used to be able to find Serial port switches really easily (less so now) – any of them should be fine.
Other wise, using an ethernet patch panel is fine (you can also use them for Firewire, and I’ve even seen them used for balanced audio, although that was a little dubious).
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DNxHD is available as a Quicktime Codec. And you can capture to it with Decklink, but for my brief experiments, it is not quite working. 720 resolutions still capture 1080 for some reason.
Also because of the compression overhead (I assume) it is unable to capture much without dropping frames. I got about 4 seconds before it dropped, at best.