[Enzo Tedeschi]

Canopus make a quite good little converter box. Not sure about the model number overseas, but here they are ADVC-100. Basically a firewire box I/O that also converts to analog. Easily go from Firewire to monitor – can also be used to digitise analog in through firewire into Mac. I used to use one on my old G4 system. I’ve seen ’em on ebay for around AUD$200…

Enzo Tedeschi
____________________________
Editor
Sydney, Australia

[Enzo Tedeschi]

A freebie method with higher compatibility would be to use an older codec like Sorenson 3 – it’s a bigger file, but users on QT5 will be able to view it without the having to download the QT7/iTunes package.

Enzo Tedeschi
____________________________
Editor
Sydney, Australia

[Enzo Tedeschi]

Or there’s that…

;o)

Enzo Tedeschi
____________________________
Editor
Sydney, Australia

[Enzo Tedeschi]

You could always use a boring old text layer that says 15 for the last frame, then use an expression on that to make it last the length of your comp…?

Enzo Tedeschi
____________________________
Editor
Sydney, Australia

[Enzo Tedeschi]

It may also help (depending on your codec) to ensure that your colours are set to “Millions of Colours +” The + refers to the alpha channel.

Also, you may need to tell your NLE to look for the alpha channel – some do not interpret it correctly by default.

Enzo Tedeschi
____________________________
Editor
Sydney, Australia

[Enzo Tedeschi]

Looks like it could be an interlacing issue to me…

I had tapes come back looking like that once – the DOP had shot some weird ‘progressive’ mode (not really) that gave us 1-field instead of two – effectively 50% resolution as you say.

Not saying that that is what is happening here, but it look similar to my eyes. Check the ‘interpretation’ of the QT in AE, and make sure your field order is around the right way…

See if that helps?

Enzo Tedeschi
____________________________
Editor
Sydney, Australia

[Enzo Tedeschi]

Have you checked the “/” quality sertting box in your layer settings?

Could you post a screenshot?

Enzo Tedeschi
____________________________
Editor
Sydney, Australia

[Enzo Tedeschi]

Make sure you move the files ‘together’ ie into the same folder structure onto your new drive. When you open your project, AE will complain about missing files.

Select one of the missing files in the project window and do a ‘Replace footage file’ – once AE finds it, it is smart enough to find all the others that are missing if they are in the same place relative to the first file.

I have done this often for footage on drives that go offline, and for moving from computer to computer, even Mac to PC and back – pretty safe to do.

Enzo Tedeschi
____________________________
Editor
Sydney, Australia

[Enzo Tedeschi]

If you run your firewire DV output to a deck or camera, you should be able to get S Video out from most of those.

Enzo Tedeschi
____________________________
Editor
Sydney, Australia

[Enzo Tedeschi]

What codec have you rendered your animation to? If you have rendered the QT as a ‘None’ compressor (uncompressed video), and your drives are not fast enough, that my account for the bad playback.

I have seen exactly what you are describing when attempting playback of a uncompressed file from a 7200rpm drive.

Enzo Tedeschi
____________________________
Editor
Sydney, Australia