Eric Jurgenson
Forum Replies Created
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Axio offers a distinct step up in power over I/O card-based systems. It appears to be the best system currently for handling multiple real-time streams of native file formats like HDV, XDCAM HD, and DVCPRO HD. Axio’s native file support insures maximum image quality and minimum storage space requirements. Axio significantly cuts down on the need to render, and rendering and exporting are faster than on other systems due to a well tuned combination of CPU, GPU, and hardware acceleration.
Matrox has done a good job integrating its real-time effects controls into the Premiere and After Effects interface. The Matrox effects, besides being real-time, are a welcome addition to the Premiere and AE effects palette. The system is very stable, and comprehensive in its support of HD and SD formats and frame rates.
Axio’s HD power is multiplied in SD, with more tracks and effects possible in real-time.
Premiere, while it has a way to go before it tops the best of Edit’s features, is “good enough” for long form up to medium complexity, and excellent for shorter project, and effect heavy work. The integration with the other Adobe applications is fantastic, and the Adobe suite is much greater than the sum of it’s parts.
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The RTX2 is like a mini-Axio, with the same real time effects, the ability to play multiple streams of native HDV in real time, and the same top-notch integration with Premiere Pro and After Effects.
Limitations are that it doesn’t have SDI, doesn’t do uncompressed (although the fact that it does compressed HD is a distinct advantage), and, like HDV, works with 1440 rather than 1920 pixels per line.
System costs are reasonable, and adequate performance can be achieved with a striped two drive SATA set.
One nice feature is the inclusion of a DVI connector that allows direct digital monitoring of the output. My system is set up with two 26″ 1920×1200 LCD monitors, and I switch the right hand one between the Premiere bin and the HD output with the monitor’s input select switch. This saves some money and desk space.
The system is very stable, and the native HDV file handling produces great quality and small file sizes. It’s nice to be able to monitor HDV video while you are capturing, and audio input metering is helpful as well.
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I guess it depends on whether you want to reframe your 4×3 16mm in telecine or post. I would think the quality would be better if you did it in telecine (optical blowup), but since a 16×9 slice out of a 4×3 16mm frame is going to be a bit soft anyway, the difference in quality may not be a huge issue.
In the case of doing the reframing in post, it would seem to make sense to transfer at 1080/24p to take advantage of the extra resolution over 720P, since you will be blowing up the image.
Also, note that HDCAM doesn’t support 720P (although HDCAM SR does)
As to TGA sequences vs. AVI clips, either should work, assuming you have an appropriate HD capture card. I would think the AVI files would be less unwieldy, and may render a bit faster. Also, can you do 10-bit TGA’s? If you have to go to 16-bit, the file sizes are going to be huge.
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Copy the video to an upper track; turn the opacity to around 50% and add a blur filter. Tweak the opacity and the blur amount to taste. As an alternative, try adding the blur filter to the lower track instead. Keep the tracks in sync, otherwise you could blow your mind.
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Axio/Axio LE is definitely the way to go. Multi-stream native HD file playback in real time with effects; direct file import via 1394 (no need for a deck). The money you save not buying a deck pays for the system! Why would anyone convert when you can edit from the native files – saving a ton of disk space among other factors. We are very happy with the XDCAM HD/Axio combination.
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It seems to be the OIS linkage picking up the vibration, at least in the case of the Z1U. Turning stabilization on or off had no effect. The amount of jitter in the image rendered it completely unusable.
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I would be leery of using any camera with optical image stabilization. We tried a shoot with a Sony Z1U with unacceptable results due to vibration of the stabilization mechanism. Turning the stabilization off did not help. I have not tried the HVX-200, but I would do a test run and have a backup camera available. I would also strongly suggest using a camera with some kind of remote iris control. We just did a shoot with an XDCAM HD system with excellent results.
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I worded this poorly. Open your Quicktime movie (made in Premiere) in QT Pro; then export (in QT Pro) with quick start enabled.
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Buy Quicktime Pro ($30.) and export original movie with Quick Start enabled.
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The NTSC DVD spec calls for 480 vertical lines, which eliminates the CC vertical interval signal in the encoding process. DVDs use open captioning, which can be created in your authoring software, and is turned on with your DVD remote.
Digisuite and Axio pass 486 lines (the NTSC D1 spec) including the vertical interval CC signal.