Evan Thomas phillips
1
COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
-
Caldigit makes an external RAID that will play back HD footage via an eSATA cable, and they offer an eSATA to Express34 adapter that will work with the MacBook Pro. Although, just because the RAID can spit it out at 200mbps doesn’t mean that the MacBook Pro’s Express34 bus is fast enough to take it in; you’d have to ask apple.
Also, you’d need a way to get HD footage onto the RAID, like an AJA IO. -
Like, take the PCIe card out and put it back in, or like buying a new Multibridge? Is BM willing to replace the unit free of charge?
-
I have a multi-bridge and the same problems. I tried uninstalling the 6.2 drivers and going back to the 6.1 drivers, and it didn’t help. Maybe it has something to do with firmware?
-
The alaising problem isn’t my main concern, it’s the dropped frames in SD timelines are preventing me from working on my project. Re-rendering with 6.1 made no difference.
-
When I posted before, everything seemed to be working fine, but now even though I’ve gone back to the 6.1 drivers, playing back rendered SD timelines is dropping frames in FCP! Also, I’m encountering the same aliasing issues during playback. Tried to lower both video and audio compression, still dropping frames. Any idea what could be causing this?
-
If you up to a better format to do the effects, render it out as 4:2:2 Uncompressed 10-bit, then compress it back down to DV, you shouldn’t “lose” the effect. I know this process sounds crazy, and I would have never believed it myself unless I had actually done it. I suspect the issue arises because DV cameras capture an MPEG stream onto DV tape, which is a compressed signal, then to do a firewire capture it is compressed again with the DV/DVCPRO codec. Good luck.
-
Actually, HDV is even more difficult to key than regular DV. The problem is the amount of color information, not resolution. Professional video equipment captures at 4:2:2 color space, which is pretty easy to key if it’s lit right. DV is only 4:1:1, it still has some Chroma information to draw from, but only half of what you really want. HDV is a 4:2:0 codec, which basically trashes the Chroma information; that’s how the HDV codec achieves 1080 lines of resolution at only 3mb/s. The reason to go analog into your NLE (you might even be able to rent an AJA IO from someplace) is to upconvert the DV 4:1:1 to 4:2:2 color space. It basically fakes the chroma information.
Another option would be to key on Luma, instead of chroma, but that would take some very precise lighting to pull it off, and you would probably want Shake to do the compositing.
-
I don’t know how much keying you’ve done from things shot on MiniDV, but it isn’t easy, especially if you’re ingesting the footage via firewire into your NLE. This will cause aliasing around your subject that makes keying almost impossible (unless you’re going for a certain look that will allow a massive alpha halo). What I’ve done in the past, is use a BlackMagic Multibridge to import the film via Analog Component as Uncompressed 10bit 4:2:2. Your files will be a lot bigger, but it smooths out the color channels and gives your footage (and keys) a more natural look. After that, I usually use KeyLight in AfterEffects; it does a pretty good job without a lot of fuss. The Multibridge is about $1500, or you can pay a post production house $200/hr. Good luck.
-
When you render your preview, do you use the drop down menu “render all”, or just push apple+r. I’ve noticed that FCP only gives you a full res preview render if you choose “render all” from the dropdown menu, even though technically apple+r should do the same thing. How does it look when you render out a Quicktime file?
-
The BlackMagic card does a great job of upconverting from 4:1:1. It looks just like seeing DV being played off the original tape onto a really good broadcast monitor.