[Fargoross]

I’ll have to double check all the camera settings and sequence settings. I swear I had them set to the same, but I did not set up the camera, I was only told what camera settings are. Should i be set at 30fps instead of 29.97 in my sequence?

“Render time is real time”.. Sorry, that was me saying it took 12 seconds to render a 12 second clip, which is totally dependent on hardware. 🙂

-Ross Hendrickson
Video Arts Studios

[Fargoross]

>We have a couple Meridien Avid Media Composers (circa 2000), and I can >honestly say, that is not a mahine built for compositing. First off, >Meridien’s 1:1 compression, is only 4:1:1. I’m not too familier with >Ultimatte, but you working on a very old machine, and I would say almost >anything new would do a better job. Especially now that you can pickup >Shake for only $499, FCP would be a much better route. (Assuming you get >something like a Kona3 card, and bringing footage in uncompressed and >4:4:4)
>moody glasgow
>smoke artist / editor

This Meridien system is only capable of 2:1 as its best capture compression. Is it possible that this system is also only capturing at 4:1:1?
That is to say, if I had a FCP system, and I captured everything through a DV-Firewire Deck (Also using the deck to downconvert other formats), that it would come in at the same compression/quality (4:1:1) as footage via 2:1 Composite into the Meridien system?
Where might I find more information on the (in)abilities of this Xpress Meridien setup?

Also, this composite is very simple, and in no way are people expecting it to be believable and real (thankfully). The major problem of the composite is blocky hard edges that outline most of the subject. They almost look like interlacing lines, but they are 2-3 pixels high, and the options within Ultimatte are hard for me to understand.

-Ross A. Hendrickson

[Fargoross]

I utilize FinalCut whenever I do a slideshow. It gives me great control over the photos to give soft pans and zooms. Scanning photos at 200dpi so I can zoom in on poorly composed pictures and crop them myself.

However this is by no means a quick and easy process, doing a 70 photo slideshow generally takes me anywhere between 4-8 hours depending on how creative and picky I am feeling that day.

Ross Hendrickson
Video Arts Studios
ross@videoartsstudios.com

[Fargoross]

>
>Get a used powerbook- cheaper than the drive and you get a free >Powerbook along with your PCMCIA reader.
>
>Noah

This of course has crossed my mind, but then this would likely result in a large increase of capture time to capture to laptop, and transfer to the actual edit system.

Would there be a fast way to have the PB connected to the edit system , and just download from the P2 card ‘through the PB’ and sent directly to the edit system? (Of course assuming its newer PB, and the edit system is a G5 Quad)

-Ross

[Fargoross]

I suppose another (possibly better) question would be..

Can I capture my DV footage via firewire as an uncompressed (4:2:2) format? Realizing again, this will not increase the quality of the captured raw footage. But, just allow it to exist in an uncompressed environment so that the graphics and color correction are not limited to the compressed 4:1:1 DV format.

Either that or can I capture it normally, and then import it to a timeline/project file that is set up for 4:2:2, so its output would be as such.. (or would this require too much render time etc..)

thanks again!,
Ross Hendrickson

[Fargoross]

The DV Tape comes from shooting on the Panasonic DVX100A.

In my understanding, this footage is native 4:1:1, though when brough IN to a system via SDI, it’s becomes 4:1:1 quality footage but in a 4:2:2 format as a result of traveling on the SDI.

Realize that I am not trying to make this raw footage better by doing this conversion. I am trying to put this footage into a 4:2:2 project/timeline so that the color correction and graphics that are are implemented in the on-line edit are of better quality for our mastering of the program.

I want my use my originally captured DV footage, edited, color corrected, and composited w/ graphics to be output in higher quality/ broadcast quality 4:2:2..
Can I do this if my footage was imported via firewire and not SDI?
(I hope this helps clear any confusion.. instead of add to it)

-Ross Hendrickson

[Fargoross]

As of right now here is how we have it set up,

DV Deck (Panasonic AJ-D455) connects to our DigiBeta Deck (Sony DVW-A500) via component video, the DigiBeta deck sends the SDI signal to the Edit System.

Then we master straight through SDI back to DigiBeta.

[Fargoross]

BUT…the BIG advantage of SDI at the uncompressed codecs is that your graphics, titles, stills all benefit from the 8 or 10 bit uncompressed rate. Thus while your tape footage is still compressed 5:1, your graphics, stills and text isn’t…and will be far sharper.

PLUS…you benefit tons for being able to color correct and add filters at uncompressed 4:2:2, as opposed to DV 4:1:1.

In order to acheieve this element of better graphics and color correction, is it necessary that my DV footage be captured through an SDI input? Or can I still capture via the 4:1:1 firewire, and have this footage on a timeline that will allow 4:2:2 output via SDI?

Thanks!,

Ross