[Gary Adcock]

Matthew

I realized something,
You do understand that the Varicam always records 60 fps no matter what the frame rate — thats why you think that you are recording 2.5x the amount of material that you recorded you are counting frames not time.

So if I need 10 seconds of content running at 2x speed, yes I do need to capture 2x more time, that is just the math. If I am slowing it down I only need 1/2 as much.

I guess that I took for granted that this was understood that in this process that you really trying to compress time, not frames per second. So if it goes twice as fast, you need twice as much of it

gary

(thanks walter)

From IBC

Gary Adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation
Chicago, IL

[Gary Adcock]

[Walter Biscardi] ”
[matthew Romanis] “Gary seems to be saying that I don’t need to capture 2.4 – 3 times the amount of media required for flagged 60fps playback on a 25fps timeline, but Walter is saying I do, just like the BM card.”You need to let the tape roll for 3x times as long as you think you need, but you’re still going to record the actual amount of tape you’re looking for.”

Matthew you are not capturing frames at this point, you record time. I shoot minutes and seconds in video I never count frames.

You have to record the length of time of the tape, as it was originally shot. If you recorded 20 minutes of footage at 60FPS you still need to record 20 minutes of TAPE to get to the 2.5x faster playback. In this scenario the file would be 150 minutes of footage at 24p (NOT 25fps)
All off speed (over and undercranked) varicam footage is is referenced on the tape at 720|24p (I know you are working in PAL the camera is not).

So yes, I guess that in your point of view you will have to record more time (2.5 -3x) than you need, It is the difference in the way we look at the workflow. With off speed footage (fast or slow) I never shoot or capture just what I need, I make sure that I have handles and alts available.

From IBC

Gary Adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation
Chicago, IL

[Gary Adcock]

[matthew Romanis] “Gary seems to be saying that I don’t need to capture 2.4 – 3 times the amount of media required for flagged 60fps playback on a 25fps timeline, but Walter is saying I do, just like the BM card. Gary does your way of dealing with this require rendering? Or is it still real time?Thanks for the info on down converting.”

Matthew
Think about it differently, you are not capturing frames you are capturing time. The Varicam is laying your 25FPS content down at 720p25|60 – So no matter what your frame rate is the 720p spec is to ALWAYS record 60fps (because there is no 720p|50 native setting)

Example: at the last Varicamp I recorded a direct stream of video at 10fps for 90 minute when I stopped the capture FCP took about 2 minutes to catch up (it was a capturing now with TC coming in over serial) but the captured footage is only about 9 minutes in length (at 23.98 in my world)
No rendering – just drop into the 720p timeline and it works.

(from Amsterdam for IBC because I get PAL)

From IBC

Gary Adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation
Chicago, IL

[Gary Adcock]

[matthew Romanis] “footage shot with the camera cranking at 60fps, but intended for playback at conventional frame rates thus providing a slow down. With the BM card you have to capture 3x the amount of footage than you intend on using so as the flagged frames are laid 1:1 on a 25fps timeline. “

Well you are capturing Frames Per Second,so if you record a 10 minute scene on tape it still only captures for 10 minutes not more. The hardware is only polling the flagged frames not any additional info, so there is no need to “record 3x” the amount of footage to get the content just the length of time you captured the content on tape
It works just like the Hardware FRC – it is one of the benefits of using hardware for conversions

[matthew Romanis] “If you could explain to me the actual mechanics of capturing 60fps cranked footage intended for 25fps playback thus creating slow motion with the Kona 2 card.”

the varicam always records 60 frames to tape with out regard to the speed at which you shoot. These frames are flagged in the RP188 TC track. The Kona Varicam setting reads only the frames flagged at the data rate you shot – throwing away the rest.

From IBC

Gary Adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation
Chicago, IL

[Gary Adcock]

[matthew Romanis] “so, a question re the down conversion, is it active when down converting within FCP, or do you need to down convert out to tape then re capture the down converted material to realise it’s full potential. We often use the Varicam 60fps material as a slow motion source for some of our sports programs that are made in SD 25fps.”

The Varicam runs from 4-60 frames a second, there is a way to have it capture 1FPS but it requires some effort.

The Varicam setting on the Kona 2 only captures the flagged frames, (without regard to codec) and because this is done with hardware only the frames that are flagged are extracted. So Varicam footage shot at 60fps runs 2x+ slower than the footage looks when playing back.

From IBC

Gary Adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation
Chicago, IL

[Gary Adcock]

[Ron] “Rather than share the KL box, AJA should introduce a new box with ALL inputs and outputs (comp, s, component, SDI, etc…).”

Why?
the KL box does have all of those? SDI, Composite, Comp, S, 4 AES/EBU / 4 analog channels) why make a new bob for something when it is not needed.

From IBC

Gary Adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation
Chicago, IL

[Gary Adcock]

[Mladen] “‘ve just got AJA HD10a just for that purpose. But am I right in assuming that I can’t transfer the timecode together with the video using component? That’s why I’m looking at hdv-to-hd sdi converters. “

FCP does not see TC over SDI , so you would need some sort of Serial connection (or FW) for Deck control.
Addenda makes an SDI to RS422 converter that I use on set for live capture of HDSDI.

From IBC

Gary Adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation
Chicago, IL

[Gary Adcock]

[Mladen] “‘ve just got AJA HD10a just for that purpose. But am I right in assuming that I can’t transfer the timecode together with the video using component? That’s why I’m looking at hdv-to-hd sdi converters. “

FCP does not see TC over SDI , so you would need some sort of Serial connection (or FW) for Deck control.
Addenda makes an SDI to RS422 converter that I use on set for live capture of HDSDI.

From IBC

Gary Adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation
Chicago, IL

[Gary Adcock]

[Mladen] “What should I say? I bought KONA 2 just two weeks back and received AJA HD10a converter just now”

AJA has a 30 day return policy, you may want to look into it if it is a real issue for you.

From IBC

Gary Adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation
Chicago, IL

[Gary Adcock]

[tony salgado] “FYI the FRC will only work on native DVCPRO HD varicam footage not standard def clips transcoded from the varicam clips. The flags are not retained during the downconvert via the 1200A or in FCP.”

I am going to jump in here, to add to Tony’s comment the Software FRC will also not see flags on upconverted SD footage shot with 24p cameras.
There are a number of things that could be wrong here. from the original shoot to which deck the facility used to capture the content from. This can also occur when the camera has an abrupt and erratic frame rate ramping when shooting -you get a break or burp in the cadence and even the software FRC cannot hold up.
Have you tried checking the original footage on a deck to check the frame rate in the UBit mode? This can also bee seen on a Kona 2 using the Kona Control panel to check the HDSDI feed.

From IBC

Gary Adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation
Chicago, IL