[Glenn Sakatch]

I just did this for a CBC production about a month ago. They informed me after offline, and 3/4 the way through online that they wanted all segments to start at a full second. The amount of space between segments was irrelevant, as long as it was at their minimum of 10 secs. My original workflow was to output to tape, have the deck convert to 59.94 into my captioning box. To add to the confusion, i had sound working at 23.98 based on a strict 10 second space between segments, as well, i was about to send the timing to captioning for them to do their thing. Our caption process requires it to be done in 1 pass, out of FinalCut…so he needed a version that matched the final CBC timing, not a version that the sound guys (and I ) were using.

I was doing online on an Avid DS, so my workflow is probably different than yours, but basically.

I exported each segment out as individual items. Each started at the first frame of the segment, and ended after the 10 second hole leading into the next segment.

I brought those back into DS as individual pieces, and did a frame conversion in DS as i put them to my timeline. Butting all segments together gave me a normal lenght 59.94 show, with 10 sec. blacks.

I then spaced the segments out enough to match the CBC spec of hitting even seconds for the start of each segment. I put a timecode window on the sequence and output a movie for the captioner to use as reference.

When sound came back with a final mix i synced up segment 1 and razored it where my video ended. Slid segment 2 to line up with the new start time of my video. Continued this process for all segments, and output to a 59.94 df tape. Everything still syncs up. Captured that into Final cut, added the caption file, and output my final broadcast captioned master…everything still synced up…both captions and audio.

When back to my original 23.98 timeline, put the layback on it at the original timing, output to tape, and had my 23.98 universal master.

Pain in the butt, but everything worked fine.

Glenn

[Glenn Sakatch]

We work locally…from.shared.storage..on drives provided by clients. Fibrejet.esata firewire. Take footage home and contine working..from.mac.to pc …from.older versions to newer versions…and back again

Glenn

[Glenn Sakatch]

In that case i would just suggest you do it the other way around.

You’ve come up with a color correction that works for all your green screen shots.- save it to a bin.
Delete your spectra matte keys, batch apply the color correction to all your timeline shots, and
create 1 new spectramatte key that works, copy it to your bin, then alt drag it to every other shot in the timeline.

Might seem like starting over, but will be much quicker than drilling into each shot on the timeline.

Glenn

[Glenn Sakatch]

you need a monitor that will decode it. Not many consumer models will do this. Actually, i don’t think a lot of broadcast models will do this. We have Professional Sonys, and Panasonics in our facility, but to check HD captioning, we have to run it through our VTM Waveform setup – that also has an cc decoder built into it.

Glenn

[Glenn Sakatch]

you can probably apply the color correction on a filler track above your main video track.

Glenn

[Glenn Sakatch]

im assuming you already have a caption file created?

Maybe look into movie captioner. It will load quite a few different caption file types, and allow you to
embed them into quicktime movies. Within quicktime the client can turn them on or off. Software is only about 100 dollars. It also allows you to create the captions yourself.

We usually only work with closed captioning, not open captioning. The last time we did it, we got the caption house to provide a captioned movie on a green background. We then just pulled a key and did an overlay, and output for the client.

I don’t think you are ever going to “capture” the captioning stream out of the preview monitor…those cards just don’t work that way.- unless you can find a card that can take a dvi loop out of your monitor and capture it.
I would still look into camtasia as well, as i said before….it produces very good quality…assuming your preview monitor is running at full fps. try the 30 day trial and see how it looks…its free!
It would certainly look better than using a video camera to capture the screen.

Glenn

[Glenn Sakatch]

screen recording software at high quality? Guess it depends on your delivery product.

Glenn

[Glenn Sakatch]

are you using AMA linked footage? If so transcode to DNX and you’ll probably have more success

Glenn

[Glenn Sakatch]

Interesting, i didn’t notice that change. (our deliverys are always asking for the actual Disc, but good to know)

Glenn

[Glenn Sakatch]

Nic, i’ve been on DS since 2000. There are not a ton of the machines around, but being in New York, you should be able to find a few. My biggest concern is your time. Are you just trying to cut, or do you need to learn DS for all its finishing aspects as well. Just cutting, it isn’t toooo different from Media Composer.(they have been trying to make it more and more like media composer for years) If you want to learn finishing on it in a couple of weeks, you may be in for a bumpy road.

Check out the Avid Site, you can download the program, and it will run in training mode, without a valid license. You can’t capture from tape, or output, but you can import files. There are also lots of tutorials around the site, and the DSWiki pages as well.

Good Luck

Glenn