[Graeme Nattress]

Thanks Tom. The article is taking a little longer than I thought, but it should be very compreshensive!

Graeme

– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP

[Graeme Nattress]

Well, there’s no camera that records uncompressed HD to tape – they use very big and fast hard drives. All practical HD cameras record compressed HD, but they use different methods:

HDCAM SR – lightly compressed MPEG4, full raster, 4:4:4
HDCAM – highly compressed DCT, 3/4 raster, 3:1:1 chroma
DVCproHD – highly compressed DCT, 3/4 (720p) or 2/3 (1080i) raster, 4:2:2
HDV – extremely compressed MPEG2, full raster(720p), 3/4 raster(1080i), 4:2:0

The HVX200 uses DVCproHD, which makes it less compressed than HDV, but more compressed than HDCAM SR.

Graeme

– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP

[Graeme Nattress]

You need a card or device that takes the component output of the BetaSP deck – so, one of the Decklink cards, an Aurora Card, an AJA-IO will all work for you.

BetaSP, especially from an 1800 doesn’t have too much resolution to begin with, but as it’s a highly compressed analogue format, you should capture it “uncompressed” so to avoid adding any digital artifacts to the BetaSP’s analogue artifacts and to maintain the quality it has.

Graeme

– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP

[Graeme Nattress]

The DSR-45 does not add setup on the analogue outputs I think. You’ll need to insert a proc amp. But the CC place adding setup should not make your end product look pasty and washed out. That’s why you need to get the tapes and analyse them to see what is happening. When dealing with analogue video you really do need an external scope to see what is going on.

I’m just trying to put my finishing touches to a massive article on video levels. Ken Stone is publishing it, so keep an eye out for it. But basically, because your DV deck does not add setup, you need insert a device that does, a proc amp. It’s “wrong” to raise your blacks in FCP because you’ll loose picture quality in doing so.

Graeme

– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP

[Graeme Nattress]

You need to compare your BetaSP master with the closed caption master with a waveform monitor to check that the video levels on both your master the CC copy are correct. For North American NTSC black should be at 7.5IRE. Inside FCP, the video is digital and it should be at 0% on the FCP scopes. What device do you use to output the finished video to tape? You should make sure that it’s preferences are configured correctly.

Graeme

– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP

[Graeme Nattress]

Turn on the high quality scaling option in FCP5, or blur the footage before scaling.

Graeme

– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP

[Graeme Nattress]

Lowering white output in the curves section should stop whites from blowing out. I’d use that in preference to the proc amp plugin myself.

Or, I’d use the levels plugins in Set 1.

Graeme

– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP

[Graeme Nattress]

I find that the 3way CC is a great tool for correcting colour imbalance, bad white balance etc., but it’s not that fun to use for “creative” effects. If the footage is balanced ok, I tend to just jump straight into Film Effects.

The curves controls in Film Effects are pretty comprehensive, and you can do CC with them, but they’re really for creative effects. So, if you’re needing to do CC first, this is what filters I apply and in what order:

G Film (for the 24p Effect, best if it comes first for render times etc.)
3 Way CC
G Film Plus RT (or one of the presets in RT, or with the frame rate conversion turned off)

Hope that helps,

Graeme

– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP

[Graeme Nattress]

Old Decklink drivers would cause this. That might be it.

Graeme

– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP

[Graeme Nattress]

It’s not so much the monitor you can’t trust, but the fact that FCP mucks around so much with the image before it gets to the monitor. When you use the 23″ via the HDLink, FCP thinks it’s sending video to a deck over SDI, so the image goes the same route it would going to a “real”monitor, and the HDLink handles the gamma stuff properly, making the image look very accurate and much nicer than the monitor hooked direct to the computer.

Graeme

– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP