[Jeff Brown]

[mike velte] “One more thing that drives me bananas is the discussion of DPI in video. DPI refers to the paper world only (scanning and printing) and changing DPI has no effect on a computer screen or TV.”

Thanks, Mike. You beat me to it!

-Jeff

[Jeff Brown]

And, not to state the obvious: if it is only your b’cast playback machine that exhibits this behavior– check the cables…

-jeff

[Jeff Brown]

In the U.S., it is commonly called “Academy Leader”…

-jeff

[Jeff Brown]

RS-422 is a type of serial connection. Typically, a video I/O card (like AJA or BlackMagic) will have this connection for deck control.

Most of my work is short-form animation and visual effects; I’ve been able to demonstrate to my clients that importing a digital file to their systems provides the highest quality. But– they are the ones doing the final edit.
So, I don’t have to do much in the way of broadcast deliverables, but for SD work here in the states, Digital BetaCam would probably be the most common deliverable.

The important thing is: if your client wants BetaCam, give them BetaCam!

-jeff

[Jeff Brown]

BetaCam comes in 2 variations: BetaCamSP, and BetaCam Digital (commonly called DigiBeta). DigiBeta has SDI in/out. BOTH have component in/out, which will produce a perfectly fine recording.
Neither have Firewire connections. BetaSP also has 3 variants: the BVW series, the PVW series, and the UVW series. The recording specs for the BVW and PVW are a little bit better than the UVW series.

Important note: DigiBeta will play BetaSP (analog) tapes, but the analog decks will not play DigiBeta tapes.

For deck control, you would need an RS-422 connection to your system. You can just “crash record” without the RS-422: hit record on the deck, wait about 10 seconds, then hit “play” in Premiere. This does not give you a professional leader, though (color bars, tone, etc., at exact timecode points).

Both analog and digital Beta decks want house sync, but you can probably provide this by sending composite out from your system to the Reference In of the deck.

You should be able to rent a Beta deck for about $250 – $450 a day, depending on the deck & your market.

I have had a PVW deck for almost 15 years now; though anymore I use it about once every 6 months.

-jeff

[Jeff Brown]

I try to convince my clients to use widescreen SD if they are not yet using HD. At least the material will be usable (if a bit soft) down the road when everything is 16:9.

-jeff

[Jeff Brown]

[Ty Le] “My AVI clips that were created from Premier’s capture on “DV Capture” setting, are 720 x 480. I’m not sure what you mean by project resolution, but in my project settings, its got for frame size 1920 x 1080″

Do I understand this correctly: You are editing in HD 16:9, but captured DV standard-def, and are outputting in standard def? Is there a reason?

If you a outputting a 16:9 project to DVD, you should check the “widescreen 16:9” box in the Media Encoder output settings. Look at the bottom right area of the export settings.

-jeff

[Jeff Brown]

Hi Fredrik,

Basic digital housekeeping should minimize your problems.
Know where your assets are. Don’t accept defaults.
What works for me:

Client/project directory is on a religiously backed-up drive,
     "workDrive:\clientDirectory"
Project files of all sorts (*.pproj, etc.) are in
that project directory,
     "workDrive:\clientDirectory\PremiereProj\.."
Likewise, anything I don't want to re-create:
     "workDrive:\clientDirectory\graphics\.."
     "workDrive:\clientDirectory\DVDmenus\.."
     etc....

Footage and renders are on a separate "media" drive;
this holds anything that can be re-captured or re-rendered,
     "mediaDrive:\clientMediaDirectory\reel_01\..."
     "mediaDrive:\clientMediaDirectory\3D_render-Logo\..."

To move things, I move 2 folders: the “work” folder, and the “media” folder. Opening a Premiere project on a new machine would bring up the missing footage requestor the first time. Once you redirect to that file, everything else should be found, as everything is in sub-directories.

There are quite a few 1 TB / 500 GB RAID 1 USB/FW drives available; these seem like a good means of moving footage around.

Your mileage may vary… but knowing where all the data should be without having to browse through folders (“myDocuments” is evil!) is necessary, in my opinion.

Food for thought,
-jeff

[Jeff Brown]

Thanks for the confirmation, Ramona. I was citing RAVE as proof that the hardware is certainly capable of what Greg and I are fussing with. You do have the advantage of not having to go thru Windows to get things done!

-jeff

[Jeff Brown]

First, (and I know I harp on this a lot): Ignore DPI. Tell the print people to ignore DPI. It’s meaningless for video. You need to be concerned with actual _pixel_ dimensions.
That being said, consider how much leeway you need for zooming or panning on the stills, and specify a size that will give you 1920 pixels wide at the maximum push-in. So, if you want to zoom in 200%, start with an image that is 3840 pixels wide (and at least 2160 high). You have a bit of leeway; probably a bit more if you use AfterEffects or other compositing program to do the moves. I’ve found 10%-15% enlargement is OK. Beyond that, the image gets noticeably soft. Your mileage may vary…
This is all with square pixels, BTW. Much easier to deal with.

hope it helps,
Jeff