[Jeff Pulera]

There’s no USB cable that will help you out, you need SATA to USB 3.0 basically. Yes you can open the computer and physically plug the drive into an available SATA connector, but am not recommending that, what a pain! Get an external SATA Docking Station with USB 3.0 interface if need be.

Thanks

Jeff

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Duke,

No Nikon, you got me there!

Latest firmware for Ninja 2 is the v4.23 and you can check on Ninja info screen to see what is installed.

Not sure what that post meant about a contrasty image. Remember that a lot of these guys are “film” makers living in a stratosphere above regular guys like us. The video I record on Ninja 2 looks great. Now that I think about it, I read a review a couple of years ago where the guy was using a DSLR and complaining about contrast/blacks…turns out later that he needed to change a menu setting inside the camera to change the HDMI output. Something about the difference between outputting 16-235 range versus 0-255…user error!

Ninja comes with a “hard drive dock” which is a little gizmo that the drive attaches to and then the dock attaches to computer with USB 3.0 cable which is part of the dock.

Now, if the used unit you got is an early model, that might have a different dock that has a Firewire connection.

However, you do NOT have to use an Atomos dock at all – the drive will have a standard SATA connector, so really you can use ANY external SATA drive dock, such as those from SIIG, StarTech, ThermalTake, etc. for like $25-35 new.

The Atomos dock has such a short cable, and my older PC only has USB 3.0 at the rear, so I have to climb under the desk and fight to connect it back there in the dark, and then it just dangles…maybe I should buy a SATA docking station myself!!!

You will find that by recording to ProRes, your keying will be cleaner since it is 4:2:2 rather than 4:2:0, plus less compression overall.

Thanks

Jeff

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Duke,

I’ve been using a Ninja 2 for about 3 years or more, editing the ProRes clips with CS6 and CC on my PC and works fantastic. As noted, no ProRes export on PCs.

I use the mid-quality ProRes 422, no need for HQ unless you have a really high-end camera doing TV work. Might even get by with LT, haven’t tried it. Makes big files either way compared to in-camera formats like HDV and AVCHD.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Jerry,

I’ve never used a proxy workflow, but my question would be why do you think you need to use proxies? I understand that perhaps that was a given with Avid, but have you tried native editing of XDCAM with Premiere? I’m thinking it would take more time to generate proxies and later conform and such, why not go native?

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

I’ve always been guilty of saving too much video stuff…ask my wife! I still have tons of DVCAM-184 master tapes of weddings from many years ago. I did a while back throw away most of the older S-VHS wedding masters…that was difficult for me. Maybe because it was something I created and it will be gone forever. Not that I’m going to watch them again, but you know. Still waiting for that call from 20 years ago, “My kid ate the VHS” or “We had a fire, do you still have a copy of my wedding?”. Never happened to date though.

However, this is not RAW footage. Curious what the rationale is for saving raw footage of events once product is delivered and customer approval is received. Not judging, just curious is all – enlighten me. Do you get dancers that come back later and want something done with their footage? I’ve been doing recitals for over 20 years and no one has ever asked for anything like that. I deliver DVDs, I’m done and delete it all, keeping just a master DVD (and/or .iso file) to make more copies later.

I can definitely see saving raw footage of corporate stuff since you may be doing more business with them and will likely be able to re-use some of that footage. Just not seeing the importance of event raw footage once delivered.

Thanks

Jeff

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Martin,

Once the edited videos/DVDs are delivered/approved, why save the raw footage at all – in case the dance studio wants it for a highlight reel or something? If they have dumped you as their videographer, then dump the footage, not sure why you’d feel any obligation to keep it archived for them.

I’ve been working with one dance studio for 20 years and I delete the original footage once DVDs are delivered. Same with school stage events, weddings, etc.

I use Atomos recorders for recitals, going straight to Apple ProRes, and end up with a couple of Terabytes of footage after a long weekend and I’m not storing that for anybody when I’m done editing 😉

Thanks

Jeff Pulera

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Bobby,

Good question! Yes, one would assume Blu-ray would be progressive, however the options are limited.

Blu-ray can be 1080i or 1080p24. 1080p30 and 1080p60 are not supported.

For 720p, you can use 720p60 or 720p24. Check out the H.264 Blu-ray export presets in Premiere and these are what you will find.

Any export option you see with a 25 or 50 in it is for PAL countries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

https://blogs.adobe.com/creativecloud/red-yellow-and-green-render-bars/

I very rarely EVER render anything in the timeline. Even clips with red above usually play smooth for me, so I complete my edits and then Export to format of choice.

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

You can connect a second display to your computer, and in Premiere Preferences, dedicate that display to video playback and you will get full-screen playback direct from the timeline.

Edit > Preferences > Playback

Then under VIDEO DEVICE you ought to see extra monitors that are connected, just select one with a check box.

Or get something like a Black Magic Mini Monitor card for your computer, which will provide both HDMI and HD-SDI outputs from Premiere to a monitor.

As a more exotic solution, Newtek recently introduced a new tool that supports their NDI video over IP protocol. It sends the Premiere timeline video out over the network, and any other PC on the network running the free “NDI Monitor” software can remotely via your timeline playback!

https://newtek.com/software/adobe-creative-cloud.html

Thanks

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

[Jeff Pulera]

“Because if a computer interprets the pixels are square, then 720 divided by 480 is 1.5.”

I won’t argue that point, but we were really talking about DVDs and not computer video 😉

How do all the pixels fit on a widescreen DVD? What you have to remember is that it’s all data…the DVD has 720×480 pixels for each frame regardless of whether they are 0.9 or 1.2 PAR. Same number of pixels taking up the exact same amount of space on the disc. The difference is in how those pixels are interpreted – how should they be displayed?

720 pixels across that are taller than they are wide make a narrower image that 720 pixels that are wider than tall. That’s all it is.

And again, in regards to DVD, the aspect ratio is not 1.5 because we are not dealing with square pixels so that changes the equation.

Maybe you are overthinking the whole deal. Do we need to worry about the math going on “under the hood”? If making a 4:3 DVD, then encode as 0.9 PAR and for widescreen use the 1.2 preset. In regards to “can we use any PAR we want”…well…I dunno, I guess the image would be warped in some regard.

In recap, it’s 0.9 or 1.2 for DVD. Period. For Blu-ray, which is 1080 or 720 HD, usually square pixels. Oh wait…here’s a fun fact! Familiar with the old HDV camcorders? They recorded anamorphic HD, which is 1440×1080 pixels with 1.33 PAR. Guess what? 1440 x 1.33 = 1920, so there you get the 1920×1080 playback image. It is possible to create a 1080i Blu-ray using the 1440×1080 source, is part of the Blu-ray spec.

But for computers, encoded videos should ALWAYS use 1.0 PAR. Always.

Thanks

Jeff