[John Pale]

The standard issue Quicktime DVCPRO 50 and 100 codecs are Mac Only.

Avid created their own to fill that gap.

Install the latest Avid Quicktime codecs on your Mac, then transcode your files to the Avid DV50 NTSC codec. You must select the Avid DV codec, then select options and change it to DV50 instead of DV25.

[John Pale]

thats basically it. unlike DVDSP, Motion or Soundtrack, it doesnt have a lot of library content.

You are not going to save much drive space by doing this…maybe 125MB.

[John Pale]

You can rent any DVCAM deck that has an SDI output and capture uncompressed using the Kona. There is an Easy Setup just for this purpose.

You can also just capture using Firewire, edit in a DV timeline, then copy paste into an uncompressed timeline for final output. This will require time and disk space for the final render of the entire timeline.

There is really no significant quality difference between the two workflows.

Keep in mind, rendering or capturing in uncompressed will be of no benefit if you are mastering back to DV or DVCAM. Everything will take the DV compression hit again when you record it. Mastering to Digibeta would make more sense.

[John Pale]

I do Worlds Strongest Man for ESPN.

last year it was 23:45 (4 parts). Not all their half hour shows are the same though.

[John Pale]

By exporting at 720 x 486 , I think you are throwing the fields out of order. DVCPRO 50 is 720 x 480, not 486.

Also, if you are exporting as DV/DVCPRO NTSC, you are exporting as DV 25 not DV50…also a loss of quality.

If this is for Avid, you should install the latest Avid Codecs on your system (June 4). Available here:
https://www.avid.com/onlineSupport/browse.asp?productID=0&topicID=404&browse=

Choose Avid DV as your export codec, then click options and set it to DV50 NTSC.

See if this helps.

[John Pale]

What Quicktime export settings are you using? List all of them.

Avid has their own DV50 codec or are you using the standard DVCPRO 50 codec?

You could be getting a field inversion, if you are exporting to a D1 frame size (720 x 486) instead of 720 x 480, which is what DV 25 and DV 50 use.

[John Pale]

You cant directly from FCP. Export as Quicktime movie (not self contained). Drag the Quicktime reference into Compressor and encode there.

You can also use the “Send To Compressor” command (but may be slightly cleaner), but the encode will take longer

[John Pale]

[bogiesan] “lordie, yet another import/export issue to make seamless integration between the suite’s apps a sick joke. “

Whoa Bogie….the integration is the same, if not better than before. You always exported from Soundtrack as an AIFF or .STP to get back to FCP…nothing has changed.

The only minor incovenience is when you access the sound effects in Finder, bypassing Soundtrack. A Compressor droplet make that a snap, if you prefer to work that way.

I would bet laptop users would welcome the drive space savings.

[John Pale]

https://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302667

You are running FCP 4.5, aren’t you…..
You need a newer version of Final Cut Pro. Upgrade to FCP Studio…its a great deal.

[John Pale]

Yes. They are now in .caf format (Core Audio Format). This is actually the Apple Lossless Format. In addition to the Surrond Sound reason, this may be to save drive space for laptop users…there is much library content in FCS 2. Export from Soundtrack as AIFF 48k Stereo and you will be fine…or make a droplet in Compressor for this.