[Jonathan Clauson]

Evan is right, the best way is to use a piece of hardware, but if you are like me on an iMac, then your options are limited. 🙁

My client gave me some HD footage he shot into a TriCaster at 1080i 60i that I had to down convert for SD 4:3 broadcast. As I see it there are two ways to do it,

Do your editing in a sequence set to NTSC or NTSC Anamorphic. However, be careful as I have learned the hard way that a lot of broadcast networks do not like anamorphic and want it letter boxed. If that isn’t your worry and you are just going to DVD then no worries. When you drop the footage in, it will be resized. You will then have the ability to move the frame around to fudge if the talent likes to walk across the length of the frame. This resulted in good results for me and on my SD studio monitor I couldn’t tell a big difference in quality if any.

That is my method and heaven knows it is probably not the best, but it is one way. I am sure Compressor has a way to do it, but I honestly don’t know what that is as I have only just begun to explore it so I would do it with Compressor before doing it in FCP. Now if I only had a couple grand to get an external AJA card. 🙂

Hope this helps point you in the right direction. 🙂

[Jonathan Clauson]

I have been very happy with my iMac, but I don’t do HD footage editing and from the time I have used it I nearly killed the poor thing in Motion.

The only limitations I find annoying that I only recently found out about in the last week even, were the inability for the iMac to output CC data via the internal firewire. Now there are decks that will support it and read CC data over FW but I sadly do not have one so you would need an external card that could take the data and throw it onto line 21 for you.

So if you are looking to do SD or very basic HD and don’t need to cut an 3 hour epic piece I would say it is fine. Besides the entry point is a LOT cheaper than the cheese grater (MacPro).

– Jonathan

[Jonathan Clauson]

I figured out my own problem finally. 🙂

I had neglected to change the output difference in the A/V settings. Such a simple button click and cause so many problems. Live and learn.

Thanks anyway all and I hope this helps some one else along the way.

– Jonathan

[Jonathan Clauson]

Hello All!

I am going to throw my question into the ring as well. I have FCP 7 and the editor I have to share footage with is fairly new (not that I am a great genius either) and bought VEGAS before considering how well it plays with others….which isn’t very well from everything I have been hearing.

We are only dealing with SD footage so does the same still apply for export settings? QuickTime with JPG encoding or is there a better way for him to export footage so that when I get it I don’t have to reencode it and further loose quality?

Thanks much@

[Jonathan Clauson]

I am using this deck as well and I can not get video out.

Oddly enough I am getting audio back out, but not video when outputting back at 1080i 50 for a 1080i 60i project which leaves me scratching my head.

On a side note, I have not yet used it for HDV capture. If you have used it for that would you mind sharing what your easy setup settings were for capture? ha ha

Sorry I couldn’t be of any help. If I find a solution I will respond asap.

[Jonathan Clauson]

Hi DS,

You make a good point and I’m sorry for any offense.

I say DP only out of habit for the person who sets up the camera/lighting/etc. The person on this shoot is new and not a DP and does not claim the title so there it is. 🙂 He is from a live/theatre background and bought new toys and I think is learning how to use them (this was his 2nd time giving me footage with the LED green screen rather than the traditional set up which never had the issue).

I am going to go back to the books and do as much research as I can on lighting for LED setups and when I visit the set next month hopefully we can make something work better.

Thanks much!

[Jonathan Clauson]

Hey Everyone!

Thanks so much for all the feedback and ideas. I still have a lot to learn and I appreciate the candid responses.

I found the manuals and everything for the LED rig and will pour over them tonight and make sure the lighting setup they are using matches what their setup.

As for the key, I think I finally nailed it so all should be well after I encoded it at its native HDV format and then dropped it down to DV after that.

Thanks again all!

[Jonathan Clauson]

Hi Dennis,

I am sadly not the DP on the shoot nor am I truly an expert on lighting so any advice you would like to give would be appreciated. It seems you have an idea on what the setup should be, so if you can let me know your thoughts I will relate the info to the DP. 🙂

Thanks much!

– Jonathan

[Jonathan Clauson]

Thanks for the information all. I only did a cursory glance at the LED tech so I should have known about the LED ring having to be right on the lens itself. The fact that I could pull a key from cam 2 was what threw me.

The footage was shot on HDV 1080i 60i on two Canon Hh-A1’sand one A1S. However the project is for SD broadcast so I imported the footage at DV/DVCPRO-NTSC Anamorphic. If I did this wrong as well please tell me as I am coming back to editing after a 3 year hiatus. 🙂 I am also on FCS 3 with FCP 7.02 for reference. I have the original DV Tapes as well so I can recapture with a different codec if it is recommended.

The background is the chromatte fabrics from reflecmedia and the line is just part of the larger canvas they sell according to the DP on set. The line hasn’t been an issue however even in noise removal.

I have 4 screen shots uploaded with the 1st and 2nd cam. The 3rd is a shot with no spill suppression or noise removal, just a solid matte. The 3rd is my attempt to cut down on the noise and you can see the issue I am running into with it cutting out part of the subject. I have also included my settings as well incase I am royally fracking it up.

Thanks so much everyone, this is the best board community ever!

– Jonathan

Camera 1

Camera 2

Primatte RT Unadjusted

Primatte RT My Best Key (might not be so good, you tell me. 🙂

[Jonathan Clauson]

Thanks for the advice all. Again, I didn’t realize a lot of things most everyone takes for granted (still learning) that you can drag and drop between FCP and Motion.

I will give this a whirl tonight for the first tape and post my results for kicks. Thanks so much for your advice and man was that fast. Thank you again!