[Kylesway]

Hi all

as promised, here’s an update.

– I went ahead and bought the Intensity Pro
– I transcoded all my files using PremierePro2
– Things are really stable (so far, have not yet
had the time to do much editing)
– HOWEVER: I only noticed after transcoding that
PremierePro2 introduced nasty vertical dark/bright
banding when scaling hdv (m2t) to the 1920 used
by BMD. This is not immediately visible in most
shots but pretty obvious in some.
– WORKAROUND: Do the scaleup into the BMD-10bitHD
Codec and then transcode (again) to BMD-MJPEG.
Somewhat nasty but feasible. Is PProCS3 better
at this? I read somewhere it’s fully higher color
depth in CS3.
– ODD: In After Effects 7, my exports from m2t to
BMD-MJPEG screw up the timing (looks like the clip
runs slightly slower). Have not yet found a workaround
so far.

But the hassles are worth having the “real” timeline
preview to Video Projector.

Hope this helps

— Kyle

[Kylesway]

Hi all

I have had a chat with Blackmagic Support.

The issue with the MJPEG CoDec not being recognized correctly
by at least some applications (specifically ProCoder) is a
known issue and under investigation. They’ll let me know if
there is another transcoding app that will work with it, and
what the status is on a fix for the CoDec not being recognized
properly.

Leo: I know that the CineForm is (at least said to be) better
than the BM-MJPEG. But so far it’s a software only solution
that will not give me affordable preview to a “real” monitor.
It can use one of the AJA cards but that’s an around USD 2000
investment if I remember correctly. If CineForm/BM will make
CineForm’s CoDec work w/ the Intensity, I’ll happily go that
route. (I’ve read somewhere on the net that this is being
considered.)

As its stands now, BM-MJPEG to me is currently the most cost
effective compromise between native HDV and an uncompressed
workflow.

BTW: HDV (m2t) in PremierePro2 works quite well – as long as
the project remains small, there’s no need for “real” timeline
preview, and you can stay inside of Premiere. As AE7 cannot
(afaik) write “real” m2t, things get hairy if you need it.
Maybe it will work better if you use DynamicLink, but that’s
somewhat against my Workflow…

I’ll try and remember keeping you posted. My current inclination
is to go thru the ordeal of more or less manually transcoding
my couple hundred clips in PPro or AE. The sped up workflow
and most notably “real” timeline preview seem to make this
worth the effort…

Thanks a lot for your thoughts

— Kyle

[Kylesway]

Hi Tim

you are right, using a pc based display works OK; the program
monitor inside PPro2 is perfectly in sync. But this is not quite
ideal for my workflow. And I already use the 2 DVI outs of my
card for the dual monitor setup. Maybe a Parhelia (triple head)
could do the trick. But the card is kinda old by now… Can it
still compete?

As long as I’m on firewire out for both video and audio, sync is
OK. But aside from the incapability to do surround, it’s a 2nd
audio path in addition to PC based audio used when scrubbing…

Thanks a lot for your input

— Volker

[Kylesway]

Hi Dave

thanks a lot for the input!

Yes, it would be sorta weird for the audio companies to
actually *add* latency. But at least it would be easy ;->.
I kinda would have PPro2 expected to be able to compensate.
It could just send the audio later and the audio hardware
could be as latency free as desired.

Price wise, the RTx2 is not ideal but sounds feasible. The Axio
is definitely borderline if not too far. But very tempting
considering it can also do “real” HD if needed… And it seems
to have 6 outs fully built-in which should allow for 5.1 and
eliminate latency.

Do you happen to have experience w/ the Matrox products? Can
they “really” do what they claim? Do they have restrictions one
needs to be aware of?

Thanks again

— Kyle

[Kylesway]

Hi all

well, I’m running ProdStudioPremium on a single 3GHz P4 w/ 2GB RAM
w/o problems, at least for editing DV. So dual procs are definitely
not a ‘real’ must. But I’d guess you’ll appreciate them if going
HDV and/or beyond…

Hope this helps

— Kyle

[Kylesway]

Hi Grant/Luke

(OK, I’m totally new to Blackmagic and Apple…)

just to make sure I understood you correctly:
The MacPro using an internal 3-disk RAID 0 will be fast enough
to capture uncompressed 4:2:2-HD (PAL) from eg a HD Extreme’s
HD-SDI. At least if one does get by with the limited disk space.
Right?

Should this work as well if I use smaller (but still SATA-II/300)
drives? (The Apple 500GB ones are quite expensive compared to the
300 or 400 (or even 500) GB ones on the normal market…)
Will it work only on the 3GHz model or will the 2.6GHz be enough?
How much RAM is required?

While I’m asking: I’m not sure I’ fully getting the specs on the
BlackMagic site: Using this config, would I be able to capture
directly to uncompressed 4:2:2 SD (PAL) from the HD-SDI input to
save on disk space? (There is no affordable SD-SDI cam out there
afaik, but the XL-H1 has the HD-SDI out)

For both situations: Would I be able to directly use the footage in
FCP5/Shake/… or would that require some conversion?

[I’m looking at doing quite some keying in the next project and going
4:2:2 uncompressed seems to be the way to go. And if I can do the above
on a MacPro, things just got affordable. I’d be swapping out data I don’t
need at my fingertips to slower / less expensive external disks, so having
only 1.5TB or even less should not be much of a limitation.]

Thanks a lot

— Kyle

[Kylesway]

Hi Timo

gonna be tough to put you up to speed in just one post…
Anyway:
– PAL is interlaced by design (as is NTSC). Therefore all DV cameras record interlaced.
HD has several formats, some of them non-interlaced (progressive), marked by the p
after the ID (which actually is the vertical resolution), eg 720p. There are some
cams that apparently can do sort of progressive on DV, but I do not know details.
– As our TVs still are normal PAL/NTSC for most, DVDs are primarily interlaced as well.
There are now progressive capable players now that projectors and LCD/Plasma TVs
start getting more common. As they are inherently progressive, progressive signals
work better on them.
– If you target ‘normal’ DVD players you do not just burn AVIs to DVD. You have to
“author” a DVD, and the most important part of this is converting you footage to
MPEG2 format (which can be interlaced or progressive, interlaced being (way) more
common). It seems there are a few players out there that can handle files but mostly
DivX if I got that correctly. Everything I do is interlaced DV/DVD in PAL.
– In Premiere (and media player), you get these “comb” artifacts because they show the
still as the combination of 2 interlaced fields. On a TV, they would be 1/50th second
apart & therefore make motion smoother. Displayed together, they obviously look weird.
But it’s usually better that only having a single field (every other line only). If
you hook up a D/A converter to your firewire and attach a regular TV, you will see that
(only in regular playback) the artifacts are not visible on the TV.
– Progressive would be very convenient for essentially everything with effects at least.
But as PAL ist interlaced, you’ll first have to deinterlace, which normally is quite a
lossy process. (potential) Drawback of progressive (at least at PAL’s standard ‘frame’
rate of 1/25th second) is that motion looks more ‘jumpy’ (less smooth) than interlaced
because the eye percieves the 50 fields (every other line) per second virtually like
50 frames (full pictures) per second which is smoother. But it’s closer to “real” film
and therefore preferred by many (“film look” vs the smoother “video look”).

Hope I got everything correct & that I was of some help…

— Kyle

[Kylesway]

Hi Matthias

the thing about using a separate deck has nothing to do with quality,
at least not of the transfer. It is recommended to use a separate
deck to limit the amount of wear you expose the way more fragile
drive that’s built into the camera to. This is most important if
your capture program keeps running the tape back and forth at each
new clip. I’m not sure how PPro does it (think I remember at least
1 was doing it this way) as I use ScenalyzerLive which can capture
and scene/clip-split a tape in a single play-through.

— Kyle

[Kylesway]

Hi all

just to clarify:
You could *open* BWFs at least in Audition 1.5. Media
Player could do it as well, so I expect all WAV enabled
apps to work. However, this is for open/edit only, you
won’t get the cool features like timecode sync this way.
But if all you want to do is work with them like with
normal WAVs it should work OK.

— Kyle

[Kylesway]

Hi all

note that any 5.1 theatre should be perfectly happy when it
gets just 2.0. Obviouisly it won’t be surround then, just
ordinary stereo. But you should be able to play it back w/o
problem.

Hope this helps

— Kyle