[Mark Burton]

Thanks guys. Basically I’m specking an offline setup for a feature. Shooting D20, recording to HDCAM-SR 1080 24p. The final delivery is film so we will stay in 24fps land all the way through.

The need for SD film speed dubs is that sound and music will undoubtedly not want/be able to use HD tapes and although Quicktimes will almost certainly be what we can send them, I wanted to know up front what our options would be if we go the HD offline route as opposed to the well trodden SD PAL offline.

Converting to 25 is no use unless it maintains film speed, so it sounds like this option is out. Not a major issue, just good to know up front.

Thanks
Mark

[Mark Burton]

Interesting. I wondered if the 24@25 pulldown method would only work with firewire out. I wonder if BMD need to implement it in their drivers?

[Mark Burton]

doka15 wrote – “It seems like every other company DeckLink, Avid, AJA and so on that have a codec that is not standard in QT supply a free codec for people who need to work in that format that don’t have the hardware. I would asume that Panasonic would also offer this FREE codec to make it simple. Perhaps they do and I can’t find it or they are working on one or just don’t have one which some people in hear have said already.”

Mitch Ives wrote – “You’re finally getting it. “Non-Standard”… that means they didn’t follow the standards, so they HAVE to provide a codec. This isn’t a good thing, so you might want to stop describing it as though it were a better approach.”

He’s not describing these codecs as None Standards compliant, he’s saying they are not supplied in the ‘standard’ Quicktime installer – two very different things and he’s completely correct. They all follow standards; Avids DV100 is following the Panasonic guidelines, Avid DV25 and DV50 do the same, they are standards compliant and are provided for free, for both platforms so people can playback their QT media files on what ever machine they are on. Apple do not, they have made no Apple DVCPRO HD, Apple DV50 or Apple HDV QT codec for the win platform.

[Mark Burton]

Lars, a few questions:
-What does the client want to use to edit the files?
-Do you have the original P2 MXF files?
If you do, burn another disk with these files on. In this format they are much more flexible on the Windows platform.
—
Mark

[Mark Burton]

The issue here is that Apple have refused to make ALL their Mac Quicktime codecs cross platform. The Apple DV50 codec is only available for OS X. If they were to port this to Quicktime on Windows along with their DVCPRO HD and other production codecs, this sort of issue would not arise. This has nothing to do with Microsoft.

Why do Apple even make Quicktime for Windows at all then? Its there to let Windows users play and make Quicktime files, so why not let it play all Quicktime files? Its their codec but you can’t play it on their media platform; they added this ridiculous limitation, its they who should rectify it.

For the record, Avid do have cross platform DV50 and DVCPRO HD Quicktime codecs which are freely available for anyone to put on their non Avid machines, but they won’t play the Apple formatted codecs.

[Mark Burton]

Uli, it sounds like your sequence preset is not quite right as you should not be asked to render anything (without effects applied), even in full quality, safe RT.

Back to the garbled image issue; this is actually an issue caused by P2 Log (indirectly) since they ask you to remove a DVCPRO HD Quicktime component to use their 720p50 codec.

When you remove this component you will get the garbled images in FCP with some effects. Putting it back in means FCP now operates perfectly, this issue is cleared up, however you will now get the garbled image in P2 Log. This is their ‘bug’ and as far as I can see, should be easy to fix since their ref QT files play fine in QT Player.

I think having FCP operate normally is more important unless you are actually doing lots of data entry in P2 Log, in which case you’ll need to keep removing and replacing it! (perhaps an Applescript could save you some trouble).
—
Mark

[Mark Burton]

I have being using P2 Log with 720p25 (recorded on Firestore, so not pN) and their 720p50 passthrough codec. Generally it works well for normal workflow. There do seem to be a few issues when you add effects. The image becomes ‘garbled’ in a way that suggests a codec and RT preview incompatibility. I have mostly found this with transfer modes, but others have been having it with CC and other effects. I’m not sure exactly where the issue lies, but it seems rendering the section solves this.

P2 Log is really a very low cost way to get into this and will certainly be cheaper than going for the Varicam. I suggest doing a few tests with the demo first, but if it works for you, $99 is well worth it.

—
Mark

[Mark Burton]

Is it possible this is the 2GB file size limitation rearing its ugly head. Not sure about P2 cards, but certainly with the Firestore a new MXF file is created every 2GB but neither FCP, Avid or HD Log are able to recognize this and create a connected media file. I don’t know what filesystem the P2 cards use, but with the Firstore its FAT32 hence the 2GB limit.

As you were shooting 720p24, the length of the shot is longer, as when I was doing 1080i50 recording the length was closer to 2min 18sec when the break happens.

If this is the case you should have all the media, its just that they will be split into lots of sections. A very irritating oversight in the design IMHO, but I’m sure one that will be rectified at some point by the NLE guys. If thats not it, then ignore everything I just said 🙂
—
Mark

[Mark Burton]

Hi Bob,

I am in agreement, but you misunderstood me. My question came about because I was talking with someone who was convinced their was a $6k licensing fee to use an HD-SDI port with video, audio AND TC on a product. I was sure there wasn’t such a fee as some products (hence posting this in the Decklink forum) have such connectors and sell for under a $1000 dollars.

This is NOT about what the Canon camera or any other HD camera can and can’t do over its HD-SDI port, this is simply a question of whether using an HD-SDI port (I’m NOT talking about SD-SDI) in a product requires special licensing and how the signals carried affects this licensing cost (if there is any).

Secondly I wondered if the Decklink cards or Multi-bridges carry all 3 signals on their HD-SDI ports?

Thanks
Mark

[Mark Burton]

Silly typo in the title. Should be:

OT: HD-SDI licensing – does it cost 6K?