[Mark Maness]

Thanks for all of your input on this. We all know this is a new and exciting area for all of us. I do agree with what you are saying about HDV and the newer HD stuff that’s available. I’d love to be using the Varicam but I’m relegated to using HDV for budgetary needs. So… I’ll have to make the best of it. Now, if I could just get my superiors to let me purchase a Miranda DEC-Bridge so that I can ouput true digital HD-SDI.

Now….. Marion, I do have a question for you on shooting “Good Eats”. I love those in the oven shots and I am curious what camera you are using to get those wonderful shots.

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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions

[Mark Maness]

Hey folks….. there is an easy fix for all of this. Just purchase an inexpensive small audio board and use it for monitoring only. I have never had these kind of problems with the K2 with this option. The only audio problem I have ever had is the crackling audio that you get sometimes when you stop and start playing from the timeline or viewer windows in FCP.

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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions

[Mark Maness]

Guys… don’t get me wrong. Maybe jumping on the HDV wagon was not a good idea but Panasonic’s P2 idea just seems so much like a seroius waste of money. Only 8 min of HD per card….. Come on…. That’s extremely expensive to run. That was the only reason our company didn’t consider Panasonic. HDV tapes are only about $16 per tape and our XDCAM discs are about $30 per disc. Much more cost effective than that of P2. Please don’t get me wrong, P2 is a good idea only if the cost of the P2 cards were the same as HDV tape cassette (not a case of tape). Everybody has their own opinions on what’s best but what it all boils down to is COST. Ok…. the camera only costs about $6000 but the media will cost you a fortune unless you purchase a firewire drive made for this camera…. then you have the problem of archiving it – there’s another format.

Anyway, guys… I value your opinions and I, too, have opinions on this as you can read. We’d all love to have large budgets and shoot with Varicams and Pany 200’s but that’s not the case with most of us. You have to look at it this way. It’s all in what we can afford. And BTW, look at HDV that has been downconverted to DV, I’ll bet you’ll notice it looks much better than that of standard DV like the XL1 can shoot.

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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions

[Mark Maness]

Either way….. the spot is a great spot. We can argue over the whole thing over and over but its done and airing. As for the effects, Motion can do every bit of that and I’d hope that the production company who made the spot used Motion since it is an Apple spot. Don’t knock Motion… Its a force of its own.

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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions

[Mark Maness]

Hey gang….

Do me a favor….. export out a movie and leave “Make Self Contained” unchecked. Then look at the movie in Quicktime and tell me if you are getting reversed field problems. I can no longer make DVDs anymore because I’m getting reversed fields. I am using the IMX codec, too. Tell me your results…

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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions

[Mark Maness]

No troubles here, either….

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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions

[Mark Maness]

Well, if you want to capture to the DVCPROHD codec, you’ll have to use the machine and a converter. Firewire is HDV only. To be honest, using the converter will be much better quality and less work for the computer, so I’d use it all of the time if I had one to use. Everything else you stated will work. it may take some time to render but it should work just fine. You might want to check with Graeme on the proper settings for his standard converter plugin to get the right look but other than that you have the right idea.

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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions

[Mark Maness]

Thanks for the response, Walter. So basically the show is edited twice (an SD edit and then a repcature in HD). Neat! Let me say that your animations are awesome…. I love the Monty Python look. I already knew that the K2 can downconvert but I didn’t know how well. We are currently using HDV for our HD budget format and I haven’t been able to capture HD other thatn HDV just yet. I’m still waiting to purchase the Miranda HDV-Bridge. But I do have to say that downconverted HDV to DV is still much better than standard DV. I just have to adjust the black levels in post. Thanks for you input, Walter.

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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions

[Mark Maness]

Thanks, guys….. I feel like an idiot now… 🙂 I guess sometimes we do seem to have the time to play around with the software to see if it will do what we want. Thanks again!

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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions

[Mark Maness]

Joel…. I have learned that FCP 5.0 has a real problem with estimating space needed. I’m digitizing IMX footage and FCP estimates the footage at about 5 larger than the actual captured footage. I would have to say that since this is not a major problem that it may not be fixed for a long time. So…. don’t bother with the estimated file sizes in FCP. Go with your gut and what you know it should actually take to capture using the codec of your choice.

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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions