Mark Spano
Forum Replies Created
-
You’re doubling up on the stretch. 720×480 with 16×9 PAR = 853×480 in square pixel land. So encode for either 853×480 square pixels, or 720×480 with 16×9 pixel aspect. What you write above is encoding 853×480 with 16×9 pixel aspect – this is doubling the stretch.
-
Depends on what network you’re delivering to. Some networks require one or the other – get the specs from wherever you’re delivering and they’ll have it.
-
You did it correctly. Your exported file should be interlaced. You won’t be able to see this, since each frame is made up of two identical fields, but that is what you wanted. Your receiving party may not be aware that your source wasn’t interlaced to begin with, as Shane alluded to, but the file should be fine in their workflow if they interpret it as upper field first.
-
Do you have to go back to FCP for any real reason? Are you grading in FCP? Otherwise I don’t understand going back to FCP. You can offline in Avid (as in your option 1: AMA link to ProRes 4×4, transcode to offline res) and don’t even bother relinking to high res. Once offline cut is done, export AAF of sequence from Avid and supply AAF and original source footage to color grading. File names and TC match, color grade can assemble the cut with the 4×4 footage using the AAF and grade away.
If you insist on going back to FCP, you can probably do the same AAF export of sequence from Avid, then use Pro Import FCP (Automatic Duck) to import AAF into FCP, and relink to 4×4 footage.
-
The benefits to hardware conversion are usually just time and ease of setup. Hardware conversion is usually a real-time process and easy to configure, whereas Compressor will take much longer to do the same job and can be a bit trickier to get desired results.
You can use the KONA to crossconvert with proper pulldown if you like, but this requires another station ready to capture your hardware converted output. Compressor can convert a file to a file with no output necessary, and can be easily configured to add proper pulldown for this conversion. Search these forums, you’ll likely find my explanation on how to do this.
-
Using only what you have, I’d say that’s about it. Your current offline file-to-file conversion will not get any faster than that, unless you had multiple systems to string together in a cluster.
However, your time may be more valuable than the cost of a Blackmagic Teranex 2D. You can play out of one system and have each episode converted in real time by the 2D and recapture the converted output on another system. The conversion looks good and you would be saving 50+ hours each time.
-
This looks great. And yes, if you need ISCI/Ad-Id codes, I believe you have to license them as they must be unique. For promos, it’s not usually necessary, but commercials absolutely.
-
[Jonnie Lewis] “Are there any templates available that I could use? If not, what sort of guidelines should I follow for creating one?”
There’s a few decent looking clocks in the files sections of the FCP-L and Avid-L2 groups on Yahoo. Grab one and fill in your slate details in your NLE.
[Jonnie Lewis] “I’ve seen that there is an option in Premiere Pro to create bars and tones but they don’t seem to be very customisable.”
That’s the point – you shouldn’t customize a standard bar pattern. If you need a pattern that’s not there, you might find it elsewhere, but they are standard for a reason, so they can be independently measured to the spec they represent.
[Jonnie Lewis] “Surely there’s a bit more to it than just setting the frame rate and dropping it into the timeline?”
That’s it, usually. Make sure it’s to length and if there’s tone make sure it’s at -20 dBFs per channel.
-
In this case, it is the Droplet application (inside the Compressor application package) that has become corrupt. I have seen this before and not been able to source why this happens. But you will notice that Compressor Repair does nothing to fix (because it operates on the QMaster engine and prefs, neither of which are the application package). You will also notice that any droplets that work on other systems will not work here, and any new droplets created on this system also won’t work.
The solution is to find a copy of the Compressor program (from another station if you have it). Show Package Contents and you will see the Droplet application inside. Copy that Droplet application into the Compressor package on your non-working system. Voila it all works again.
-
[Aaron Cadieux] “does someone physically downconvert the spot, or is the whole process automated?”
Most of the time, no one is doing this. A piece of hardware is doing this. And it is set (to either letterbox or center-cut) and forgotten. So you are at the mercy of an automated process.
[Aaron Cadieux] “I still think that as the producer of the spot, it is MY say and not the station’s say as to how my spot gets downconverted. But if the whole process is automated and no one person is handling the downcoversion of my spot, my wish will never be granted.”
It is your say about how your spot is produced, yes. But you may not like what happens to it downstream, with all the processes you can’t control. That’s why you get specs that say to protect, because they’ve probably gotten lots of calls from angry producers saying “why did you cut off my product’s phone number, now no one can call to order my product!”. The other issue here is that there are many stations and cable channels that all do things differently. Some of this information is available and some is hard to come by. So until the randomness shakes out, the easiest way to deal with it is to protect for 4×3.
[Aaron Cadieux] “I just can’t stand seeing my work in HD with all of the graphics crowded into the middle of the screen. I hate leaving all of that 16×9 real estate unused.”
Me either. And anyone who knows like we do will think the same. You can always ignore the specs, but you run the risk of words and graphics getting cropped out, and that probably looks worse.