[Mark Spano]

As long as you have a Mac Pro somewhere in there, then I would go with standard Apple ProRes422 codec in standard definition. It will look virtually identical to the source and not take up gobs of space. 1 hour of SD ProRes422 is about 22 GB.

[Mark Spano]

My question: is a router necessary? For the cost, since you’ve got two rooms going on line, I’d just invest in proper patchbays for SDI and RS-422. You could save a bunch of headaches and money by just manually patching (unless it’s too far away). I work in a studio with 7 edit rooms and a color suite and don’t have a router – only patchbays. It’s easier on the brain and the wallet…

[Mark Spano]

Wasn’t offering a substitution – adding an option. PZMs are easily hidden from the view of the audience and you can mount them on spongy vibration-deadening material for movement. The chances of getting proximity on the performers’ voices might be worth adding a few PZMs to the setup in this manner – always good to try if it might wind up with a better result. You might not be able to get overhead mics close enough for a good capture.

[Mark Spano]

Another option is PZM mics for the stage floor. You might be able to get away with a few of those if you can tape everything down without it being obtrusive to the performers.

[Mark Spano]

You might be able to get away with using QT Pro 7 to do this. Do what you’re doing to get the 5.1 in there, then open your quicktime in QT Pro. Open your stereo (7&8) audio in QT Pro as well. Select all, copy, close the audio file. Go to the video with the surround audio, park on first frame, and choose Edit->Add to Movie. This should add your stereo audio as another sound track to the quicktime. You can adjust the ‘labeling’ in the Show Movie Properties dialog. Highlight the Sound Track and in the Audio Settings tab, you can choose what ‘label’ those channels are.

[Mark Spano]

An even better way to describe this is that Compressor is using the formula of

storage ratio / display ratio = pixel aspect ratio

If the storage ratio is 720:576 (1.25) and the display ratio is 16:9 (1.78) then the formula is:

1.25/1.78 = .702 (pixel aspect ratio)

Other applications (like Photoshop) just invert the equation to

display ratio / storage ratio = pixel aspect ratio

So it looks like this:

1.78/1.25 = 1.42 (pixel aspect ratio)

Despite the number difference, they are the same – just one is using horizontal over vertical and the other uses vertical over horizontal.

[Mark Spano]

ugh forum formatting. equations should be read as “x over y equals 1.42 just as y over x equals .7031”.

[Mark Spano]

[Ricky Milling] “I do normally use that pixel ratio, however they have requested this one.”

Yes, that’s what I meant by Compressor using the inverse value. All pixel aspect ratio is is just that – a ratio. One number over the other. In this case, a pixel aspect ratio of 1.42 IS a pixel aspect ratio of .7031 (as you see in Compressor when you choose PAL CCIR 16:9). Because if you remember from algebra:

x y
– = 1.42 just as – = .7031
y x

So use that as your pixel aspect ratio and you’ll be set.

[Mark Spano]

It depends on what you mean by squashed. If your image was 16×9 full frame, it should now be completely contained in a 4×3 box, still being able to see everything you could see in the original frame. In addition, when opened in Quicktime Player, it should look about the same (accounting for the pixel aspect ratio). Did you use Compressor to make this file? Compressor uses the inverse values for pixel aspect ratio. Make sure you choose “PAL CCIR 601 (16:9)” as your pixel aspect ratio. Everything else should be as you have it.

[Mark Spano]

This could also be a card firmware/driver issue. If you have the keys, I’d reload the firmware and update the Kona drivers on that system. Couldn’t hurt…