[Mark Spano]

[David Butterfield] “So the sticking point here is that Preview was showing me a letterbox but a smashed image. Preview is not a preview at all. The lesson, skip Preview and just export your test; Preview does not show you what you’ll get.”

Not true – the Preview window in Compressor shows you either size and aspect ratio relative to source or destination. In the upper right corner of the preview window, try your same settings but click the destination toggle and you should see an accurate preview. The source/destination toggle is useful for composing for crops and such, but in your case, since you’re not changing aspect, the source looks bad with padding, but the destination will look correct.

[Mark Spano]

Sorenson Squeeze (and I believe Telestream Episode Pro) can make the MPEG files your spec requires.

[Mark Spano]

Not sure why you’d need RS422, but in order to get the time code to the DigiBeta, you’ll need to patch LTC out from the SRW to the Digi and set the Digi to TC External/Regen. Sounds like everything else is correct.

[Mark Spano]

Just did a google search on QCP and came up with a link for a QCP file converter (PC only):

https://www.brothersoft.com/qcp-converter-download-71387.html

haven’t tried it, but the link works…

[Mark Spano]

I work in a (primarily) audio post production studio and we prefer DV-NTSC quicktimes (720×480) for SD, and anamorphic DV-NTSC for HD on the older Pro Tools systems with Mojo video hardware. On the newer Pro Tools systems, we’ve outfitted them with Blackmagic Decklink Extreme cards and prefer DV-NTSC quicktimes (720×480) for SD and ProRes422 quicktimes (1920×1080) for HD. This document may be useful to you if your audio facility won’t already tell you what they want:

supported video for Pro Tools

specifically the section:

Codecs
While Blackmagic Design cards support many video codecs, the following codecs are officially qualified for use with Pro Tools:

* H.264
* DVC Pro 100*
* HDV*
* DV25
* Apple Pro Res

*Only available when Apple’s Final Cut Pro is installed.

Personally, with testing, H.264 is fine but not great for scrubbing and spotting. Too much processing to interpolate frames. I-frame codecs (DV25/ProRes422) perform much better.

[Mark Spano]

Amen. You make me want to print this out and stick it up on the fridge. This is the way I’ve learned anything I’ve ever learned, and the only surefire way to proceed in this business.

[Mark Spano]

As far as I knew, DG was not yet accepting file-based delivery for HD. Maybe that’s changed?

[Mark Spano]

[Bill Scheerer] “I send to DG all the time and I have a spec sheet from them that walks you through all the settings to export straight out of FCP using quicktime H264.”

Bill,

Can you post the specs? I only have the MPEG2 spec and those are pretty strict – I’ve never heard of DG accepting H.264 for delivery. If so, do you know when they started?

Thanks,
Mark

[Mark Spano]

You probably can’t batch, but QT Sync has helped a bunch of times when I wanted to insert TC overlay as a “text track” into a quicktime. Lots of nice features and very little processing time.

[Mark Spano]

Bob, I assume that you do not already know this, but at least in my (audio professional) world, the word Tannoy is actually a contraction of the words “to” and “annoy”. Not my favorites…