[Matthew Romanis]

Hi John,
In PAL we also have the choice of shooting in tru 24fps and doing a simple conversion at the end of post production to allow for TV outcomes, or leave it as true 24fps for cinema use after film out.
As you have pointed out, it is vitaly important to ensure that both the camera and VTR are clocking at 60hz rather than 59hz.
I am currently doing a job with the camera in 59hz and shooting for 30fps for use in the U.S, I love this system. A camera with both PAL and NTSC use, who needs a world format anyway?
Matthew.

[Matthew Romanis]

The models Tony is talking about are the very early PRO 25 decks, and the AJ-D95 half rack portable VTR, and more recently the 1200a HD 720 VTR. All PRO 50 full size VTR’s have insert and assemble edit capabilities. The portable lap top cutter has issues with external control, but for most part the full size PRO 50 VTR’s have no issue.

[Matthew Romanis]

Are you capturing over firewire or through your capture card, and what capture card is it.
Also try turning off your external monitoring if it is incapable of playing back HD 720@60.
Matthew.

[Matthew Romanis]

I use PRO 50 decks all the time, mainly AJ-D950 and 960, and no problems with the same spec that you are running.
In Device control in FCP make sure that the RS 422 protocol you are using is for Panasonic and not the default Sony mode. That has been known to cause issue.
Also on the flip down panel of the VTR (Underneath the main flip out control panel) make sure the “Rec Inhibit” switch is not on, and be sure that the deck is operating in the correct standards mode, ie 525 or 625 (525 for NTSC, 625 for PAL.) If by chance the deck is in the wrong mode for you, make the change then turn the deck off then back on, it will now reboot in the correct mode for you.
One other thought, when you were using the keyspan connector, did the MAC system pref’s let you know you had an additional port available?
Matthew.

[Matthew Romanis]

Hi Ashul,
It is best not to use any of the 59.94 settings if you are doing 24p PAL. You will introduce a time artefact that cannot be recovered from, in PAL you will be editing in 24 complete frames per second and not 23.97 as in the NTSC world. I can’t help you with the Avid questions unfortunately.
Gary? John? Leo?

[Matthew Romanis]

Basically the Canon will be a little wider, but the Fujinon will zoom in a lot further. The difference between the two manufacturers is where they place the aspheric elemenet in the lens, and how this effects chromatic aberation at different focal lengths.
The most important thing to do is get your hands on both and discover the difference for yourself. Most people prefer one or the other from the feel of the lens rather than any technical reasons. I tend to prefer the Fujinon as the zoom servo motor reacts a little quicker on most of the examples I have tested. Other people will have different reasons as to why they would prefer the Canon over the Fujinon. Test them to discover for yourself.

[Matthew Romanis]

Try offlining with PRO 50, though keep an eye on the field dominance when on line time comes around. If you are using lower field compression in uncompressed then use the PRO 50 codec as it is, if you are PAL then look at using upper field dominance.
A lot of people are using PRO 50 as on line, it’s quite good and uses 1/3 the space of uncomressed.

[Matthew Romanis]

Hi Stan,
Make sure that the 1200 is set to system frequency 59/60 (menu No 25 setting 0000.) A lot of people set the deck to 24 thinking that this is the setting for getting a signal out of the HDSDI connector. In 59/60 mode you are allowing the deck’s hardware to perform the flagged frame removal from the 720p@60 stream that is native of all footage shot with Varicam. You should now get a 720p@ what ever frame rate your DP shot with.
All you will get is a black screen if any other setting is used.
Hope this helps.

[Matthew Romanis]

“”It was not straight forward to obtain a PC laptop with a firewire port on it”
sure it is, i can’t remember the last time I saw a new one that didn’t,
as long as your not trying to shop in the bargain basement”

I spent $200 less than I did with my powerbook. In Australia this was not an easy exercise. It may be more common in the US and other placers but locally there was not a great deal of choice in the matter. Buying outside the country with large ticket items is a concern with warranty service. The local reps of known companies don’t honour warranties when you cannot show a local receipt.

“”Firewire in the PC world is simply not as elegant as it is in the MAC environment”
once again, sure it is, when you stop shopping at the $1000 best buy level,
Buy the tool for the job, It alwasy amazes me the people who spend 3 grand on a
Power Book and then try and compare the performance of a budget office PC, and say see I told you they couldn’t do it.”

Plug and play simply does not work as elegantly. Even colleagues who are PC nuts tell me this is the one thing that they envy with MAC’s, though lately with OSX Tiger that’s another story. CF card readers that aren’t yet supported and the like.

“”The CF cards for these applications are not reliable, develop dud sectors very quickly and constantly have format issues due to the high sustained data rates. The failure rate is too high to be acceptable”
Not where I’ve been, never seen those kinds of problems with the cards.
but then again,you offered nothing but your word.”

What broadcast video applications have you seen CF cards working in? I’m only aware of FFV’s products, are there more?
I’m questioning the robustness of using CF cards for video work from my own experience. I still use the CF recorder in areas where tape won’t work ,such as high G acceleration and deceleration and small size environments, but the overall success rate is not what I would call reliable, and that’s what my point was.
The reliability of the P2 card system has to 100%, no less. To guarantee that you have vision on the disks when you get back from a gruelling wilderness shoot is of utmost importance. The concept of paying high prices for P2 early in the life of this camera may be abhorrent to some, if so, wait.

[Matthew Romanis]

When you digitised did you use firewire or the AJA Kona card via the 1200 SDI down conversion?