[Matt Jones]

Thanks again for your insight:

>>MPEG-4 SP = Simple Profile or rather MPEG-4 Part 2. (MPEG-4 Part 10 is H.264)

So how does that correspond to “basic” and “improved”?

>>Do not use AE to transcode your videos, it’s a compositing and special effects application with some powerful video processing tools, it’s not a transcoder. Get a dedicated piece of software to do it.

I have interlaced HD video in the top 2/3. I have vector text that I am compositing in AE. If I do the compression in AE, it separates the fields of video correctly while giving me nice crisp text in the progressive output. It uses the same Flip4Mac 2-pass wmv encoder that any of my other Quicktime-based application would use. What is the advantage of doing a primary compression to a lossless format and then going to wmv? I could use compressor for this workflow, but I don’t see the advantage.

Thanks,

Mj

Matt Jones
Metro Productions, Inc.
Raleigh, NC

[Matt Jones]

>>720×540 at 400Kb/s is very aggressive – is the content mostly static? You should be able to double that bit rate easily.<< The video was shot at 1920x1080 and scaled to fit in the top 2/3 of the frame. I have subtitles over black in the bottom 1/3. It looks OK, but I wanted to keep the bitrate and framerate as low as possible in case I ran into some slow Windows95 machines out there. I'm all about switching to another codec, but I'm afraid mp4-SP might be too new for some older machines. I don't want them to come up with some message that they don't have the right codec or they need to download one. I'm assuming Windows Media Player will be the default player. What's your experience with mp4 compatibility? Is MPEG-4 SP also known as "improved? In my export dialog from AE I have "basic" and "Improved" Also, If I choose "ISMA", I can't change the frame size to custom. Of course mpeg-1 is the most widely accepted. If I use mpeg-1, what would you suggest as the top bitrate for playback from CD? How do you think MPEG-1 compares to WMV9 at equal bitrates? Thanks for your help. Mj Matt Jones Metro Productions, Inc. Raleigh, NC

[Matt Jones]

Thanks for the help guys. I downloaded a new driver for my GSpeedES eSATA and restarted. Once I get this project out tomorrow I’ll try the other tests, test the inputs again, and see if it reacts the same on a clean system.

Thanks,

Matt

Matt Jones
Metro Productions, Inc.
Raleigh, NC

[Matt Jones]

Issue update:

Swapped the cards back and fired M100HD up. HDV acquire worked perfectly. I got my HDV stuff digitized and then tried a SD component capture from Beta to see how lucky I really was. no luck. Here’s the sequence that followed which is about par for my system for the last year or so.

1. Firewire HDV working
2. Switch to SD component, beta, Kona rs422 control: no video, analog audio and mach control working fine
3. Switch back to firewire HDV (video, audio, device control): nothing working- all machine control attempts register a “stop” highlight on the vcr controls on the subsampler. no video, no audio, no mach control
4. Switch to SD component: same as #2
5. Switch to SD composite: Video come in as B&W, audio and mach control working
6. Switch from SD composite to SD component: B&W video turns to color and component SD is working fine.

It’s just that easy. When it works. Usually it depends on if I have a customer with a BetaSP sitting beside me or not. It’s not dependable and sometimes I can’t get the SD component to come in at all.

Just for giggles I tried switching back to Firewire HDV acquire after getting the SD component to work, and now it’s not working again. (After working perfectly for 45 minutes earlier today)

I gotta get to the bottom of this asap. I need to be able to rely on my M100HD as I have since version 2.6.

Matt Jones
Metro Productions, Inc.
Raleigh, NC

[Matt Jones]

So I guess I’ll put the card back in the slot I had it in to start with? Is my eSata card in the right slot? ( current config: display-1, LHe-3, eSATA-4)

Thanks,

Matt

Matt Jones
Metro Productions, Inc.
Raleigh, NC

[Matt Jones]

Swapped the card. no luck.

I am now unable to playback an HD timeline that worked fine before the swap. It says:

“Could not play because the CPU was unable to process the video quickly enough. Stopped @ 00:02:33:14”

Any other ideas? Maybe I need to send my card back to AJA for testing/repair?

Thanks,

Matt

Matt Jones
Metro Productions, Inc.
Raleigh, NC

[Matt Jones]

When I “get more info” on the mac it now shows:

NVIDA GeForce 8800 GT: Slot-1
pci-bridge: Slot-2
pci-bridge: Slot-2
pcif1d0,c0fe: Slot-2@3,12,0
scsi: Slot-4

OK, Guess the card is in the wrong slot. It’s in #2 now. I’ll open ‘er up and swap it out as soon as I get done with this DVD I’m burning.

So, once swapped I will have:

Slot 1: NVIDA GeForce 8800 GT
Slot 2: open
Slot 3: LHe card
Slot 4: G-RAID SCSI bus controller

I’m sure I put the card in the slot I was told to when I initally set up the system. Has it changed?

I have not tried to digitize component SD via FCP. Should I try this test before I swap the card out?

Thanks,

Mj

Matt Jones
Metro Productions, Inc.
Raleigh, NC

[Matt Jones]

I have been following this thread as I am planning on using this same method for an upcoming project. Was this resolved? How can I make sure that FCP makes M100 compliant files?

Matt Jones
Metro Productions, Inc.
Raleigh, NC

[Matt Jones]

Thanks Floh,

I’ll hold off on the QT upgrade. As they say in the south, “If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.”

Am I OK to go ahead with OS 10.5.7?

Matt Jones
Metro Productions, Inc.
Raleigh, NC

[Matt Jones]

For a low-cost alternative, try the freeware “MPEG Streamclip” De-mux the files to what you need and edit away.

Matt Jones
Metro Productions, Inc.
Raleigh, NC