Micah Mcdowell
Forum Replies Created
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It’s true that a 720×480 image will look horrible compared to a 300 dpi scan of a paper while opened in Photoshop, but it’ll be the same either way in Premiere.
A couple tips that ‘might’ help; use the Image/Image Size menu in Photoshop and then change the “Resample Image” option at the bottom to Bicubic Sharper and resize from there… I can’t ever tell the difference but maybe it’ll help in your case. Personally, I just make a new file from the NTSC-DV preset and scale the big image to fit inside it.
Also, save your files in the highest quality format you can (maybe TIFF or PSD).
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I concur with what the others have said, and I’ll add that 300 dpi is way, way overkill for Premiere.
An 8.5×11″ paper at 300 dpi is 2550×3300 pixels, compared to your 720×480 frame. Use Photoshop to downrez your document that stays in the background; you have blow-ups of details as you said so the quality won’t suffer.
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You could always do what I’ve done in similar situations… get a grand worth of random stuff from the Sony store, and then turn around and sell it on eBay. You could probably get all your money out of it that way.
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That would help, and be sure to make your set lighting a bit ugly.
If you could track down an older tube-type video camera, that might help too; they have a different look, especially with bright highlights in the image that tend to smear and trail. I just found an old Sony DXC-M3a at a yard sale for $5… still works great (if you call the finest of 1984 great).
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Yes, the RAM is a matched pair, certified for this particular workstation. I even took it out and tried it in another HP system we have to be sure, and it worked perfectly (which was a Premiere system, not an Avid… no issues at all).
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I believe the XL and XH cameras are fairly similar in most respects; I know that the XL-H1 has an interchangeable lens while the XH-A1 does not, and the various Canon HD cameras have different sets of video outputs, etc. Refer to the Canon camcorder forum if you want details.
The XH and XL cameras are HDV format… if you want the “BEST QUALITY IMAGE POSSIBLE WITH HD”, it won’t be these. If you want very nice quality for the price, they’re worth a look.
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Some good suggestions so far…
Since you’re apparently a PC user, I’d recommend Adobe Premiere above anything else in the cheaper category; Vegas isn’t bad but it’s interface seems a bit non-standard to me.
If you’ve got a Mac around somewhere, get Final Cut Pro.
Also, Avid used to have a free educational version you could download… if you could track that down it would be nice to play with and way better than Movie Maker.
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My high school had a video production class for a while, but by the time I had a chance to take it, they dropped it. They had no clue what they were doing anyway.
However, my senior year I decided to go to the local vocational school’s broadcast production class which would take up half of my high school day. It’s one of the best decisions I ever made.
I learned many times more in that one year of class than in the four subsequent years of college as a video production major. Oh well…
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It may not be in your budget, but the NewTek TriCaster would be perfect for your needs. It’s everything in one box and can stream to the web; I use one all the time and it works great.
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As far as 16:9, you could shoot with the DVX and crop it in post production, or use an anamorphic lens adapter with it.
I have experience with both the XL1s and the DVX, and I’m fairly certain that the Canon does not have true progressive mode; instead it has a “frame mode” that tries to emulate the progressive scan of the DVX but has some loss of quality. To my eyes, the DVX in progressive looks MUCH better than Canon’s frame mode.