Michael Sigmon
Forum Replies Created
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Good clients really do exist in this business – people who understand there is such a thing as ‘value’ that goes beyond the bottom line.
Too bad about the other 5 (6? 7? 8? 9?) out of 10 who only care about the lowest bid and bending you over for every last dime.
In every single case – whether it’s production or dining out or buying furniture – one usually gets what one pays for.
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Personally, I would never, ever rent out my gear to strangers.
There is just too much room for ‘things’ to happen. And when (not if, but WHEN) they do… you’ll have quite a headache on your hands. First it will be difficult to get all but the most honest, ethical people to admit that they damaged your gear.
Then, once (and IF) they do cop to it… how will they pay up? Do they have the money? How much? You’ll want to be ‘made whole’ – get the damage repaired PLUS it is not unreasonable to expect compensation for the downtime that your camera is not available for work. The other party, of course, will very likely not agree to this unless – again – they are highly, highly ethical and fair-minded. And loaded with cash.
I would only consider renting my gear to people whom I know and trust. And even then… I might insist on being on location. I baby my gear; I would expect anyone else who uses it, to treat it as if it were their own.
I could excuse a bit of scuffing on the body that wasn’t there before. But the chief concern is the lens. My camera’s lens has NO scratches on it, none. It is immaculate. Suppose your camera comes back with a slight scratch on the lens. Imagine the arguing that would spring from that. You’ll want the lens replaced. They’ll say it was already there and besides, nobody will notice it. Unless, again, you are dealing with that mythical being, the 100% honest and 100% ethical person.
You know how people treat rental cars? Well, there you go…
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fair enough. I always shoot progressive so interlace is not an issue.
Thanks again for your knowledgable responses, you’ve definitely set me on the right path to figure out the best way to deliver these videos to the client.
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That’s all very helpful. I wasn’t looking for anyone to tell me exactly what buttons to push, but rather what I need to be evaluating and adjusting for. Thanks so much.
One last question: any idea about the use of filters, specifically adjusting brightness and contrast for a streaming video? I’m going to be asked about that, I need to have some kind of answer as to whether it’s necessary or not. It could impact my transcode time, after all.
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Seeman: “I assume you’re just opening the .mov and Saving As .mp4”
absolutely.Seeman: “BTW did you know QuickTime Pro can compress to H.264 .mp4 even though Compressor can’t.”
Yes, and I’ve done that before, but it doesn’t offer the fine-grained control that Compressor does.
Seeman: “Dissolves tend to need higher bit rates since there is change every frame, otherwise the quality falls apart during the transition.”
Agreed… but shouldn’t the 2-pass VBR transcode handle this? I guess I don’t need to worry about the dissolve length, then.
Seeman: “JPEGs are the opposite situation as they have no change (unless you’re animating them) from frame to frame.”
No, no animation in the JPEGs, they are static. One issue the client mentioned to me, is that of there being some pixelation as we dissolve from the talking head to the JPG, then the JPG settles out. But… I’m thinking that a proper compression job should eliminate this pixelation issue as we transition between talking head and JPG?
Seeman: “I think the place “of change” may be the dissolves and fades. Get rid of them and you might be able to move to lower bit rates if you hit that point.”
No can do. Client vastly prefers the dissolve between speaker and graphic. Very unlikely I can talk them out of that point of view.
Seeman:”How the unknown server is serving may also be a factor. If it’s streaming rather than HTTP I’d use CBR encode if you have that control in whatever you use as a compression tool. Some tools do that for you with a “streaming” check box.”
1) OK and that touches on a key issue. I can’t really test my compression settings without actually streaming it off their server, can I? (feels like a dumb question. I’m going to assume the answer is, ‘yes, you must try streaming a test clip off the server you’re using and see how it plays back.’)
2) Compressor does indeed have a ‘streaming’ checkbox in the settings, and I’ve been wondering if I need to check that when setting up a job. Interesting that you recommended CBR encode rather than VBR for a streaming server. Would you mind explaining? Just so I can know what I’m talking about.
By the way, I’m aware that there are better H264 streaming compression tools than Compressor… for now, that’s my only option. Down the road I can look into getting something better.
Also… is there any need to use the filters in Compressor? Someone mentioned to me the need to reduce contrast by applying the Brightness and Contrast filter, for instance.
Thanks for the advice.
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Alrighty then…
1) MacBook Pro, OS X 10.6.4 running Compressor 3.0.5
2) The program is 1080p30 XDCAM.
3) Desired output is H264 .mp4 @ 640×360. Previously, I’ve used MPEG Streamclip to convert the .mov which Compressor outputs, to the .mp4 file wrapper.The content will be streamed to paying customers, not for progressive download. The subject matter is mostly talking heads, static shot, or audience b-roll, usually in a static shot but occasionally we pan across them. There are also a number of full-screen JPGs in the program; we just dissolve between the talking head and the JPG. The use of these JPGs varies from infrequent to very frequent. There are no motion graphics, no fast moving subjects. There is a bug in the lower right of the screen which has a 30 frame fade up, stays up 5 seconds, then 30 frame fade out. It comes in every 2 to 3 minutes.
I usually use a 15 frame dissolve between the talking head and the JPG, by the way… it looks right for playback in a timeline but perhaps a longer dissolve is better suited to streaming between such drastically different subjects. I’m also wondering if there’s a minimum time that a JPG like that should stay on the screen in a streaming video.
I have no idea what kind of server is going to be used to stream these videos, that has not been communicated to me. We are assuming that all customers will have broadband connections, since the programs are between 1 hour and 1.5 hour (some are even longer, but those are few and there won’t be any of those going forward).
Hope that helps and thanks for pointing me to the sticky. Previously the client said, ‘give us an H264’. I’m taking it upon myself to do better for them than just tossing a file over the wall…
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The NVS2500 sounds fantastic… but for $2000!!!! wow… can someone tell me why I wouldn’t be better off putting that $2000 towards a MBP which would have the ExpressCard slot, which I could also use for other purposes such as a 2nd machine to render FCP projects or run Compressor jobs… obviously the space saved by only carrying an NVS2500 is a plus. I just have a hard time swallowing the $2000 price tag compared to the alternatives.
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So far I can’t tell much difference between render time in XDCAM and render time in ProRes… but WOW the render files seem much larger.
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…plus, if I build it right, I could run Adobe Premiere on it and edit my videos there while FCP renders. There’s no requirement that I do everything in FCP; it’s just my preferred NLE.
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Thanks Bouke. I’m really beginning to think the proper course of action is to roll my own PC, get the $495 Matrox Max card plus Cinema Craft. A 2nd Mac to handle FCP renders and exports can wait; the time lost to waiting on this is not that bad compared to time spent compressing .m2v and H264.