[Michelle De long]

Hi Luke,

This project was shot on the Varicam in 72024p.

We digitized it in using I believe the Panasonic 1200A deck, but it could have been the 1700 I will have to look at the rental. It was over a year ago.

We went in through HD-SDI and the project has been edited using these parameters

Black Magic HDTV 720P Varicam-8Bit Easy Setup

Compressor is Uncompressed 8 bit.

The playback on that easy setup is HDTV 720P 59.94 Hz-8bit but won’t I have to change that once I go to 1080 on the Sony deck?

Thanks Luke!

[Michelle De long]

See that is my question as well.

The software downcovert looked okay as far as the picture, but the graphics looked like crap.

What is the work flow for this? Does anyone know?

Also, has anyone every up converted SDI to HD?

Thanks!

[Michelle De long]

I got it to work.

Duh-I forgot that I had to turn the Downconversion on in the Decklink Control panel. I used the Software downconversion.

BUT- The graphics still do not look good. The picture is the right size though.

Hmmm.

[Michelle De long]

Okay,

This kinda ticks me off. I have paid for this disc. I might have to downconvert the machine back to 4.5 since we are using a Black Magic capture card and they do not want us to upgrade in the middle of a project but we have to since we have a new quick client project to do on the machine using the Panasonic P2 cards and we have to have 5.1 to do that.

Honestly this type of business pratice may find me at AVID’s door. The guy at Apple said that you have to prove you have 4.5 in order to upgrade. Huh? I bought 4.5 through apple. Is my sales reciept and info not enough?

I guess that I will have to copy it and send it in, but I don’t need the hassle of this. My god. I don’t care if it saves me a few hundred bucks. We are wasting so much time dealing with it.

[Michelle De long]

Thanks Bob!! I have used scsi drives for so long that I am a little overwhelmed trying to figure out a cost effect solution to our storage issues as the company grows.

We would love to get another HUGE U320 2.7 TB but at $9000 a pop, it is just something we can’t afford right now.

The SATA RAID seemed to me to be the way to go.

Thanks again!

Michelle

[Michelle De long]

Thanks. That is what I thought.

[Michelle De long]

I have the same issue with flicker and interlacing on scrolling text. It is maddening.

We even tried AE and still the same issue.

MADDENING.

[Michelle De long]

We switched to FCP about 10 months ago. It is a huge learning curve. Not so much with the actual editing, but with workflow and settings. If you are working in HD is a nightmare trying to figure out settings that are right.

But that said, for us it is totally a codec issue with the Media 100. I have gained many more clients with FCP than Media 100. We can accept off-lined projects and just reconnect digitized clips on our system with a click. The flow from FCP to DVD Studio Pro is great. The down and dirty chroma key tools are simple in FCP. All of the interns and assistant editors we get now know FCP when the walk in the door. They all learn it at college. We hate is Motion. It really sucks. We still use After Effects and love it. Also Boris Graffiti is superior to Live Type or the FCP text tool. Hands down.

We still have the Media 100 sitting there, but we are selling it. I am a little sad, been with it since 1997!

[Michelle De long]

Thanks David. We will see what we come up with.

[Michelle De long]

Well the strange thing is that the only effects being used are not plugins but effects that come with Final Cut, specifically the blue and green screen matte combined with a desaturate and brightness/contrast filter. All of these are somewhat standard procedure filters except for the green screen which is somewhat complicated but nonetheless ought to work.

The other possible culprit might be my clients external drive. It is loud and clunky and old looking and a brand that i’ve never heard of: “Ultra.” So I don’t know.