[Mike Smith]

Many thanks Steve.

I wonder why those nice, glossy “quick reference cards” or “keyboard reference cards” from software developers died out? I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who found them very useful, and the print cost in relation to the price of professional appplication software must have been minuscule! The easier it is for people to get into and get the best from the software, the better for the reputation, take-up and success of the app, surely ..?

Mike

[Mike Smith]

What would happen in you prepared your images in advance of the shoot, and then used a video projector to project them onto your actor / helmet ..?

[Mike Smith]

OK, very strange. Boot up this morning after yesterday’s installation difficulties, and BM projects which crashed yesterday (event after a number of system restarts) are today stable with the version 5.0 drivers.

I don’t understand, but I am delighted.

DV in PAL – captures correctly in lower-field first via Decklink (Extreme).

I don’t have smooth playback of DV files via Decklink – i.e. with fields in correct order for non-DV PAL – without adjusting settings for each file individually..

It seems that PPro will do either “flicker removal” or “reverse field dominance”+ “interlace consecutive frames” in realtime, either appearing to correct the problem – I just want to check what these do to the resolution if anything. At first look both seem good.

The Decklink captured DV files play correctly via firewire in a DV timeline.

So far, well worth the hassle.

Would be lovely to be able to play DV in a BM PAL DV or Uncompressed timeline without having to change field settings for each clip …

[Mike Smith]

I guess I should add this is a PAL system, running on twin Xeons with 2 gig of RAM and an ATI RAdeon X800 XT. DV capture edit and playback works successfully via firewire. Not sure what other system info might be relevant.

DV captured via Decklink and via firewire both play with reversed fields in BM uncompressed and DV projects. Selecting “reverse field dominance” and “interlace consecutive frames” in PPro and forcing a render restores correct field order, but is obviously an emergency measure not a realistic work flow.

PPro is very unstable now with v 5.0 drivers – previous, hefty uncompressed BM projects cause frequent crashes..

[Mike Smith]

Are you capturing into a DV codec ….?

[Mike Smith]

PAL video is 720×576, always upper field first except for DV footage, which is lower field first, strangely.

Pixels in PAL for digital video are captured using “D1 standard” which is 720×576 pixel grid to represent a “full scan” 768×576 image.

A 4×3 frame uses pixels with a 1.0666 pixel aspect ratio (which multiplies out – 720 x 1.066 – to fill your 768×576 image grid, more or less).

Widescreen uses 720×576 at 1.422 pixel aspect ratio.

Of course your component signal doesn’t have a pixel grid in the samw way: it’s an analogue signal converted by Beta SP machine to fill (more or less) the 768×576 frame.

The black bars down the side are normal: there is an explanation somewhere of how the D1 standard samples the video signal which explains them, but I can’t recall where to find it just bow,

Captured video will normally have correct pixel and frame settings – you do need to watch your graphics if you want them to look similar on video to how they look on the computer. Recent versions of Photoshop have menu options to turn this (pixel aspect ration correction) off and on.

Hope this helps.

[Mike Smith]

You could try a peek at this page ..:

https://shop.cd-writer.com/acatalog/ALL_PRODUCTS_DVD_CD_PRINTERS_376.html

[Mike Smith]

Hi Malcolm

Of course DVD Region 4 includes Central and South America and the Caribbean (many NTSC territories) as well as Australia and New Zealand, so producing region 4 discs in both PAL and NTSC would be no surprise.

While I’m delighted that you are happy with your playback experience of NTSC discs, far from all users in PAL areas share your happy situation. I feel it’s important to try to supply people with what they prefer and what will work easily and well on their system.

Offering NTSC discs in a PAL region as the sole choice does not sound like good business to me.

What I was after was authoring-level guidance on whether it is possible within DVD spec to call system information from the player to determine whether it is PAL or NTSC, and divert first play to an appropriate menu / program stream depending on the result.

David’s answer suggests that it is not possible: I’m inclined to accept that.

All best,

Mike

[Mike Smith]

Thanks, David.

I’ve never seen a dual-sided disc, though, and would guess that there’s no space for labelling / face printing ..? And that fingerprints anywhere at all, either side, would be an issue? I guess that it’ll be a case of two separate discs for duplication – sadly!

Mike

[Mike Smith]

Hi Malcolm

Thanks for the thoughts. As a PAL area resident, I can tell you though that many TV screens here will not support playback of NTSC DVDs, and that the “pseudo-PAL” typically produced by a PAL player from an NTSC doesn’t look great even when it is viewable …

Anyone else with ideas on if / how the spec might suppord doing this?

Mike