[Nikolas Clarke]

Hi Larry; hope this finds you well.

LCD TVs can be tricky that way; not displaying SD content the way an old CRT can; lets face it, the whole IDEA of an HDTV is to play HD content 🙂 But all is not lost. Really, it boils down to a number of things a) what kind of output is availble from the edit suite, and b) how much you are willing to spend.

Right now, in my personal opinion, Sharp, Samsung and Sony are putting out the best looking CONSUMER LCD TVs, consumer of course being TVs that you can pick-up at your local electronics supplier.

However, on the professional end of things, look no further then Panasonic. Panasonic’s 26” BT-LH2600W is a marvelous picture in both SD and HD. It uses HDSDI and SDI inputs, as well as analogue composit and component inputs. The 26″ version costs around $5,000, and the 17″ version only about $500 less. You can also take a look at there line of professional Plasma screens.

Hope this is found to be somewhat helpful. All the best in your search!

Nikolas
Television Engineering Technologist, Ontario Canada

[Nikolas Clarke]

Hi Andrew

That’s a great video! The effects were likely done in a program such as After Effects, using a series of masks, paths, wigglers, and random motion. As for greater details on how this one is specifically done, I couldn’t tell you. I am certainly not an EXPERT in After Effects. That being said, there is a great forum of After Effects users and pros on Creative Cow that may be able to give you a better understanding of how this can be done. Check out the After Effects forum.

Hope I helped a little!!

Nikolas
Television Engineering Technologist, Ontario Canada

[Nikolas Clarke]

Hi Joe

I may have something a little more detailed to offer you. The error code that you provided seems to deal with drum motor or the FG pulse sensor. Basically what this means is the motor that spins the drum is having problems, or the sensor that controls the speed of the drum based on the original tapes recording speed is having problems. You may need to take this in to service, but there could very well be an immediate solution.

Firstly, perform a power cycle (remove the tape first if you can)- unplug, let sit for 60 seconds, and then plug back in. Next, rethread the tape. If the error occurs again, eject then rethread the tape. Try this once or twice. Try a different tape as well.

Unless you feel comfortable, and are trained in VTR maintainence, you should certainly send the machine in for repair. Be sure to include a detailed report of all the steps that you have taken to resolve the problem, so that your Sony professional has some point in which to start from.

I hope this was at least a little help!

Nikolas
Television Engineering Technologist

[Nikolas Clarke]

Hi Tielman

You may be interested in checking out mediacollege.com and danalee.ca/ttt for your resources. The first site I gave you covers the basics of production, and the second site I gave you will cover a great deal of the technical aspects.

Hope this helps!

Nikolas
Television Engineering Technician
Ontario Canada

[Nikolas Clarke]

Hi Johnie; thanks for your question.

I would recommend using the Sony AWSG500 Anycast switcher system for your field productions. The Anycast can be used in a variety of different ways to suit your needs. You can have an analogue, HDSDI or SDI output, you can stream over the internet directly from the Anycast, or you can record directly to an external hard drive, suck as a LaCie drive, through the Anycast’s firewire port. Also, the Anycast has various different input options available as well. You can take in a composite, s-video, SDI, HDSDI, and VGA for seamless computer integration (graphics, opening sequences, etc.) The Anycast also has a built in audio mixer for simple audio control and transitions.

I have used the Anycast on few small corporate shows, and it performed better then I had anticipated. I appreciate that it has an LCD monitor that folds up like a laptop computer and its small design (a little larger then a briefcase).

Take a look at the website: https://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/product-AWSG500/

I hope this helps; and best of luck with your productions in the future!

Thanks,

NIkolas
Television Engineering Technologist
Ontario Canada

[Nikolas Clarke]

Hey Dan

I would imagine that there would be no discernible difference in the video quality. Where you might run into quality discrepancies is if you were upconverting the 720p footage to 1080i. Since you are downconverting you really shouldn’t notice a thing

Regards,

Nikolas

[Nikolas Clarke]

Hi Daniel

There shouldn’t be any problems what so ever. When shooting in different formats, the greater concern is actually frame rate. Since you have both shot this at 24p, you won’t need to convert frame rates.

The first step you should take would be to inform your editor of the error, and clearly indicate on the DVCpro tapes which are 1080i and which are 720p. Most editing software can preform a digital conversion while ingesting, allowing to “down convert” the footage to 720p. The editor may have to capture the 1080i footage in a separate project, and then export into the correct format, then import into the main project using the correct format. If the editing is being done at a professional suite, they may have available an up-down-cross converter, such as the Leitch X75, that can be used to convert the footage deck-to-deck, or while ingesting.

I hope you find this helpful,

Nikolas Clarke
Technical Coordinator
Dome Productions

[Nikolas Clarke]

Hi Wayne

Most pro-sumer/consumer devices will export as anamorphic simply because the conversion to SD letter box or center cut is done just before broadcast. Having the master in anamorphic allows for these changes to be made later, rather then being stuck with the format that you’ve burned to tape/disc. Also, HD is at an aspect ratio of 16:9, and HD TV’s are at an aspect ratio of 16:9, therefore letter boxing is not required. But since you are using your PDW-F70 as a ‘bridge’ to create an SD sub-master that’s where you run into your problem.

What I might suggest for you is to invest in an Aspect Ratio Converter (ARC) so that you can control the format that you would like it in for your SD sub-master. These come in various varieties so you may want to do some research to find the one that best suits your needs. Check our Miranda technologies; they are a leader in developing means to perform various tasks like that.

Hope this helps,

Nikolas
Broadcast Technician
CBC / Radio Canada