[Ola Haldor voll]

Just a thought here.. Since you already used an EDL from FCP, isn’t it possible to use the same EDL to build a timeline with the newly rendered media? I honestly haven’t tried this. I’ve usually received single Prores files and cut it up using the Scene cut function.

And Vladimir, how you render all versions in one go? 🙂

[Ola Haldor voll]

Great stuff, Peter. Will become very handy whenever I get my hands on the Cooper!

[Ola Haldor voll]

OK guys – the job is done, and I have one more happy client to add to my portfolio.

Onlining this was a b.. you know the word. I’ve never had the question to downscale from HD to SD before, so I learned a lot about this.

Even though DaVinci does a very good job with the down scaling, there’s still some things it just didn’t let go of, so for the most problematic projects (There was 21 videos with interview/artist presentations for a song contest) there was one common error: it was shot 1080 50i. This means DaVinci was slower than usual while adjusting the colors, and I didn’t get playback stutter free because of all the nodes I had to use on some of the clips, thus I had to render..

I rendered as PAL the first time – it looked good, but not as good as the SD downscale I had the Decklink card do while I was in DaVinci.

The second time I rendered in HD, played it from BMD Media Express and fed the SDI stream to my other Mac and recorded it in BMD Media Express – so the Decklink card did the downscaling. And it was just flawless and very beautiful in regards of flickering.

On top of that, for the conversion to IMX (with mastered sound..) I used Compressor and Frame controls ON with BEST motion estimation and deinterlacing. Then the images became just superb. Sharp, yet no flickering at all.

We did this for a few of the sequences shot on 5D too, to relax some details in shots like tiny details on jackets or strands of hair that went all over the place, and made the image seem “busy” on the CRT monitor.

It took us hours to find this workflow, but I’m happy we investigated so much time in this. I’m a smarter man now, and I really, really, really hate interlaced material!

Thanks for all your support and input. It’s been priceless!

[Ola Haldor voll]

Very nice indeed.

[Ola Haldor voll]

That one looks like a good asset. Nice find! Wish they had them over the pond so I could order one now and get it tomorrow..

[Ola Haldor voll]

Interesting you should bring this up. As a matter of fact, one of the clips I tested was shot in HD 50i. It didn’t look bad at all when I had used DaVinci to downscale it.

[Ola Haldor voll]

I’m seriously thinking about getting a JL Cooper. Waiting for Euphonix is not an option. Last year I waited over 7 months from they said “it’s coming soon for Color!” until it finally shipped, and then DaVinci for Mac came along – and then I’ve been waiting ever since for that thing to be supported. I’m tired of that!

A Wacom is great – but it can only get me ‘this far’. Now it’s JL Cooper or nothing. I’m happy to read you’re using it and see it as a superior to the Wave. Especially ergonomics. The Wave looks like a plastic toy from the 80’s compared to the other alternatives.

[Ola Haldor voll]

I’ve had the chance to test a little today, and I had the opportunity to check it against MPEG Streamclip, Adobe Media Encoder and Compressor. DaVinci won by far.

Seems I’ve got this sorted out, and I’m looking forward to the job the next few days.

Thanks for all your tips and tricks, guys!

[Ola Haldor voll]

They’re shot on 5D MK II and a EX3. All in 25p.

[Ola Haldor voll]

Thanks for the heads up. Will test tomorrow.