[Oliver Peters]

At least on the Kona2 you can definitely play HDV in real-time. I’ve seen it in HD, but I haven’t checked the SD downconversion. These are separate functions though, so it should work. Make sure you are in an HDV sequence though and don’t have a timeline with mixed media. In an all-HDV timeline, the sequence plays in real-time without any rendering/conforming needed. If you ask FCP to render – it will do a conform, but this isn’t needed for Kona2 output in real-time. If you have a mixed-format/codec timeline, then the HDV will have to be rendered first.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

It gets down to your personal preferences of screen size and text size. Most of the editors I work with think 2×23″ is too big and prefer 2×20″. That’s because the native res of the 23″ causes text to be smaller on the 23″ than on the 20″. Also the distance from far left to the far right is too far on 23″s. I don’t know about a single 30″. You’d have to check it out for yourself at an Apple store and see if you like it. Another popular config on the older Cinemas (lower resolution) was a 22″ or 23″ centered with a 17″ (4×3) off to the side for bins.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

I don’t believe FCP offers this type of workflow. Since Cinema Tools is geared around generating a negative cut list, there’s not really a good reason to do this. With the relatively new advent of DI, this is changing, of course. Right now Avid has the best workflow for this function. Avid’s workflow is to use keycode as the common element. You would do the offline, generate a selects list (scene/take/keycode). This would be retransfered to new TC numbers and new Flex files would be generated. Then this new media is linked to the old sequence in a “relink by keycode” function.

In the FCP world, right now as far as I know, people are generating their own homebrew solutions, using Filemaker Pro and other apps. Part of this can be solved at the transfer facility. For example, you would cut and generate a CT database. From this you’d get a select scenes list. The transfer facility will have the ability to retransfer shots based on the original source TC, because they will have saved a transfer list (their own internal EDL). This is done all the time in commercials.

In FCP you could generate an EDL, XML or media-managed list/project that would be used to batch re-capture the new transfer, since the TC would match the original. Please realize, though, that these steps do introduce some frame-ambiguities, so your final sequence might have to be adjusted + or -1 or 2 frame(s) throughout to match sync and edit points, especially if you are going between 24 and 30 fps.

There’s a lot of info at 24p.com and zerocut.com.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

[Henry199] “I am FCP man myself, that’s why I just needed a AVID view. Last time I used one was 1997 or so. Really clunky. That’s stuck in my head!”

So, if you’re an FCP man, why do you even care about the comparison? Are you trying to supply info to a boss who’s asking or are you trying to justify FCP over Avid for a corporate purchase? An Avid editor will most likely consider the things you may like in FCP as “clunky” from an Avid POV. And Avid editor will consider Avid faster, while an FCP editor will consider FCP faster. It is a pointless exercise. If you really want to know, sit down with an experienced editor who knows both for a reseller demo. There you can evaluate things like, “if I do something this way, how would you do it on your system?” Better yet, book the travel to NAB and get your hands on EVERY system.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

[Henry199] “What are the other options apart from FCP for the $250K price tag, for a full blowing Avid Suite?”

Maybe you should do some research. Avid suites haven’t been $250K for a long time. You can build an Avid suite for similar dollars to an FCP suite, depending on which formats you need to deal with. If you are cutting DV or HDV, the costs are the same. If you are talking about cutting anything other than DV or HDV, the peripherals you’ll need to own will cost the same in any suite and will be far more than the differences in cost between the two systems. Everything else is subjective.

Other choices:
Adobe Premiere Pro
Sony Vegas
Sony Xpri
Autodesk smoke/fire
Harris/Leith Velocity
Media 100HD
Quantel QeditPro, eQ, iQ
Lightworks Alacrity
Etc., etc., etc…..

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

I agree that it could have stood some less conservative cutting. An easy 30 minutes should have been cut. The reason for the scratchy audio was that these were all opera cuts. The point was that opera was a love of both the lead and his father-in-law. In fact, there was a reference early on about listening to some of his old prize recordings. Did you happen to notice that the mix was all mono? Another Allen hallmark.

Of course, the whole script was basically an operatic theme and the ending was Allen trying to be Hitchcock, though he couldn’t resist a few comic touches. Not a bad attempt, but it was a better TV movie than a theatrical film and the human questions regarding relationships were tackled better in Closer.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

[Tim Kolb] “Also…this system has no SDI I/O, so it’s analog only.”

Tim,

You could, of course, simply capture the HDV wild into the Avid, using the downconverted SD CAV signal straight into the Avid BOB. Capture at 2:1 in real-time.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

Tim,

It sounds to me like it was set to 20:1, not 2:1. That would also be a valid Meridien compression setting. Something is wrong. I would recommend simply compressing to Animation codec at the right settings and taking the time hit on the Avid side. Might be some sort of codec conflict with ProCoder or the version of QT on that machine.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

Tim,

Let me try to help here. Avid Meridiens do not take in video via FW. Only through the BOB or as an imported file. All imported files have to be converted into OMF. A QuickTime file using an Avid codec still has to be rewrapped as OMF, hence the import process. If everything is done correctly in the conversion to the Avid-formatted file, then the software engages a Fast Import mode, which is essentially a file copy/wrapping step. If something is slightly wrong, it takes longer. Generally about the same, as if you had used the animation codec or something similar.

The JFIF 2:1 codec means that the resulting video is encoded as 720×486, 8-bit, 4:2:2, D1 aspect ratio, value-rate Motion JPEG at 2:1 compression (max) at 29.97 (in NTSC). Your file size should be around an average of 2 min./GB with this codec, but since it is a variable-rate codec, this isn’t an exact amount (plus audio, of course).

The 2GB file limit has to do with dealing with legacy OS types and versions, since you might create a file that is intended to run on an older machine and, therefore would have a problem. It’s an Avid thing, but mainly to protect older systems.

Unfortunately, you’d probably get the best results by simply going component analog SD out to a DBeta deck (or similar) and then ingest via SDI into the Avid. That would be real-time (twice). Remember also that in Avid land, you can mix any of the 2-field compressed codecs, any of the 1-field compressed codecs, but you cannot mix compressed and uncompressed media, nor 2-field and single-field media. Hope this helps.

Sincerely,
Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Oliver Peters]

Just got this link from a friend:

https://eww.pavc.panasonic.co.jp/pro-av/support/cs/csregistp2m/ep2main/soft_e.htm

Thanks.
– Oliver

Oliver Peters
Post-Production & Interactive Media
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com