[Parke Gregg]

[Ed Dooley] But for lots of us, MPEG-2 (as Program streams in my case) are broadcasters’ preferred format

I forgot about this despite my plea with regional broadcasters to go tapeless… If they do accept files, in our experience, they’ve always wanted to do the Mpeg-2 encoding themselves, and for national spots, we’ve sent it via DG/FastChannel. Do your broadcasters ask for Program streams? If so, what kind of specs do they provide and what tools do you use to make it? Just curious ’cause I’d like to be prepared if I get the same request. –Thanks–

-Parke

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[Parke Gregg]

In this particular case, I’m delivering a file to the closed captioning facility that will be laying it to tape (HDcam).

Often, however, I’m the one laying it to tape (via Kona 3), so if you have the time, it would be really helpful to hear both of your workflows.

Thanks,
Parke

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[Parke Gregg]

MPEG-2 is old as dirt, amazing for what it did way back when, and totally mind-boggling to me that it got a second life (or third) as an acquisition format with HDV. (I hear Sony holds many Mpeg2 related patents, and this explains its longivity.) Today it shines as a medium quality codec that requires little overhead, ie. processing power, for compression and decompression. On a bit to bit data rate comparison it does not hold up in image quality to a modern codec like H.264. The trade off is H.264 requires more processing power to get its pixies to do the pixel magic. (thus more battery juice in some portable situations.)

Just like MPEG-2 in the recent past, processing power for H.264 is less of an issue with all these cores and GPUs we got these days so be on the lookout for a new codec that totally maxes out your computer with crazy resolution and small file sizes. cough, cough, RedRay, cough, cough.

For me, MPEG-2 is an end-of-the-line codec, only for making DVDs. With HDV, I convert it to Prores on ingest. I use H.264 everyday for delivery via web and devices. I have not yet had the opportunity to work with any h.264 files straight from a camera (aka AVC, AVCHD, etc.), but h.264 makes a lot more sense to me as an acquisition format than mpeg-2.

-Parke

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Audio and Video Post Production

[Parke Gregg]

I assume you’re suggesting to let the Kona add the pulldown when laying to HDcam. I probably would, but the spots are getting sent off for closed captioning, and the CC company IS using my same hardware setup, Kona 3, but I would rather take any guess work out of getting the settings correct, and deliver the files ready to go. Jeremy has posted in the past about using Compressor to add proper pulldown for 720P footage, and I’m using his advise, but just wanted to make sure it is sound for 1080P as well.

Software solutions pale in comparison.

Remember what is in your dedicated hardware… it’s software. Sure a hardware company’s software may be superior than, say, Apple’s software, but saying “Software solutions pale in comparison” is not an accurate statement. You can say “software solutions are usually slower in comparison”, but they don’t necessary produce lesser quality just because they are software only. (damn, I just hijacked my own thread. If someone wants to continue the hard vs soft discussion, please start a new thread.)

thanks,
Parke

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[Parke Gregg]

Sean,
The plasma/client theater will be part of my current color/edit room, probably about 10-15 feet cable length away. The computer and rack will be in the adjacent room, 25 cable-feet away, and the plasma would be 35 cable feet away.

Currently I do not have a patch bay, just a pretty basic setup using the Kona’s two SDI outs… one to my monitor and one to a deck. The analog out is currently free. I have two SDI cables running to my monitor, one from the Kona, and one from a deck.

Yes, I do want to have separate audio monitors for the client area. Currently I have the AES audio coming from the Kona to a Behringer AES->analog convertor, then running to a mixer at my desk that controls the audio monitors. I was thinking I could send audio from the mixer to the second set of speakers as well. (We’re soon going to be upgrading the audio side of our finishing services to surround sound, so I need to be thinking about how we can monitor 5.1 in the client area as well.)

Thanks,
Parke

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Audio and Video Post Production

[Parke Gregg]

If a Decklink is like a Kona 3 card, you may only have AES audio coming out. I had this problem and purchased a Behringer Ultramatch Pro AES to analog convertor. This works great and I highly recommend it. Kona’s AES to the Ultramatch, from that I get balanced analog to my mixer that controls the audio monitors. This is also perfect for recording to an analog deck.

-Parke

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[Parke Gregg]

The footage is DV shot on a DVX100 with an anamorphic lens. It’s coming out of a DSR-2000A deck via SDI.

AJA seems to think this is a result of DV being 720×480 as opposed to 720×486.

Thanks,
Parke

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[Parke Gregg]

Thanks Shane. You’re article is a good read and helped a lot. A couple more questions:

1) The source video is SD 29.97, so I’ll be capturing 720P 59.94. Does this interpellate each field into a progressive frame and play it back in double time to match the original 29.97? Does the upconvert/frame rate shift affect the way the footage looks?

2) My plan was to use Media Manager to create a new offline sequence with the 720P 59.94 settings. From this I will recapture the footage. However, when I create the new sequence, I get an error saying the frame rate cannot be different. Should a then make a new 720P 59.94 sequence and copy/paste the offline clips into it?

Any other workflows anybody could recommend?

Thanks,
Parke

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[Parke Gregg]

I’m tempted to post semi-hair brain questions just in hopes to get a response from Bob. You are truly the most entertaining and informative person writing about video tech. Thanks for your reply to Bob and Walter.

Bob, fortunately my Mac is right next to my video rack, so the AJA cable that comes with the Kona 3 has plenty of length for a direct connection. (But I do use a barrel connector for my monitor.) Audio monitoring has always been the weakest link, but honestly I have not had a problem with sync or fidelity.

Your suggestions are all respected and the one that I had not known about was the one I went with. I just ordered the Behringer A/D convertor. This solves my Beta SP problem and my less-than-professional audio monitoring issue with one rack mount box. So now the 1/8″->RCA…20 feet…RCA->1/4″ into the mixer will be reserved for iTunes, and I’ll be running the important audio via XLR to my mixer out of the Behringer. While they’re not Genelec, my Samson monitors will appreciate it, I’m sure, as well as the overall quality of my studio. (only $169 for convertor, cables, and 2 day shipping)

Thanks for pushing me to use this project to fix the wrong,
Parke

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[Parke Gregg]

Thanks for the info.

-Parke

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