[Paul Flint]

the problem is I don’t have any alternative. FCP is the tool I have to use. I know that many studios are using FCP in their pipeline. There must be a way to avoid those problems. And the only way to get image sequence from FCP is to export it that way. I can send Project to motion and export the files there but the export itself as I mentioned before does not alter images in any way so its not an issue. It is true that the problem is somewhere between AJA and FCP when the footage is being encoded.

Gary if you could shed some light onto this, how do you think I can avoid those problems I would be gratefull.

Paul Flint

[Paul Flint]

I use presets provided by AJA and FCP. As for exporting using Exporting using quicktime convention in FCP does not alter the image in any way during that process. shifts in gamma and chroma problems occur at the time of encoding into mov while capturing footage from the tape. Those Mov’s already got the problems I mentioned.

[Paul Flint]

hmmm, I’m not sure what v210 means. If I want to work on footage in FCP i need to use AJA Kona 10bit uncompressed codec ( or 8 bit ) in order to maintain the quality of the footage. And that is the codec I was using so far. My workflow is quite simple

1) Ingest footage from digibeta using EDL. (Kona10bitUncompressed mov)
2) Once I have all shots in order on timeline i check witch shots require some compositing.
3) I desired shot from sequence using export/quicktime convention to TGA sequence
4) Ppl at my studio work on the shot ( either on Nuke, AE, or Maya )
5) as a result I get finished shot in TGA seqence, I load it to Motion to convert it back into mov in order to put it into FCP.
6) record finished movie to digibeta using edit to tape.

It’s pretty strait forward and should work without any problems. But I still need to solve those 2 issues in order to make it work properly. So any advice on how to improve it will be greatly appreciated. I’m not a technician, so I dont have a lot of experience with that.

Thanks in advance
Paul Flint

[Paul Flint]

I tried it and when I capture to image sequence those artifacts are gone. That is a good thing. that means the card itself is good. Problem occurs when I capture to AJA kona 8bit or 10bit quicktime.

Gary, yes I need to figure out how to keep that gamma shift under control. Problem is I don’t know how. That is one of the reasons I am writing here. To make it work.

cheers
Paul Flint

[Paul Flint]

Thanks Gary for quick reply,

I did tried to capture also in 10bit in FCP with the same results.
Those artifacts are generated for sure when AJA codec comes into play.
It’s hard for me to get rid of FCP in my pipeline since I use it as a sort of Hub for ingesting footage by EDL ( from AVID )for compositing department, keeping all ordered for presentations etc and outputting it back on tape at the end.

I’m in contact with AJA support as we speak, we’re gonna try to pinpoint the issue with those artifacts. It does not have anything to do with footage and noise. this is some strange vertical chroma shifts – maybe related to some aliasing codec is doing since it react to edges.

As for gamma shift from YUV to RGB is there a way to get it under control ?

Paul Flint

[Paul Flint]

what avid codecs, you got me lost there. My pipeline looks like that
– editing is done on avid, then i get EDL file + digi BETA tapes and batch capture all the clips in AJA native codec. The only thing that comes from AVID is EDL

[Paul Flint]

thanks guys for some ideas. I have no previous experience with mac OsX so every administrative task is a mystery to me. I checked logs – they wre spanned with some aja error. One of my friends suggested to create different user and try to capture on that one. Once I have loged to new user I wasn’t able to write to my Gspeed raid array, so I used my main HD as a scratch. But I could not get any image when capturing at all. When I got back to my old account all I could do is remote control my digibeta deck – no video also. I decided to uninstall all aja software and drivers, rebooted and install them again. It worked – wow, I was a bit worried cos I need to capture and record every day.
Still have no idea what caused it and how can I stay safe from that bug.

thanks for you’re feedback again
cheers
Pawel

[Paul Flint]

HI, thanks for you`re reply guys, I was petrified when all that happened. It all works well – after few hours I saw an update to Final Cut studio and if fixed that problem – ufff. I was sweating like a pig ( huge line of clients + agency in the corridor waiting ).

Thanks again

[Paul Flint]

I use external speakers connected to my MacPro. You say they are out of synch – hmmm this is a real problem then.
But my major issue is that I cant capture audio using SDI from my digibeta deck. How can I solve that.

Pawel

[Paul Flint]

Hi, problem is that I don’t hear any audio thats on tape. It is recorded but I cant hear it in my speakers, but somehow I cant capture audio thats on tape. my beta audio panel is set to SDI so it should grab it.