[Rich Rubasch]

If the tape is just wrinkled a little and the footage at that spot is not critical you can just rewind the tape and upload it.

One thing here folks…..I heard from a tech today that a lot of us are shooting DVCProHD on the yellow cassette Panasonic tapes. These are actually designed for DV25 material. the lavendar tapes are designed for DVCPro50 and another color is for HD. The tech said we really shouldn’t use the yellow cassettes because they will cause more errors….much like using non metal tape in a Beta SP….a standard oxide tape….much more prone to errors.

Just an FYI.

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Rich Rubasch]

That is what I was thinking too…..use the Meridien codec. Especially because I can render it with an alpha. But I wonder if the DS Nitris can export to the Meridien codec? I was told that they couldn’t find the codec on their machine and that a clip that we provided to them in the Meridien codec would only play a white screen….indication that it wasn’t loaded on their DS.

Thanks for the input…

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Rich Rubasch]

On one of the tapes the Error 02 would be intermittent. I repacked the tape by fast forwarding and rewinding it and the errors went away…..however, on this tape even though I got the error, I did not see any of the blockies that I did on the other tape. Actually, nothing looked to be in error to me.

Hmmmm.

Anyone?

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Rich Rubasch]

Since you are using cleaner, use the crop feature in there…..you’ll find it. I was going to suggest using a compression app like cleaner, but you are already there!

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Rich Rubasch]

Also, we have all of our LCD computer monitors Color Sync set to 2.2 gamma which is more like an NTSC signal….this way our computer screens pretty much match our NTSC monitors.

Likewise we don’t see such a shift in gamma when we take clips to a PC.

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Rich Rubasch]

Here is a possible solution….on a Mac download MPEG Streamclip from squared5.com. Open the DV clip in it and choose Export to AVI. Once there in the top pulldown, select Apple PhotoJPEG as the compressor and set the slider to 75%. Make audio uncompressed 48k. Deselct the chroma sampling and scaling etc…make sure you are making the correct file aspect from the left radial buttons. And be sure you have lower field selected. Make movie.

Here’s what happens….you get a true PC compatible AVI file, BUT it is much much smaller because you have encoded it with a pretty standard 4:2:2 codec that will retain the quality.

On the PC side it will look like a regular AVI file…however, because you used the PhotoJPEG compressor, the PC will HAVE to have Quicktime installed on it. One final step would be to install the PC version of MPEG Streamclip on the PC and use that app to convert the AVI movie to whatever codec they will use on the PC.

I use this workaround all the time to get large DV or DVCPro50 clips to a PC. As long as the PC has Quicktime installed all will be well.

Good luck.

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Rich Rubasch]

For me the first thing I would do is convert the MPEG-2 to DVCPro50. Cut it down and run the final thru Compressor and author the DVD. the things that will speed up workflow is to have your presets in compressor so they are ready to go….have a DVDStudioPro template set up just the way you will need to author it etc.

If possible do the conversion from MPEG-2 to DVCPro50 the day before the edit.

Otherwise, get a PC and Vegas and cut your MPEG-2 there.

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Rich Rubasch]

Episode is the best all around Mac compression package out there. But you will find that each has its own strengths. We did the Cleaner upgrade and it has been worth it. I think performance is better too. Be sure to get the 6.5.1 update after you upgrade.

Cleaner just has an interface I am familiar with, but I use others too. I have MPEG-Streamclip and compressor, as well as a couple others like VisualHub…

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Rich Rubasch]

Also, the Color Management setting can be set as part of an output module, instead of setting it Project wide. Open your DVCPro50 output module and click the Color Management tab. Do the same things as above, set the color Profile to SMPTE-C and Linear Light. Then anytime you render to that codec using that output module you will get the correct gamma etc.

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Rich Rubasch]

In AE go to File-Project Settings. In there you will see the Color Management settings. Be sure to set the Color Settins Working space to SMPTE-C. We also checked the Match Legacy Gamma box.

Now, on your imported footage clips select one and hit Command-F. In the Color Management tab make sure you have the Profile set to SMPTE-C and we also checked the On for 32 bpc.

Problem solved. We get an exact match on rendered footage when we render directly to DVCPro50. Now we export DVCPro50 and render to it with exact color match. My guess is this workflow will work also on DVCProHD footage as well.

Give it a try and let us know if it works for you too!

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media