[Robert Withers]

Thanks, David. I don’t “think” I’m confused about the beasts. Though I don’t know much about camera codecs except Long GOP. But my question is could one archive in a smaller camera format which seems to have contained all the quality we wanted to use in the editing format–ie, “back-converting” to a codec with a smaller file size. Your suggestion seems to be that converting to a camera format would then require another re-transcoding back to editing format for further any duplication and additional editing. I suppose, except maybe for those apps like Premiere that claim to work directly with camera formats. I imagine something could be lost in those double transcodings.

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Robert Withers]

Thanks, Kevin,
I too have seen mp4 files and ProRes files projected successfully on a semi-big screen.
It would be helpful to have some spec recommendations. One would think ProRes would look better but dunno.
I understand DCP projections are standard but don’t they require special hard drive packages for theater systems? Can one run a DCP from a laptop? That would be interesting. My question always with cheap DCP conversions is how do you QC them without a projector?
Best wishes for your shows,
Robert

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Robert Withers]

Matt, please share, what was the malware that affected your OSX?
We mac folks sometimes think we’re living in a charmed world.
Best,
Robert

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Robert Withers]

Thanks, Pat,
This is interesting. So we can go from a compressed camera codec to a mezzanine codec without (unacceptable) loss of quality but we can’t reverse this to go back to a camera codec literally or another more compressed codec without loss. “Concatenation of codecs” is poetry but I don’t understand the issue . Or at least what the issue would be if you went from an intra codec like ProRes back to a long-GOP codec. I do read that ProRes is itself a lossy compression system. Hmmn.
Cheers,
Robert

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Robert Withers]

Thanks Eric. My initial speculation was about the possibility of archiving to a compressed format like cameras use instead of large-file mezzanine codecs like Pro-Res. So archiving to 2 codecs might be a good idea but is it possible to archive to a compressed format with smaller file sizes? We often convert high-quality compressed camera codecs to large files for editing — is it possible to go back the other way?
Best,
Robert

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Robert Withers]

Here’s something I found about FFV1. Does anyone in production use it for archiving? Can a file be restored or recovered with standard equipment and software?

The reduced file sizes produced via FFV1 are exciting, but there are some downsides. Although FFV1 is open-source, the files will not play using standard video software on Mac and Windows, nor can FFV1 be utilized within commercially-available digitization hardware and software (only via terminal command). This is because no major company (Apple, Microsoft, Adobe, Blackmagic, etc.) has adopted the codec, or announced plans to do so. Any file format that does not eventually achieve widespread adoption and universal playback capability within the broadcasting and filmmaking communities, has a higher risk of long-term obsolescence, and lack of engineering support. https://blogs.library.duke.edu/bitstreams/2015/05/08/the-pros-and-cons-of-ffv1/

That was from 2015. Has anything changed since then?
Thanks,
Robert

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Robert Withers]

Thanks, I thought it was an app. Larry Jordan wrote about it. Now I need to learn about the FFV1 codec (is that right?)and the MXF and MKV wrappers as options for archiving. I have never used them. I wonder if NLEs will convert to them. I will research.
Thanks for your pointers!
Best,
Robert

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Robert Withers]

Thank you, Pat.
I have heard of some of the things you mention but don’t really understand them. I will research MXF and FFV1. And whether my NLEs will export to them or if there is software to convert my ProRes to them.
Best,
Robet

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Robert Withers]

hi tad,
when you “pop internal drives in a caddy” does that mean your computer has a caddy device? Or is that an external caddy device that takes “internal” drives?
I’ve never used a caddy so I would like to learn. I’ve been backing up on individual external drives, keeping one set on my desk and one set in a safe deposit box for an off-site location. So I have an odd collection of little boxes with different capacities. Different manufacturers, different cable interfaces, at different buying occasions. At least the sizes are regularizing.
I work at maintaining a log of hard drives with locations and contents.

Thanks,
Robert

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City

[Robert Withers]

Thanks for your notice. Do I have to uninstall Resolve 14 to install Resolve 15?
When you say “the database does not require an update,” does that mean that project files will be accessible through either Resolve 15 or Resolve 14?
Can I reinstall Resolve 14 if there is a problem with Resolve 15?

Thank you,
Robert

Robert Withers

Independent/personal/avant-garde cinema, New York City