[Sam Lee]

This works. Thanks for the tip.

Previously I had to export the entire library as XML. Make a new library. Import that newly created XML. Delete unwanted events and keywords. Then move all that to another library. What huge time waster.

[Sam Lee]

After seeing $300K-500K price quote from various service providers for medium-large data to be stored and on the cloud – particularly AWS, I don’t think that’s profitable unless the ad or revenue is so high that $500K is barely making a small dent to the revenue. I rather have my own in-house large scale HP LTO-8 tape library than throwing away half a million USD$ every year to AWS.

[Sam Lee]

Ah. Thanks for bringing this up. Looking at the metadata fields for Go Pro, DJI Osmo, I see that 60p is at 60 fps. The Varicam 35/HS series records it at 59.94 fps. Not a big concern if the footage is used as visual cutaways with no audio.

Amazon Prime Video accepts native interlaced scan masters. This saves a lot of time and expenses by having to deinterlace it for delivery. But they’ll de-interlace the video when ingested and viewed on the subscriber’s end.

[Sam Lee]

Is 60i is another way to express it as 59.94 fields (29.97 frames * 2 fields = 59.94 fields, established back in ’53 by NTSC), which is essentially 29.97 interlaced frames for US broadcast?

60p and 60i are completely different. 60p is actually recording at 59.94 fps frequency when you look at the file’s metadata. And the cam recording menu actually confirms it at 59.94p. My Varicam 35 doesn’t have 60i. So 29.97i is the equivalent of 60i. Maximum frame rate is 30 fps for 60i. I originally thought I can get 60fps with 60i. But I was wrong when trying to set in on the Varicam 35/HS/LT cams. These 29.97i and 60i terms are confusing. I’d put 60f to denote fields instead of interlaced to minimize the confusion.

Putting 60p footage in a 29.97p timeline will result in ~2x slow-mo. These are completely 2 different frame rates and I’d be very careful not to have duplicate or dropped frames when confirming each footage to the sequence’s constant frame rate (29.97

60i recorded clip after de-interlacing (using hi-quality method) is effectively equivalent to 29.97p. De-interlacing quality is subjective and can never be at the same quality as it was shot in its native progressive scan from the cam.

Most broadcasters are OK with interlaced video. Not sure why there’s a need to “Always DeInterlace” if that footage is not mixed with progressive scan footage. If it’s mixed with progressive scan, then deinterlace it to match.

[Sam Lee]

I’ll give Edit Ready a try to see how well it handles 12-bit video and other formats. Likely won’t need it as much because OP-1b is ready to import and edit in FCP X. However, OP-Atom from P2 cams will need rewrapping, especially when the cards are spanned. If Edit Ready performs the same or better than FCP 7.0.3’s built-in P2 Import Plug in, it’ll be a huge help. Currently I have to have 2 different OSes (OS Sierra for FCP 7, High Sierra for 10.4.3) and boot it separately. FCP 7 will not work on High Sierra OS, but FCP 10.4.3 needs High Sierra OS to run.

The reason why I want to be able to directly import OP-1b files is the rich metadata. GPS coordinate, WB, ND filters, f/stop, zoom ratio, frame rate, shutter angles, serial #s, etc.. are all recorded. Plus data management is much easier by keeping a single camera original media only. No need to have the transcoded version.

[Sam Lee]

I typically have FCP X automatically create keywords from the reel folder. However, the current OP-1b directory structure doesn’t allow that automatic keywords creation during import by dragging. It just imports in file names and ignore the folder name of the reel.

The Varicams have the ability to record on both recorders different frame rates and codecs. The Cine file format in the firmware forces the file name to be exact. So for the main recorder, I have it as Pro Res 4444@60 fps. There are times where I push it up to 240 fps as well. The sub recorder is at standard AVC Intra 100 or Pro Res 422@29.97 fps. During import, the keywords are used to easily separate which one is which without having to go to info and get the codec and frame rate info. This workflow allows great flexibility to use the standard frame and slow motion frame rates.

Fortunately, FCP X is smart enough to add a (1) in the proxy folder (example: 2018-08-24, 2018-08-24 (1) to the duplicate cine file names on both recorders.

[Sam Lee]

The manual dragging of the OP-1b files (.mov & .mxf fr the Varicams) into Libary seems to work. I’m seeing the proxies files created by the shoot date just like it should from the previous OP-Atom rewrapped .mov files. Thanks for the tip.

The tedious manual work from this method is having to move all of the files from each media (typically 256-512 Gb) per reel and manually create new keywords. However, having 12-bit Pro Res 4444 proxy folder is so critical in this mobile and studio workflow. Can’t fit the entire 12-bit cam original cam files to a tiny 5 Tb USB3 hdd during mobile editing.

This may be an obvious question, but it’s better to record in Apple Pro Res 4444 (OP-1b .mov) vs AVC Intra 444 (OP-1b .mxf) if I have a choice during the shoot right? The Varicams can record Pro Res 4444 & AVC Ultra on the main and sub recorders. Seems like Apple Pro Res 4444 is native to FCP X in the long term vs. Panasonic AVC Ultra family of codecs.

[Sam Lee]

Thanks. Found it. Also, I’m curious to know where can I find a basic hum remover filter from noisy XLR mics? It’s not obvious and could it be under a different filter name?

[Sam Lee]

Ah. You also experienced non-sequential tape restore. This is one of the most annoying things for remote restoration. I have a 1 Gb Final Cut Lib file. BRU backup only 500 Gb on tape 1 then goes to tape 6 just to finish up the restoration. This is something I still don’t understand fully. Perhaps it’s trying to optimize for compression. I noticed virtually all AVC-I 100 video files, I can get about 600 Gb more on a LTO-6 tape. While other format has zero to almost zero compression.

[Sam Lee]

Good thing I didn’t even bother to install HPStoreOpen many years ago. Right off the bat I saw that I have to manually fit the 2.5 Tb to each tape. That itself over time is a huge waste of time. $500 is worth it for me for a decent software that can easily span over multiple volumes and has cataloging feature such as BRU PE.

Red flag should always be raised whenever anything is free. Conventional wisdom has always been pay the price. That simple rule works for me. You’ll be disciplined and have no other options but to make whatever you purchase productive.