Sam Lee
1
COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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Amazon’s subtitles will need to be in .SRT format. Sugar FX subtitles plugin can export to SRT.
I’m shocked to find out the enormous cost for a critical evaluation video monitor. In order to Netflix qc requirements, you’ll need at least a $30K for Sony BVM X300, PVM X550 monitors in order to detect pretty much all of the video flaws. Not only that, it has to be calibrated on a regular basis as well. Holy Moses! I can buy a true 4K PL lens from Fujinon for $30K. No wonder why it’s virtually impossible to see any video flaws on a regular 27″ Retina display monitor from Apple and others. I just can’t see any subtle color banding from the subtitles plugin with these consumer level displays. This is an eye-opening experience. Just a decade a go, a decent HD Sony BVM broadcast monitor is about $10-12K. I thought that was high. But $30K is just way too much for most average indie post house.
Anybody owns or have extensive experience w/ the Sony BVM X300 and would like to comment whether it’s worth the extremely high cost?
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The only way to get it accepted is providing a separate timed text file (TTML or .STL). This way, there’s no added processing to the video that will fail manual qc.
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It was a huge mistake to upgrade to 10.3.3. This is FCP’s buggiest release on record. So far all of 10.3.# libraries are fully compatible. But who knows. There may be some other hidden bugs as well. I was able to use 10.3.3 library to the first ever 10.3 back in Fall 2016 via disk image restore. I’d not rely on this and reexport the 10.3.3 back via XML and reimport anything earlier 10.3.2 just to be 100% safe.
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Not sure what BRU version you’re using, but if it’s the latest build, then…
BRU 3.1.23.3657 has serious problem in authentication. I have to type in the pw 3-5 times before it finally worked. Very annoying for over a month now. This is on OSX El Capitan.
3.1.20 .278 doesn’t have this issue.
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This particular plug in warning didn’t go away but it abruptly stopped after several minutes. The only way to workaround this is to restore back 10.3. Use older version of Subtitles 3.01 and recreate it from scratch. Then it would export all OK without any warning whatsoever. However, the transcoding time is couple of hours slower than the latest 10.3.3.
I didn’t trash any prefs. I contacted the plug-in developer and they’re just beginning to be aware of this bug and working on it. I don’t have weeks or months to wait for the fix. Restoring the disk image back 5 months ago works for me (minus the new features enhancements with 10.3.3).
I noticed (after 4th restore from the disk image) that the latest security upgrade patch has a factor in messing the export as well. Couldn’t figure out what it was until on the 4th attempt I didn’t upgrade anything (10.11.6 El Capitan) and all OK. For 10.12.4 Sierra OS, it behaved a bit differently. The latest security didn’t affect it much. That annoying yellow triangle warning would go away after I click on a different setting. And fortunately it remained that way until I relaunch FCP 10.3.3 or restart the Mac.
The bottom line here is that this bug is related to OSX as well. El Capitan & Sierra behaved differently. Only time will resolve this bug.
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It’s minor if you don’t have any 3rd party plugins. I have Subtitles 4.0 and it wouldn’t export. Totally stopped. That’s major. Happened on 5 different Macs (El Capitan-Sierra) with different media content and hardware configs. It cannot be my media or the hardware setup. Reverting back to 10.3.2. Luckily the project code hasn’t changed so anything saved 10.3 will work.
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For me I have a growing LTO-6 archive (approaching thousand of LTO tapes) stored in dust proof and water safe case (Pelican) for 4 years now. Recently I’ve been restoring them and all OK. I even cover my external LTO drive in a dust proof container when not in use. This helped tremendously in reducing the # of cleaning cycle. Over time dust accumulated in the drive will make it very hard to read or write. I recently experienced this with one of the HP LTO-6 ext drive. The backup would be all OK but during the verification process, it would take 3-5x longer than normal. That’s when you know something is not right. After the cleaning tape is used, it’s back to almost new condition.
Storing the tape vertically sounds like back to the video tape era (before 2005). This makes sense because if the LTO media are stored horizontally, the 1/2″ tape may get wrinkled on the bottom edge over time.
Rewinding them yearly is a bit too much work, especially when you have hundreds of them. If the storage condition is relatively good (40-50% relative humidity and always 65-70 deg F), every 3-4 years is fine. This retensioning process is to properly redistribute the tape and avoid it being cinched and tape backing deformation. It also cuts any chances of fungus or mold growing in these LTO media as well.
I also see corrosion being a factor. If the media are stored near the ocean or where there’s high content of salt water in the air, the tape will be affected. You can see this affect by bringing your camera gear to the coastal area. After couple of months, the screws are corroded. What’s bad is that inside the lens elements are corroded as well.
Typically I’d also give it couple days for the tape to acclimate to the current environment before restoring. If the tapes are taken off an archival facility or room to the server room with different climates, giving it a few days before restoring is good to do.
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Creating multicam from non-SMPTE TC or manually marked sources will take a very long time – especially 2 hrs clip. So long that it’s better to do the non audio sync method.
Unless the cams all have unified soundboard feed, there’ll be sound delays from the main loud speakers. Back cams may be off several frames vs front cams.
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The DJI Osmo definitely has visible color banding and dithering artifacts for certain scenarios. I shot a POV scene driving scene with plenty of detailed trees, road and other fine details. When it goes to partially shaded area, the dithering artifact appears. This clearly is the result of the camera’s compression. Last time I checked it was only 60 Mbps@UHD resolution. Just not enough to record the fine details. I paid dearly for the unusable footage and spent thousands more to reshoot properly in RAW. [Talk about sweet bit rate revenge!]
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If you ever plan to produce or provide content for either Amazon or Netflix, all of your editing frame rates and video quality must be up to the highest standards. Any visible video artifacts (compression is one of the most common) will be denied. One time I submitted a content with mixed 23.976 and 29.97 and it was rejected. The ratio was 60% 23.976p and 40% 29.97p. Interlace and progressive scan must be also correctly treated as well. Best to keep all progressive or interlace. Don’t mix here and there. It’s very tough and unpleasant. But you have to comply. From this experience, frame rate consistency is the utmost importance (one of the fundamental qc parameters). They may let you get away with 5-10 seconds max for the entire episode. Their $100K+ automated qc system will detect any cadence pattern changes and so forth. Plus about 200 other potential video flaws – such as color banding (arising from UHD-HD downconversion), ghosting artifacts, field dominance error, etc…
So for anyone who thinks they can get away with subpar highly compressed DJI Osmo, h.264 dSLRs, mixing frame rates or any way to save costs – 90% likely the content will not make it. Got to do it right and up to specs.