[Stephen Vilas]

[Michael Gissing] “Stephen, the best approach is to use one codec but the decision to do that should be made in pre production. ProRes is probably the best to chose. At this stage with most of the footage in XDCam, your sequence is probably better left as XDCam that matches exactly your clips and convert the other footage to ProRes 1920 x 1080 so you pixel aspect is common.

thanks, Michael, this seems to be the best approach. Will compressor be the best app for converting the HDV footage to 1920 x 1080 ProRes? I assume there will be some loss of quality by converting this footage, but I assume this is not too much of a problem?

I note with alarm that your audio setting is 44.1 which is wrong and a disaster waiting to happen as all your audio is 48Khz.

Yes, thank you for pointing that out. I checked and most of the sub sequences I am working with had the 48Khz setting, but the main sequence had other audio settings for some reason. thanks very much. by focusing on the codec and frame size issues I didn’t pay attention the audio settings!

The important thing though is what are you delivering? If it is broadcast you will need to deliver 1080 50i on HDCam (or SR).”

There will be different versions.
One delivery format will be for broadcast, but since most of the channels here in Europe don’t broadcast in HD yet, a DigiBeta copy will be enough. I aim to have an HD Master of my current settings (1920×1080 ProRes HQ) which I will then send to a duplication facility to make the necessary copies to HDCam tape and DigiBeta. Can I keep my current settings if I want to render out my digital master file or should I adjust the field dominance? (I know 1080p25 is not available as aspect ratio setting in FCP, so I assume the HDTV 1080i aspect ratio is the one i want to keep for the master as well)

[Stephen Vilas]

thanks Kent for the reply.

why 1280×720 though? wouldn’t it be better to have all the footage on the same frame size of 1920×1080 (as the rest of the XDCAM EX1 footage) or is that not recommendable at all?

[Stephen Vilas]

Thanks Russel for your prompt reply.
I’m not very familiar with hardware such as the Kona 3. Would the Blackmagic Intensity Pro be suitable for upconverting as well? Pardon me if this question is completely ignorant 🙂
What other hardware options are there that do the same job of the Kona 3?
And what about InstantHD by RedGiant Software? Perhaps a plugin is not advisable if we’re dealing with several hours of footage?