Steve Covello
Forum Replies Created
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You place the cursor on frame one of the approved offline seq in the Viewer window, and park the cursor in the Canvas window on frame 1 of the conformed online. then select the Gang function in the center pulldown menu above the Canvas window. This makes every move you make on the Canvas mirrored on the Viewer side as well. You can A/B the frames on your TV by clicking back and forth on a parked frame. this does not work correctly when comparing sequences that are different frame rates, even though they may be identical programs in terms of length.
steve covello
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Well bite my tongue – you were right about the 24 fps thing — that is, that you could encode a 24 fps file into mpeg2 and the encoder will add the pulldown. The question I have is whether you can trust the majority of DVD players to be able to detect the pulldown correctly and display it in a way that is fundamentally aesthetically better than if you had done the process in 29.97. I guess if you are on the borderline with your program length and the top end of your DVD data, then going to 24 fps for the sake of quality makes sense.
Did you do any tests to arrive at this conclusion?
steve covello
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I’ll check into that holywood DVD format thing myself too. Thx.
As to the weird pulldown in FCP, you can choose which cadance of pulldown you want in the User settings under the Playback tab — or in System settings — one or the other, I forget.
steve covello
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As far as I know, no matter what your delivery format — DVD, DVCam, DB, etc. — there is no such thing as a 23.98p NTSC output. No regular TV monitor can play it (not even $40,000 telecine CRT’s), and no deck will record or play it (see note below). There are some high-end DVD decks (that no significant number of people own) that do some fancy conversions, but I would be interested to hear what your ultimate delivery purpose would be. See below:
https://forums.audioholics.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-4575.html
(note: even though DVX-100 says that it is a 24p DV camera, it is actually acquiring at 24, but recording with pulldown to DV tape for NTSC compatibility. It does it in either 24pa (Panasonic’s Advance), or conventional pulldown. Sorry if you knew that already, but there could be some newcomers here…))
I would be psyched to learn that there is some new 24fps DVD delivery spec, so bust me up if I’m wrong here. I know that the only “format neutral” playback system is computers since they display in RGB/progressive at 75hz and higher refresh rates. We have sent out PAL dvds to north american clients with a note that the DVD can only be viewed on a computer or a PAL compatible TV playback/display system.
As to why your recording had stopped on output, it might’ve had to do with FCP being overwhelmed with trying to output realtime pulldown cadence and maintain the dataflow to output uncompressed to DB. You could take your 23.98 sequence and copy/paste it into a new 29.97 sequence and FCP will add the pulldown as needed. You will likely need to render it for output.
If you are outputting to DB, you might as well be working in 29.97 all the way through your capture/editing process. The way you are working now, you are merely substituting one form of pulldown (that which is native to the recorded footage on your source material) for another form (what FCP adds to fulfill an NTSC output).
steve covello
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Walter – isn’t it curious that on one hand, so much energy is spent getting footage “down” to DVCPro HD for practical purposes, but the stations desire “masters” on D5? It’s like bumping up DVCam to D-Beta as if a D-Beta master is somehow better, no matter how the project was created.
I have heard the D5 argument from telecine and DI guys for a while now, yet they seem to be the only ones who actually have the decks. I think it’s an engineer thing. remember Ampex’ DCT format? It actually was better than D-1 (same quality, faster and better transport), but no one used it.
I think it’s only a matter of a short time before file delivery, like audio mixes these days, will be the standard delivery and distribution format — from dailies to approval screeners to masters. If anyone is interested, a friend of mine is involved with Broadway Video in NYC in their encoding division. They are developing file based distribution services for video for use in a variety of ways (offline editing, online, versions, distribution, corporate communications and archiving, etc.). Ask to speak to Dirk Van Dall.
https://www.broadwayvideo.com/
steve covello
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You actually ARE seeing it in 29.97, since FCP (not AJA) adds its own pulldown in realtime to the 23.98 timeline. This would be the only way you could see picture on a regular NTSC monitor. There are NO crt monitors that actually display 23.98 — they double the fields and play it back at 48 interlace (referred to as 23.98 Psf). If you goto the User Preferences (might actually be in System Preferences – can’t remember) there is a tab for Playback, within which are several options for what “brand” of pulldown cadence you wish to see on playback.
And BTW, are you working in 23.98 because you are doing a film out? Otherwise, there isn’t really much of a reason to capture/edit at 23.98. It’s not like you can output DV at 23.98 — ain’t no such animal. Just curious.
steve covello
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You actually ARE seeing it in 29.97, since FCP (not AJA) adds its own pulldown in realtime to the 23.98 timeline. This would be the only way you could see picture on a regular NTSC monitor. There are NO crt monitors that actually display 23.98 — they double the fields and play it back at 48 interlace (referred to as 23.98 Psf). If you goto the User Preferences (might actually be in System Preferences – can’t remember) there is a tab for Playback, within which are several options for what “brand” of pulldown cadence you wish to see on playback.
And BTW, are you working in 23.98 because you are doing a film out? Otherwise, there isn’t really much of a reason to capture/edit at 23.98. It’s not like you can output DV at 23.98 — ain’t no such animal. Just curious.
steve covello
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Bob – I know this is an old trick, but now it has become the only way I output from FCP — which is to close out all the tabs on the canvas/timeline, drag the sequence to the viewer, and edit to tape from the viewer side. This seems to override numerous problems including that old compression conflict problem from back in FCP3. Also (I know you probably already know this but…) if you have switched around editing formats recently and FCP is not outputting to tape correctly, then quit and do the Panther Cache Cleaner routine, medium cleaning, on all options (system, user, etc.). Restart and see what happens. This cured all the problems I had where channels 1/2 were mysteriously being patched out to my DBeta on ch. 1 and 4. Go figger.
Let us know how you fare. IN ALL CAPS!!! Just kidding 🙂 🙂
steve covello
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Bob – I know this is an old trick, but now it has become the only way I output from FCP — which is to close out all the tabs on the canvas/timeline, drag the sequence to the viewer, and edit to tape from the viewer side. This seems to override numerous problems including that old compression conflict problem from back in FCP3. Also (I know you probably already know this but…) if you have switched around editing formats recently and FCP is not outputting to tape correctly, then quit and do the Panther Cache Cleaner routine, medium cleaning, on all options (system, user, etc.). Restart and see what happens. This cured all the problems I had where channels 1/2 were mysteriously being patched out to my DBeta on ch. 1 and 4. Go figger.
Also, is the deck set to ref in or input video? I am not familiar with your deck, but I’ll assume it acts the same as most other sutdio decks. I can only output SDI from K2 with the deck set to Input Video reference — don’t know if this is the same for a FW output. I just loaded in the new driver and will check if this is fixed by now.
Let us know how you fare. IN ALL CAPS!!! Just kidding 🙂 🙂
steve covello
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Some questions:
There is a raging debate among the Directors/DPs I work with about whether an HDV camera is really worth getting involved with if it can’t actually shoot 24p. Otherwise, there are so many other options including all the Panasonic gear and the DVX-100. Does this matter to you at all?
Also, you hadn’t mentioned whether you can use the camera as a playback source for loading into FCP (you mentioned Vegas, but most of the pros I know edit on FCP). Is it FW or SDI or both? I know that it is generally not a good idea to regularly use a camera as a VTR simply for the accelerated wear and tear, but for a small production company or all-in-one type professional, this would make a big difference. The Sony HDV player is $3700, which is kinda pricey for pro-sumer compared to a DCR-11. Do you think this detracts from the overall usability of this camera/format for those trying to move up from DV?
Do you need to playback from an HDV deck to upconvert to HDCam, or can you do that from the camera? Can HDCam accept all the different recording settings that Z1 can shoot?
Thx – Steve Covello – editor – double wide post