[Steve Crow]

Have you tried dragging one of the Mov files (now named something like MIV) to your desktop and renamning it something like movie-1.mov and see if it plays? trying renaming the thumbnail files likewise to .THM

[Steve Crow]

Well its no wonder then Dvds are standard resolution mpeg2 files so they cant look as good as your original high definition source video

Play it straight off the computer for a much better look

[Steve Crow]

“From Still to Motion” Richard Harrington – search Amazon.com for the rest

[Steve Crow]

Oh one last thought, even if you did somehow increase the video resolution to say 4K – what are the chances the original poster would have access to a 4K digital cinema projector costing God knows how much.

We’ve all seen and heard of even VHS and Mini-DV footage being projected on movie screens – and the results are not that great but it can be done and people do live with it.

[Steve Crow]

Good point Liam and it got me thinking of the arguments that went on for years over on the still photography side – how many digital megapixels does it take to match the quality of old fashioned 35mm film?

On the movie side there’s long been controversy over what the equivalent resolution of old school celluloid film stock is/was – I’m thinking of the kinds of films that were projected in movie houses for at least the past 40/50 years before the digital revolution began

I haven’t heard any definitive numbers but I think it’s safe to assume it’s greater than even 1920×1080 HD videos. But is the “real” number a 2K resolution, a 4K or some even greater number?

Whatever that number turns out to be, while you can use a software-based mathematical “up sampling” tool to fake an increased resolution – can it really double, triple or even quadruple the resolution of the original source video with results that look as good as old fashioned celluloid films? I don’t know the answer to that but I would think in most cases the results would be soft and not the same quality as a film shot natively at that increased resolution.

Surely that kind of up sampling process must be super expensive as well at the professional quality level.

Assuming that the resolution difference/screen size issue is the only thing going on here (in terms of the orignal poster’s situation) there’s not really that much that can be done, is there?

[Steve Crow]

There’s not a lot to go on here but my first rather off the cuff thought is that the problem you saw was more due to the projector than to anything you did in production or editing. If it looked good on your computer then the question becomes why didn’t it look equally good when projected and I’m thinking that maybe the projector wasn’t capable of projecting HD videos at full resolution or was low powered in terms of its light output.

[Steve Crow]

Oh, I forgot to mention, the Vari ND filter is so that you can get shallow depth of field shots outside even in bright sunlight and I meant to mention also something like the Zacutto Z-Finder so that you can see your LCD screen while filming outdoors – that’s pretty critical!

[Steve Crow]

I bet if you disconnect the Nikon from the Mac and still have the Canon camera in there that the Nikon can’t read the files either – try that out. That’s why the Mac can’t see the card.

So don’t use a camera to transfer your files – it’s slow and from what I understand it doesn’t transfer all the related files (like the .thm files) if you do it that. Card readers are cheap and a much better solution.

It’s not surprising to me that a Nikon can’t read a card formatted in a Canon camera but with a card reader it’s easy breezy! 🙂

[Steve Crow]

You definitely need

* a Variable ND filter with around 6-9 stops of neutral density

* SOUND!!! Zoom H4N, at least one pair of wireless lavalier mics (preferably 2), Rhode VideoMic for your camera (to improve the quality of the built-in audio), headphones. Optionally a shogun mic and stand so that you can hang a mic over subjects in a sit-down interview situation.

* Any money left over? A Konova slider

* Start thinking about your storage and backup solutions – video files are huge and you tend to create multiple versions of videos as you edit….everything has to be backed up

[Steve Crow]

Thanks guys for all the feedback, much appreciated!!!!