[Steven Gonzales]

I believe there are amplifiers and repeaters available, so it probably depends on your budget. Also, the quality of the receiver chip will have an effect on marginal signals.

It may be hard to get a simple, definitive answer.

[Steven Gonzales]

You’ve reaffirmed my belief that post-productions with the fewest problems are those that are the most careful along the way.

Thanks for the info.

[Steven Gonzales]

Daryl, it’s good to know 29.97 works well.

On your projects, was HDCAM the original source, and were the sound files on the tape, or separate?

Thanks for the info.

[Steven Gonzales]

You can create merged clips in final cut pro after you sync up in the timeline, which is what I usually do. It’s described clearly in the Final Cut Pro user’s manual, under the Help menu.

There is something to consider on sound, however. When film and sound are shot separately, there can be sync issues.

That’s because when film is telecined to video, it is also slowed down. This is because film is 24 fps, and video is 29.97 or 23.976 (23.98) frames per second. So to make frames work out during the transfer, the telecine machine actually projects the film onto video slightly slowed down, at 23.976 frames per second, which will fit in to either 29.97 or 23.76 video rates. If the sound is synced in the telecine, the telecine place gives the sound machine a clock that has a slowed down clock signal, the sound plays slower, and the new video and sound match.

If you sync on your edit system though, you now have sound at its original rate, and film that has been slowed down and reference to video rate (slowed by 1/10th of 1 percent). If you match them up, the sound will go faster, and eventually get ahead of the video at 108 frames per hour.

So in the case where the telecine transfer house doesn’t sync sound and picture, you either have to speed up the video (by taking 23.976 clips, and conforming them to play at 24 — their original speed — and using a 24 fps timeline, OR you have to slow down the audio by 1/10th of 1 percent (.1%, or .99 times its original speed).

The best thing to do is to find out how sound will be finished and where, talk to those people, and work backwards from what they want you to deliver.

[Steven Gonzales]

Many thanks for your clear answer.

This is potentially going back to film, but being done at a direct to video budget. Thanks for affirming my feeling that they should edit at a lower resolution.

The post production workflow is not clear yet. This is an effects heavy film being done on the cheap (how’s that for a contradiction) as direct to video, but with the option to cut negative or take the 2k film scans back to film.

Any information to help me understand a tentative workflow would be incredible. I’ve done a lot of films, but they were low budget independent fest type fare finished on film, and I haven’t worked with large quantities of effects or film scans to high res formats.

[Steven Gonzales]

If I steal 4 cars that cost $1300 each but no one sees me, is it still wrong?

[Steven Gonzales]

You could do that, or you could capture the DV files at 29.97, then use Cinema Tools to convert them to 23.98 files with its reverse telecine process and edit at 23.98.

Cinema Tools – file menu – batch reverse telecine

[Steven Gonzales]

I believe advanced pulldown removal is for video recorded with the special sequencing of the DVX100 2:3:3:2 pulldown.

I think you should use Cinema Tools reverse telecine to get to 23.98 for editing.

[Steven Gonzales]

manual is here:

https://bssc.sel.sony.com/BroadcastandBusiness/docs/manuals/dvwa500%20installation%20manual%20revised%203.pdf

[Steven Gonzales]

Could you explain your backup schedule? Do you backup each day (say to get renders, etc) or only when you have added media (such as after a capture session?)

I’m impressed that a major hardware problem barely caused you to miss a beat, and if you could share hints that would be great.