[Tim Allison]

First off, you have to decide what you want your final output to be. Is the 1080p24 acceptable? If so, you need to transcode the DVC Pro scenes into ProRes. We mix XDCAM and ProRes codecs on the same time line with no issues. But you will need to make sure you get the frame rates the same.

I know Apple says that you can mix all types of codecs on the same timeline, but I haven’t experienced good results, especially when mixing 24p with 60i. I haven’t done the particular transcode you’re faced with, but I would think Compressor could give very good results in going from DVCProHD 1080i50 to ProRes 1080p24.

[Tim Allison]

You should easily be able to convert that in Compressor. You can even choose to keep it in XDCAM or swith it to another codec like ProRes 422. I combine ProRes 422 and XDCAM HD video on the same sequence in FCP all the time.

Keeping them as separate clips will be no problem either. You can find the XDCAM conversion under: Other Workflows>Advanced Format Conversions>High Definition>XDCAM HD 1080i60. You can find the ProRes conversion under: Formats>Quicktime>Apple ProRes 422.

[Tim Allison]

OK, I was trying to be brief, so I guess you want the whole complicated story, huh? 🙂

I work at a university in Mississippi. I have a friend that works at a university in Louisiana. My Louisiana friend needs some campus scenes from my campus for a project he is working on. My department uses Final Cut Pro. His department uses a PC version of Avid. I don’t know which version. My specific department didn’t have any campus scenes, but another friend across campus (who also uses FCP) does have plenty of these kinds of scenes, and he has them sitting on a server where he has quick and easy access to them. To complicate matters somewhat, these campus scenes are standard def 16×9 24p video. I really don’t know what exact codec they are presently in, but I would guess a DV-50 24p codec. My Louisiana friend will be mastering in an interlaced format. He has made similar requests from other campuses all across the country, and will end up mixing and matching all sorts of formats into his final master.

So now the real question: what is the quickest, easiest, and best way to get approximately 2 minutes of video from a Final Cut Pro system in Mississippi to an Avid system in Louisiana?

[Tim Allison]

Well THAT stinks!

But thanks for the heads-up. I haven’t tried to take anything out of a DVD player via the HDMI connector, so now I will have an idea of why it may not work.

[Tim Allison]

Adrian,

We have both a Kona 3 and an Io-HD on two separate systems. The Kona 3 will give you more options in the HD rhelm, like uncompressed HD and dual-link 4:4:4 stuff, but we don’t need any of that right now.

The Io-HD will give you more overall options. In this crazy world we live in where most of us still do standard def projects while trying to move to HD projects, the Io-HD gives us incredible flexibility. I call the Io-HD the “swiss army knife” of connectivity. We presently have an XDCAM deck, a Betacam Deck, and a HDV deck all hooked up to our Io-HD. In fact, we have discovered that the Sony deck does a better job of downconverting from HD to SD than the Io does, so we have both HD-SDI and SD-SDI connectivity between this deck and the Io-HD, for a total of four separate video input options into the Io-HD. You can’t do that with a Kona 3.

Betacam decks and the Kona 3 are a pain in the butt. It’s certainly possible, but you have to use a lot of external converter boxes to make it work. The same applies to using the component out connectors on a Sony M25U HDV deck. It will work, but only with a bunch of converters. Betacam decks and Io-HD are very simple hook-ups.

[Tim Allison]

Todd,

Did you go to the “input” tab of the Io Control Panel and select HDMI as your video input? This tab kind of serves as a “patch bay” of sorts to tell the Io-HD where to look for incoming video. You will need to do this for video and audio.

[Tim Allison]

Will,

Pretty simple on my end. We are taking HDMI out of the M25U and going HDMI in to the Io box. Please don’t let me insult you with this, but did you check the “inputs” tab in the Io Control Panel to make sure you have selected the HDMI video input? You must select HDMI for both audio and video.

I can’t remember if there is anything I did to the menus in the M25U, so look through those to see if there is anything that needs tweaking.

[Tim Allison]

We had a similar problem with the video changing when we went to log and capture. Our problem was solved when we opened the audio/video settings dialogue box, clicked on the capture video tab, and then clicked edit. One of the little dialogue boxes under this obscure menu item had somehow gotten switched from 29.97 video to 23.98. Check this out.

I hope this makes sense.

[Tim Allison]

We were having SERIOUS audio/video sync issues when ingesting standard definition video from a Sony M25-U HDV deck via the HDMI ports. I did the upgrade and ingested about 5-6 clips as a test, and everything worked fine….audio and video were in sync.

[Tim Allison]

So if I understand you correctly, you are asking for a comparison between 1080i/60 and 1080p/30? That’s a valid question. I just got confused when you were talking about recording 24 fps interlaced video.