Todd Beabout
Forum Replies Created
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The XL1 does shoot anamorphic 16:9 and I don’t believe that it is capable of just adding black bars to a 4:3 image. I know this may not be ideal, but an easy way to get it right is to use firewire directly from the camera. That is the way that I did it when I worked with DV, but you should also check your sequence preset to make sure that it is an anamorphic sequence. If the sequence itself is 4:3 then FCP will add the bars for you and you can go on using your anamorphic footage in a 4:3 sequence.
Check that your sequence is 16:9.
Good luck.
-Todd Beabout
Vazda Studios -
Use the “Audio Mixer” under “Tools” to affect the master volume, but other than that you will probably need to nest the audio that you want to affect, then you can treat the nest as one whole clip. Hope this helps.
-Todd Beabout
Vazda Studios -
When you export from FCP, just export a reference movie (Export>QuickTime movie> then un-check “Make self contained”). Bring that into AE and work on it. When you render out of AE, select the QuickTime codec that you are editing in in FCP (which in your case would be the native HDV codec). I haven’t used HDV yet, but I believe that QuickTime should have a codec for that, and it should be available in the QuickTime export settings from AE.
This way you should be capturing and editing HDV, adding FX to HDV, and then bringing it back into FCP as HDV. You should be able to avoid any re-compression to a different codec that way.
Hope this helps.
-Todd Beabout
Vazda Studios -
You need to use an “uncompressed” codec. It would be great if you had the codec that you will be using natively in the new NLE to export to, but in a pinch you can always use QuickTime’s
“Animation” codec with the settings all the way up. Be sure to select the correct frame rate, quality level, etc. in the QuickTime export controls.-Todd Beabout
Vazda Studios -
Hmm… you’ve got a point there… We’ve been using the AJA/Blackmagic uncompressed codec for capture, and based on what Itamar said it looks like they have codecs for PC now (I saw something about that at NAB too) so that might work for me, but for you… I’d check to be sure that those DVCPro HD codec doesn’t exist for PC. I’m assuming that some PC app besides Avid must handle that codec (probably Premiere). If not, the “workaround” is to use something like the Animation codec export. That is a real pain, I know.
We are about to config a X-San in the next year or so, and I’m trying to devise a way for the Avids to “see” the X-Serve to access media (read-only) through an ethernet network. This will not be ideal, but it’s about as close as I can come to sharing some media with the Avids. We are doing this becuase our Unity has limited space, and there are a lot of clips that we would like to keep digitized for repeated use. Since storage is so much less expensive with X-Serve we can keep more footage there and the Avids will have access to them, albeit with the process of having to import each clip. And that is if I can get a codec to be truly compatible across platform.
-Todd Beabout
Vazda Studios -
Nope, Avid makes it’s own copy of everything to the best of my knowledge. It will only refer to the original file when performing an operation like Bacth Import.
-Todd Beabout
Vazda Studios -
Scaling has never looked as good in FCP (or Avid for that matter) as it does in After Effects or Combustion. That is why I use them even for scaling if it is something important enough. I do not have FCP5 yet, so that is based on 4.5 quality levels.
FCP is a GREAT NLE and even does some good basic compositing, but if you are wanting to scale or especially rotate something… I find the “DVE” to be insufficient. Don’t even try rotating on the X or Y axis! But as I said… it’s really a program for cutting.My $.02
-Todd Beabout
Vazda Studios -
As long as your Avid has the same QuickTime codec as what you are capturing in FCP, you should be able to import them into Avid. FCP captures ARE QuickTime files, the extention doesn’t need to be there if you are on a Mac. On a PC, you might have to add the extention.
We do this sometimes here, but usually have to export the clip to a QuickTime with Animation codec. But that’s because the Avids are on PC’s and they don’t have the right codec installed.
Hope this helps.
-Todd Beabout
Vazda Studios -
One thing that could help a little is to render out any graphics in an uncompressed timeline. A DV timeline will compress the graphics with DV codec, before going on to compress them into MPEG-2 also. I would think that the uncompressed graphics would encode perhaps a bit clearer going to MPEG.
I would also recommend using Compressor to do your compression. That is what it is for, and you’ll have a bit easier control over the encoding process. (You can control compression settings from within DVDSP also, but it’s not as user-friendly.) Some standards for compression are discussed in more detail in the DVDSP forum, but a good setting for maximum compatibility would be to use a CBR (constant bit rate) of 6.5, but you could also use a 2-pass VBR like Compressor’s “High Quality 60 min. Encode > Both” and possibly get better quality. If you want to do the CBR, just go in FCP to “Export>Using QuickTime compression” then select MPEG2, and set it to “One Pass” and change the slider to 6.5. Then import your .m2v and .aiff files into DVDSP.
Hope this helps.
BTW… they should really accept miniDV, but in the past when I worked with DV I ran into the same problems. Those beta decks are steep!
-Todd Beabout
Vazda Studios -
In general AVI’s don’t play nice with QuickTime. If an image sequence is a possibility, I would reccomend going that path. You can probably find a PC app that will create an uncompressed AVI out of an image sequence and then you’re golden. I have never personally gotten an AVI to work right with QuickTime, but I’m not saying it isn’t possible.
-Todd Beabout
Vazda Studios