[Todd Gillespie]

Hi Charlie,
In other words, I shot on XL-1, then digitize the footage-thru a DVCPro deck’s SDI-into a 10 bit uncompressed system. So, yes it’s compressed when it’s shot. But then the edit system ‘converts’ the footage to a 4:2:2 colorspace and uncompressed. So then when you pull your chroma key, or add effects, etc. it’s using more info than just a DV codec. I don’t know how well this works for FCP or systems that can do it thru software? But digitzing thru the hardware conversion seems to hold up well.
Of course all of this is mute if you have a crappy lite chroma key! Which is more often the case in bad green screen footage. 🙂

Hope that cleared it up?

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

Brian, Brian, Brian,
you’re all over the map! shifting from one focus to another. 😛

[brianluce] “I’ve been recommending a tapeless setup to the creative director. is the firestore considered the best choice? I mean, I figure if we’re in a studio, we should be able to go straight from the camera head to some form of tapeless digital format. “

As Dave and Hewitt said, your still standard ‘DV’ So… if you’re not going to be switching formats any time soon and you already are using DV in your work flow then Firestore isn’t that bad of an idea. We have one, but rarely use it. The thing that you need to get straight before using a Firestore is how well it can intergrate into your post-workflow. Case and point: Firestores only use NTSF formatted drives, so when they first came out, they were primarily for PC edit enviroments. If you wanted to use it on a Mac you had to capture to the Firestore drive, then transfer all the footage to another drive before you could import it into FCP, because Mac’s don’t like NTSF drives. Mac OS has improved a lot in regards to drives and NTFS, so I don’t know if it’s still an issue. Also, Firestore uses a couple different codecs, but if you are using a propritery codec (i.e. AJA, Canopus, etc) then even after you capture to the Firestore you still would need to re-encode the footage to your codec. By that point, not much reason to use Firestore. So the Firestore is good-IF you design your workflow to maximize is potietial.

I know everyone here aviods DV and green screen like the plague!! I don’t think the DV is as much of any issue in aquisition as it is in post. I’ve done about a half a dozen green screens on an XL-1 and I have never had an artifacting problems. But I DON’T edit in DV, I edit in 10-bit uncompressed. So the footage isn’t using a DV codec to pull a green screen. Although, if I have to do green screens again, I would use our Panasonic SDX900 (DVCPro 50).

FWIW

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

To echo Jeff,
If it’s the picts not blowing up enough to look good, that’s video.
I don’t know how friendly you are with Photographers, but gettting a couple of ditial still from them would work out much better. Or buy a $200 snap shot digital camera and take a couple while your there. Hell you can take a couple shots of the Engament pict, Cake, Book, whatever is specific to their wedding/rec and put it on the front.
Or ask the bride for a good pict in advance. Etc, etc. etc.

But trying to blow up video for a DVD cover won’t work, not enough info in the video still to make larger.
Good Luck,

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

The one thing that eveyone glanced over is your post problems. You shouldn’t be getting drop frames with 3 layers of video and, yes, the files for uncompress video are going to be huge! Sounds like you already have a workflow for your current gear, you just need to get it to work correctly. If you have 12k left to spend, I would seriously consider investing in a array that’s big (1Tb or larger) and fast (so you won’t lose frames of video). You’ll probably spend around 10k for a good array with Raid 3 protection, but it will be worth every penny. Plus it can grow with you. Also, if you only have 12k to spend, your not going to get anything that people have recommended to you (aside from a use BetaCam)

Don’t get me wrong, I’d be loving a new DVCPro camera or a Sony optical. (whatever your choice, go tapeless) DigiBeta is great, a true mastering format, but Sony is shifting away from DigiBeta as an aquisition format. Inotherwords, lots of decisions based on workflow, format, price, etc.

Good luck,

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

Wayne,
I understand that it’s very fursterating when something won’t work, when you know it should!!

Curtis is correct though, it’s not the Mac or Apple in general. We’ve been running both platforms for 1 1/2years, with very little problems. I need to talk between Macs and Windows-both ways and find it quite easy to set up.
It sounds like you’re not getting great supporrt from the Windows side.
Maybe if you posted with a specific question, you could get the answers you need.

Good Luck,

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

Hello,
Color Finesse by Synthetic Aperture is one of the best coloring apps. THere are a lot of plug-ins that can give you crazy or psychadelic colors (colorama, etc.) and some you can buy, but the Color Finesse is a true color correction app.
I believe is comes bundled with AE Pro for 6.0 or 6.5? So you might just need to upgrade your AE.

Good Luck,

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

Hi Barend,
Although Thax is correct, I’ve set up and seen a lot of suites that include a consumer monitor. Although the colors will be off, it’s still a reference for clients to see what it ‘can’ look like on a normal TV. I’ve haven’t had any problem routing audio to sync.

I’m surprised that you need the converter. The decklink doesn’t have a composite out?

We use a JVC S-video switcher for our edit suites, it works fine and is around $500. I don’t think they make them anymore…
But once you start needing to convert from component to composite, it gets pricey. If you can’t use a composite signal or S-video, then, I’d go with the Laird.

Good Luck,

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

This is a quote that I ran across yesterday, courtesy of Mark’s post to a web page with thoughtful quotes.

He who has a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how’.” – Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

Don’t live to work, work to live.

I have 3 smiling reasons waiting for me everytime I walk in the door. You need to get reenergized with your personal life!
ALso, listen to Mike about the water thing, too much coffee and I’m a space case.

Peace,

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

Hi Curtis,

Is there good software for the mac the zips files?
I don’t zip or stuff things too much, but last couple times I’ve tried, I don’t get smaller files, just zipped?
Is there a trick to compressing them smaller.

Thanks,

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Todd Gillespie]

Hi Harry,
I’ve read so many post here at the cow and on the web that I can’t keep them straight. But that’s the same thing that I hear.
As it’s been describe, the laptops need it the most, so they’ll be the first. Also, the big thing, Intel doesn’t have the 64chips yet so the rest of the line will be first until Intel can add them to the desktops, by 2007. As Jeff says, Apple doesn’t want to drop the RAM back down with a 32bit chip. So they’ll wait. Since the laptops and Mini’s don’t use 64bit chip (yet), Apple can push them out first. That gives Apple/Intel enough time to make and test the 64bit chips, before bringing them to the market.
So just from a technology stand point, one can see the road map for Apple/Intel.

FWIW

Todd at UCSB
Television Production