[Todd Terry]

Based on your camera specs I’m assuming that you’e looking for an HD monitor, as opposed to standard def.

Unfortunately there are very VERY few small portable HD LCD monitors available yet.

The marketing folks for the LCD makers are sometimes a little on the sneaky side… be sure to look very closely at the specs for any monitor you’re considering. Varizoom for a while was touting their “High Definition LCD Field Monitor,” but read the specs and it is actually only 480 lines… a far cry from high-def. I emailed them and pointed out the discrep… they wrote me back apologizing, saying “Oh, I think our web guy made a mistake, that should have said high RESOLUTION, not high DEFINITION.” Hmmmmm.

As for what there is, Astro monitors are pretty much the industry standard for small high-def LCD monitors. Their pictures are absolutely beautiful and they have tons of features and just about every conceivable in/out/loop.

Unfortunately though, they are roughly the cost of a decent used Buick… around $5K+ for their smallest (6.4″) and they go up in size and price.

Sanyo has announced development of a 7.1″ 1080 monitor, but it is not on the shelves yet nor have I heard any price points on it. It is, however, developed for more of a consumer market (in-dash car applications, portable Blue-Ray players, etc.), so I suspect it will be much more affordable than the Astros, when it becomes available.

For the total ultimate in location HD monitoring, there is the Accuscene viewfinder (it’s the standard viewfinder that Panavision uses on their Genesis camera). It can be used on camera as a viewfinder or off-camera as an independent monitor, and has an unbelievable picture. It is, however, pretty pricey at about $14,000. Just a year ago, though, it was $20,000… so maybe the price drop will continue.

Todd

[Todd Terry]

Thanks…

I tried that, but I do not seem to have that on my system.

The C:\Program Files\AJA\Windows\Codecs\ folder on my Aja system does not have anything in it, except a single QuickTime folder, which contains the file Xena.qtx.

A computer-wide search for the file XenaVFW.inf did not yield any results either.

Suggestions??

Thanks
Todd

[Todd Terry]

Yep, those movies of the week, etc., “Tonight on a Lifetime Original Movie, Meredith Baxter-Birney gets beaten with a rod…” are historically shot on film, predominately 35mm or S35mm film. It’s worth noting though that a few primetime film series, either multicamera (“Working”) or single camera (“Walker, Texas Ranger”) were shot on 16mm.

There are a few shows now (“The Office”) that are shot on HD. The 24p framerate does give more of a film look, but it still really just looks like very very good video. If nothing else, the almost infinite depth of field instantly gives it away as video.

High-end music videos are typically still shot on film.

As was said in the previous thread, hardware though is just a piece of the puzzle, and not necessarily the biggest piece. Direction and DP work have just as much to do with the look as does the medium.

If you want it to look like film, the best way is to SHOOT film. If you want to force video to look like film, the best way to do that is to shoot HD 24P and use real cinema lenses with a depth of field converter, like the ones from P+S Technik. AND just as importantly know how to direct AND to light for film and know how to do it VERY well.

I’ve seen plenty of video that does look like film, but it was all from real cinematographers who knew how to shoot film well first. I’ve never seen good “film look” from guys who had only shot video.

We shoot both 35mm film and HD 24p with cinema lenses with DoF converter… when done very carefully we can intercut the two and no one can tell the difference. But it has to be done carefully with the right hardware and the right talent.

There is no “magic bullet” to make plain ol’ video really look like film (even though there is a product by that name!). Just converting 60i to 24p doesn’t create the complete look of film. Gamma curves, saturation, black levels and a zillion other factors can be tweaked electronically to better emulate filmstocks. As for depth of field, that really can’t be done electronically, but rather mechanically (or more accurately, optically) with a good depth of field converter and great glass in front of the camera.

T2

[Todd Terry]

Thanks guys….

I guess I’ll have to hit up the techies at Aja.

I posted a similar question over on the Aja COW board, but no responses. Then again no one has posted ANYTHING in there for more than a week… apparently there is not much traffic over there.

So, still no solution yet… but I still really appreciate all the efforts.

Todd

[Todd Terry]

Yes Zen…

At least that is an easy fix (unlike the stills problem that I am wrestling with).

In Premiere go to EDIT > PREFERENCES > GENERAL and on the pop-up page change the “Still Image Default Duration” from 150 to 300 frames… then any new still will import as 10 seconds instead of the default 5 seconds.

Todd

[Todd Terry]

Hi yet again Vince, et al…

Yeah, I was able to change the viewing preferences for Targa files (well actually, they were already set to open with Photoshop… I changed them to something else and then back to Photoshop). Unfortunately that had no effect on their usablity in Premiere.

My previous qustion was actually asking WHICH Plug-Ins folder do I select when restarting Premiere while pressing control+shift. I get the pop-up box asking me for it… but there is the root PlugIns folder and then bunches and bunches of folders inside it to choose from. I just didn’t know what to select.

I appreciate all the efforts of those in the group trying to help me with this problem, I really do.

For now, must go home before I am even further in the doghouse on Valentine’s Day than I already am. I will take this up again tomorrow.

Thanks again,
Todd

[Todd Terry]

Thanks Vince…

I don’t wana screw this up…..

Which folder do I choose in “Choose an additional Plug-Ins folder…?

Under Plug-Ins, there’s the root folder, and under that is “Common” and “en_US.”

Under “Common” the subfolders under that are “aaf” and “AEFilters”

Under “en_US” there are AEFilters, AJA, AJA(2), Editing Modes, Effect Presents, hlseffects (with subfolders), PSFilters, and VSTPlugins.

Sorry for the stupid question… I’m not much of a computer guy, I’m an old film guy.

Thanks,
Todd

[Todd Terry]

Heya…

I just tried that… restarted Premiere while holding down the shift key… didn’t release it until I had loaded a project.

I certainly didn’t notice any difference in the way PP2 loaded or anything… should I have? None of the settings or scratch discs had changed. Could it be that this effort didn’t “take”? I tried it several times.

In any event, it had no effect on my ability to import/use stills correctly.

When looking at the “Properties” of one of the affected stills, it does indeed show that it is a “sequence” with a duration of 1 frame… so that explains that. But WHY was it imported as a sequence becomes the big question. I didn’t TELL it to (I couldn’t have if I had wanted to, as the “numbered stills” box was greyed out, unavailable) and it wasn’t a numbered file as if it were part of sequential files.

Grrrrrr again and again

Todd

[Todd Terry]

Hi Vince….

Thanks for the time you are taking to investigate this, I really appreciate it.

No, it does not seem to matter what the source of the targa (or bitmap) file is, where it originated, or what program created it.

We have tried files made directly and originally in Photoshop, converted in Photoshop, created by any of several third-party graphics programs, and even stills made directly from the timeline in Premiere. All import at one-frame, with unchangeable durations.

I will email you one frame that I just made right off the timeline so that you can take a look at it.

Much thanks again,
Todd

[Todd Terry]

>>You maybe doing something wrong…

No doubt, but I don’t know what it is. I’ve been a Premiere editor for 10 years (going back to 4.0) and have never had a problem like this. This is my first time to use PP2, though.

>>importing a still image should be as long as the basic default duration of 150 frames

Yep… it should be. SHOULD be. But it’s not. I can only get bitmaps and targas to import as 1 frame, the length/speed of which cannot be changed and the duration cannot be manually stretched. Photoshop and tif files import correctly at the proper default length and can be changed in duration just as the good Lord intended… but not bmp’s or tga’s on my machine.

Man, this is frustrating….
Todd