[Tom David]

Thanks, I’m on the road so will look when I get back.

Cheers,
Tom

Camera Operator – Editor – Motion Graphics
(https://www.tomdavid.com.au)

[Tom David]

No I have not – where can I find this option to try please?

Cheers,
Tom

Camera Operator – Editor – Motion Graphics
(https://www.tomdavid.com.au)

[Tom David]

Hi mate,

The MXF video files have been requested by a broadcaster in Turkey. We have 65x 24min episodes sitting on our drives as Uncompressed SD 8-bit, four channel audio (stereo mix 1&2 and M&E 3&4).

We can export MXF one at a time in FCP, but the renders take AGES and have to be set off manually. And the broadcaster needs the program yesterday.

So I was hoping to utilise PPro / Media Encoder to batch export the video to MXF, however the adobe software is stripping out the audio channels 3&4 in the outputted MXFs.

Any thoughts?

Cheers,
Tom

Camera Operator – Editor – Motion Graphics
(https://www.tomdavid.com.au)

[Tom David]

Wow thanks for being constructive in this post. Good luck to you.

Cheers,
Tom

Camera Operator – Editor – Motion Graphics
(https://www.tomdavid.com.au)

[Tom David]

No, no editing. Just easier (in theory) to do batch export of these files into MXF format from Premiere / media encoder. In FCP, we have to cue files manually to encode, and it takes ages also as FCP won’t utilise all our CPU power.

However as they are stripping out audio channels 3/4 this option sadly isn’t working for us. So I am thinking now a batch encode of our files from FCP into a format with four channels that PPro / Media Encoder WILL recognise.

This way, I set off only two batch encodes over two nights, rather than multiple MXF encodes from FCP over potentially a week.

Cheers,
Tom

Camera Operator – Editor – Motion Graphics
(https://www.tomdavid.com.au)

[Tom David]

That’s a shame! Can you recommend a format that premiere recognises that has four channels of audio?

Cheers,
Tom

Camera Operator – Editor – Motion Graphics
(https://www.tomdavid.com.au)

[Tom David]

We calibrate the brightness of our monitors using (HD 25p/50i) colour bars to get a ball park setting for brightness and contrast. As for colour and chroma, its a bit more guess work. Let me know if you figure that one out!

Cheers,
Tom

Camera Operator – Editor – Motion Graphics
(https://www.tomdavid.com.au)

[Tom David]

…”As the difference between black and non-black is less on the PAL ones, I’d say that that’s the better test than the HD ones as the bigger differences allow for a bit more variation in setting what looks right.”…

Well this was our problem. I think because we WERE calibrating with the darker (PAL) black bars rather than the brighter (HD 25p/50i) bars, we were actually turning our monitors up too bright so that we could see the slight difference in the black (PAL) bars.

When the images were broadcast, they were too dark – because (it seems) our monitors were calibrated too bright (so we can see the (PAL) dark bar). So what we thought was correct, was actually dark when played in the outside world.

So when I recalibrated the monitors to the (HD 25p/50i) bars, thus TURNING DOWN the brightness on the monitors compared to the (PAL) calibration, we thus brightened our images in the grade, and they are now broadcasting at correct brightness levels.

So for us, it is actually the (HD 25p/50i) bars that matches our monitors to the outside world. We have kind of worked through this problem since I made the first post.

So if anybody knows why the difference in the two calibration bars, that would be a big help for our confidence in calibrating PAL monitors.

Cheers,
Tom

Camera Operator – Editor – Motion Graphics
(https://www.tomdavid.com.au)

[Tom David]

Also consider the extra spend to purchase the Letus Ultimate. The results are much crisper and you won’t be disappointed down the track as you start to learn the pros and cons of using these adaptors.

If you are sticking with the extreme, then the Nikon lens would be fine – many of my colleagues have equivalent adaptors to the Extreme, and therefore purchase cheaper lens to run on these as there’s no point running expensive primes (ie Zeiss) on the cheap adaptors (its the same as you wouldn’t buy a blu-ray player for your old non-HD tv). There are vignetting and softening around the edges problems, but that is acceptable for them.

If you are going for the spend on the Ultimate, then definitely push the budget to get Carl Zeiss primes. As well as being a great picture, sharp etc etc, the most important factor for me purchasing them was their marketability to other DOP who are familiar with top end gear, and dabbling with this adaptor technology. Because they were happy with the brand, they would hire my kits over guys packing Nikon and other SLR lens brands.

Hope that helps – to see my equipment combo, visit https://tomdavid.com.au/tom_equipment.html

Good luck, Tom.

Cheers,
Tom

Camera Operator – Editor – Motion Graphics
(https://www.tomdavid.com.au)

[Tom David]

Hi there,

Exporting as a quicktime PNG sequence (with alpha turned on, or million+) works for me when exporting logos with alpha channels from AfterEffects into FCP. FCP should recognise the format if created from your AVID also. Good luck.

Cheers,
Tom

Camera Operator – Editor – Motion Graphics
(https://www.tomdavid.com.au)