[Tom Matthies]

While I don’t use the FS-100 for capturing from camera, I do use the FS-3 in standard definition. When I shoot, I also roll a tape for backup resulting in files with the same timecode as the scenes on the tape. My Firestore also “names” each file with the time and date it was recorded along with other metadata. I don’t know if the FS-100 does this, but those names from my FS-3 do transfer into Final Cut when they are imported. They should be in your FCP bin with the proginal names still attached. Wouldn’t it be possible to simply export an EDL to your Avid and then re-import your original files from your hard drive using the original names that the FS-100 assigned to the files? Or am I missing something?
Did you rename the files once they were imported into FCP?
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Ah…
That lovely sound of the tape hitting the heads when the guides pulled in. Engineers who actually smoked while working in the tape room. The smell of a new roll of Kodak 16mm film. The smell of film cement. The acidy aroma of the film processing room. Those heady days when the first RCA TK-76 camera and Sony BVU-100 recorder showed up on the loading dock. The rush you got when you were actually trusted to use it for the first time in the field. The first time you watched an Ampex ACR-25 Cart Machine in operation. How you took a picture of it and stopped it while it was on the air-damned optical sensors in the transport chambers. The first time you saw color TV as a kid. Your trip to the local TV station, when you were a littler kid, to sit in the studio during a live cartoon show and to wave at the camera with four lenses. Your first live shot. The day the camera fell out of the door of the helicopter. (OK, so they aren’t all pleasant thoughts) Your first Addy. Your first Emmy. Your first Clio. The day you knocked the station off the air by plugging a 2K into the same rack as the STL and blowing the breaker. The day you were interviewing a new prospective editor and you asked him what kinds of linear edit controllers he had experience with and he informed you that he had never actually edited tape before and that he had only edited with non-linear systems in school. Perfecting your technique operating Ampex’s Editec option while editing tape to tape on “Quads”…in COLOR! Your first day actually working in a TV station…and GETTING PAID!
Man…good times. Good times…
Jeez, I’m gettin’ old…
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

All very true. The digital changeover is taking it’s toll to say the least. And we all know that we can charge more for those Hi-Def spots too? Ahem…well anyway…
That said however, in the commercial broadcasting world revenues are made in one way…viewers watching commercials. That’s it in a nutshell. Times are tough for broadcast venues these days but there are places where it doesn’t pay to count pennies. You make money by running COMMERCIALS! Why take the chance with cheap, obsolete or jerry-rigged equipment to air that which brings in the money? Cut back on the expensive anchor or run that old live truck for one more year before replacing it with that shiny new one you’d like. Don’t cut corners on your cash-box. I worked in broascasting for many years so I know very well the problems involved but there are places to cut corners and there are places not to get cheap. Oh, and one more thing; please, TRAIN your guys to do it right-always. And train them to train others to do it right. It will pay for itself in the long run.
Your clients and advertisers deserve that. They pay the bills afterall.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Darn, they beat me to the punch again. 🙂
tom

[Tom Matthies]

Here in the upper Midwest we send spots to many stations and cable outfits. Recently Time-Warner Cable started to request that we send all of our spots to them via files sent to their FTP site. They had moved their head-end operations to another city in the southern part of the state and they no longer whated to deal with anyone sending them actual tapes anymore.

This comes under the heading of “Seemed like a good idea at the time.”

We normally work at 2 to 1 compression on the Avids or at either 8-bit uncompressed or DVC-50 on the Final Cut systems. Sending Time-Warner these files is a major pain in the butt for us. It takes anywhere from 20 minutes to over an hour to send a spot to their FCP site due to the large file size. Ironically, our internet pipeline is Time Warner’s own Roadrunner system. Our upload speeds are pretty dismal right now…unless we want to pay them much more $$$ for a higher speed option. Did I mention that it would cost MANY MORE $$$$$$! Anyhow, this potentially ties up an edit system for the duration of the transfer. Plus, since their system is PC based, I cannot send a DV-50 encoded spot to them at all. The alternative is to drop our quality down to DV25 when we send the spots. An idea that I don’t like. I edit a spot for a major client in HD and then send it to them as a DV25 file? Hmmm, what’s wrong with this picture? I can name about 8 things.

When I finally got their tech on the phone and inquired about their workflow on just how a spot gets into their system I was told that the files are retrieved from their FCP site, transferred into an Avid Express, converted to an Avid codec and played out to a BetacamSP archive tape. That tape is then physically walked into another area where it is used to ingest the spot into their server, which utilizes a very nasty looking encoder/converter that digitizes the spot into an Mpeg format for playout into their system. Man, no wonder it looks like crap when it hits the air! (Hits the cable?)
Very soon we will be sending them Beta SP dubs again for their use. I don’t care if it’s more convienent for them to get the spots via FTP. Too bad. It looks better coming off of a tape made right from our original editing system.

Sadly, THIS is the price we pay for progress. Sheesh!
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

It’s usually because most IT people don’t UNDERSTAND Macs.
Maybe this would be a good idea for the next Mac vs. PC TV spot?

“Hi, I’m a Mac.”
“And I’m a PC and…OOPS! I think I’m going to be sick!”
“Awww. Looks like PC has caught another virus.”
[Mac smiles]
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Joe’s Filters has a nice Difussion Filter that will do this. Also, if you can still find them, Eureka has a Silk Stocking filter that does a good job and it used to be free as well.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

I just got DVMatte working again…
Not yet…thank you.
If it ain’t broke…
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Or use Joe’s Filters. The set has a nice Graduated filter that will do just what you want. Lots of other useful stuff as well.
Tom

[Tom Matthies]

Also, what codec are you using. The Canopus converter will only output DV25 in real time.
tom