DVL-Digest 545 - Postings: Index 4:3 to 4:3; 14:9; 16:9 D9 FCP/Titles help with DV to file Multiple Timelines in Premiere 4:3 to 4:3; 14:9; 16:9 - Adam Wilt > > "Your tests seem to clearly indicate that "fake 16:9" must never be > > used, and that Adam Wilt's original advice about "crop it and expand in > > post" was right on the money all along." > > I believe Adam's advice is the opposite -- that fake 16:9 is preferable > to cropping 4:3 images in post because when shooting fake 16:9, the > central 360 lines are spread out over entire 4:3 height before > compression, which improves resolution. Adam, did I get this right? It depends on your needs. If you *ever* expect to do a 4:3 full-frame release, shoot 4:3 and crop in post. OTOH the fake 16:9 is easier for the codec to handle *if* you only care about the 16:9 pic. As different cameras use different interpolation methods and have codecs of differing performances, the best bet is to try both ways and see what looks best for you. See http://www.adamwilt.com/DV-FAQ-etc.html#widescreen, and follow the link to Ben Syverson's tests, for more info. D9 - "Perry" nospam-perry.mitchell@btinterne >Am in a similar place, so would like to join in with my own specific questions: *how* is 4:2:2 superior to 4:1:1 -- that is, given similar spec cameras, how is the improvement going to manifest in the picture/image? Using the vernacular, the colored elements of the image will be twice as sharp. In NTSC this will happen in the horizontal direction. in PAL the vertical. The DV25 image is still sufficiently sharp that on a final NTSC or PAL encoded camera picture the differences are often difficult to see. However, ChromaKey uses the color resolution to enact the key information, so 4:2:2 will be much more important. That doesn't mean you cannot use 4:1:1 (or 4:2:0 PAL) for ChromaKey but 4:2:2 will work better in critical conditions. D9 and D7 both use twice the data rate of DV25, but the simple 4:1:1 to 4:2:2 improvements only need a 33% gain in data rate. The rest of the data rate gain is consumed by using less compression which is more difficult to quantify. In simple terms they will be more transparent and will go more generations without damage. As we say in UK; you pays your money and you takes your choice! Perry Mitchell Video Facilities http://www.perrybits.co.uk/ FCP/Titles - Adam Wilt nospam-adamwilt@flash.net > I was wondering if someone could let me know what the downside of using > Final Cut Pro Titles is? Each title layer in FCP is limited to a single font (that is, a single typeface, size, weight, and style), a single justification, a single tracking, a single leading, and a single color. If you want to do something like have credits where the person's title is in 24 pt italic yellow type and the name is in 36 pt white roman with a soft drop, you have to build it as two separate layers. While it can be done, it's far from WYSIWYG, and a bit tedious -- and aligning the text on the two layers is by trial and error. Also, I find the rasterizing of text in FCP to be poor, with no apparent oversampling or subpixel rendering. OTOH the title gen is a useful tool for templated text -- when you need a set of text pages, like lower 3rds, that fall exactly in the same place on every frame. Build a dummy page, dupe it, and change the text; unless you fiddle with the origin control it'll always be in exactly the same place. That's the one text thing that FCP does better than most! > What is wrong with using Illustrator text, rasterizing it in Photoshop > (or even making it entirely in Photoshop), and just bringing your > gloriously touched-up text into your FCP project? Nothing whatsoever. FCP and Photoshop go together very naturally; I wouldn't be able to do nearly as much stuff in FCP if I didn't have Photoshop for generating text and other compositing elements. PSD files import with each layer on a different track, which makes animating objects individually simply a matter of layer assignment in Photoshop. Illustrator files rasterized in Photoshop work very well indeed. Cheers, Adam Wilt a DV FAQ: http://www.adamwilt.com/DV.html help with DV to file - Adam Wilt > The basic "problem": I'm looking for some method for capturing Digital > Video (from a Canon Digital Video Camera - movies to be taken underwater > of zooplankton in case you are interested as a biologist in this) to > disk so I can then run my own software and do frame-by-frame processing. Most NLE programs offer capture to an AVI or MOV file, and also allow you to export a clip as a series of still images, i.e. zoop001.bmp, zoop002.bmp, etc. Since the simultaneous capture and decompression of DV is a stressful thing for PCs and Macs, it's best to capture as a native file, then export the stills sequence in this way. On the PC, Premiere LE (which is given away with many DV capture cards) is just fine for this. You might also look at MotoDV, and use QuickTime to export the stills sequence. Other programs probably offer this and I'm sure the users of such programs will chime in. On the Mac, Download QuickTime Pro () and get a free copy of HackTV for capturing with. HackTV is a bit of demoware from the QuickTime folks; it's designed to show the basics of programming the QuickTime API but it's also useful for a quick 'n' dirty capture/playback tool. Doubtless there are other inexpensive tools as well. Cheers, Adam Wilt a DV FAQ: http://www.adamwilt.com/DV.html Multiple Timelines in Premiere - Adam Wilt nospam-adamwilt@flash.net > My Media 100 is busted and I miss some of its features. Especially the > capability of having multiple timelines (programs) assigned to one > common project. > > I am not finding this in Premiere. It's not in Premiere: one project, one timeline. The workaround (such as it is) is to dupe your program later on the same timeline, and change it there, in the same way you'd use the virtual clips feature. Just don't forget to set your work area to the section of the timeline containing the program version you want to work on! Of course if you are working long-form you'll run into the dreaded slowdown problem all the sooner. Cheers, Adam Wilt a DV FAQ: http://www.adamwilt.com/DV.html (diese posts stammen von der DV-L Mailingliste - THX to Adam Wilt and Perry Mitchell :-) [up] |