Silly Questions on Sorenson

[505Angel]

I am trying to understand all of this. This is my first post on the site!!!! I have spent like 200 hours this month on here readin'.....mostly on the dvx camera that I just got but here I go trying to capture stuff allready..

When I capture from my dvx100b in Sorensen at mpe2 am I in a conversion process to the widescreen format? I think I am, but this is new to me.

If so which Mpeg2 option gives me the great 16.9 I keep reading about on here?

Even silly-r question: As I select job setting and they show up below do these setting aplly to the next capture, or do they need to be highlighted/or something else done?..the reason I ask is because you can drop a few different job settings in to that bottom window at one time. -In other words If I am in an encoding or conversion process here and you have told me with option to go with here, How am I am sure I am telling the program to apply this setting to the next capture.

I know this is a dumb question and I think I know the answer by what the soreson reading says, but I am getting confused and just wanting to bounce it off you guys and be sure.

If anyone knows of problems I may have taking this sorensen captured footage into sony vegas for editing please fill me in. I plan to use the DVD architect to lay out the dvd but Avids dvd author is available also. Can some one point out some important differences. I have used DVD architect quite a few times now for simple home movies of the fam and friends and it is really straight forward and simple.

EVERYONE HEAR HAS ALLREADY TOTTALY SCHOOLED ME HERE AND I SINCERELY THANK YOU, THIS PLACE IS GREAT, YOU ARE ALL GREAT!!!

:dankk2:

 

[krestofre]

When I capture from my dvx100b in Sorensen at mpe2 am I in a conversion process to the widescreen format? I think I am, but this is new to me.

Depends on your MPEG-2 settings. MPEG-2 can be encoded with an anamorphic flag (16:9) or without (4:3). Which brings me to...

If so which Mpeg2 option gives me the great 16.9 I keep reading about on here?

First of all the footage in your DVX had to be shot Anamorphically for this to work. Anything else with give you the wrong aspect ratio. You can select any MPEG-2 profile, and then double click it in the Job Section. This will open a compression settings window. There choose 16:9 for your Pixel Aspect Ratio. Then your DVD player be able to create an anamorphic image.

As I select job setting and they show up below do these setting aplly to the next capture, or do they need to be highlighted/or something else done?..the reason I ask is because you can drop a few different job settings in to that bottom window at one time. -In other words If I am in an encoding or conversion process here and you have told me with option to go with here, How am I am sure I am telling the program to apply this setting to the next capture.

I don't know this one for sure as I've never used the compress over firewire portion of Sorenson, but I believe that you need to reset your encoding profiles for each job. In other words, drag the ones you want down for Tape A, switch tapes, drag the ones you want down for Tape B. The reason that you can drag multiple profiles to the same job is to have Sorenson spit out multiple files based on the same source media. I'm not sure off hand if you can do this for a source that's coming through firewire.

If anyone knows of problems I may have taking this sorensen captured footage into sony vegas for editing please fill me in.

Why not capture directly into Vegas? It sounds like you're workflow has a few extra steps in it that you don't need. You should be able to capture from your DVX straight into Vegas, edit, then send to Sorenson for encoding to MPEG-2. You'll get better quality that way ... unless you already know this and have a specific workflow need that I don't understand.

I plan to use the DVD architect to lay out the dvd but Avids dvd author is available also. Can some one point out some important differences.

Important different #1: DVD Architect is better.

Really Avid's DVD authoring program is one of my least favorite out there. If you're familiar with DVD Architect, then stick with it.

I hope that helps.

 

[505Angel]

I am sorry define "shot anamorphically" and then define "aspect ratio off" please.

I have captured using this particular setting selection (mpeg 16:9) using my go to the park panasonic handheld (that I do not even have the model number for) and it comes out looking pretty damn good (like why spend another 3g's)..So I ...I just ask the question above...hehe (I am learning, please bare with me).

-Oddly, everything on my vegas works fine so far, exept the dv capture from DVX or my little handheld, it doesn't detect them at all?? Sorensen captures from both fine on the same machine?? From what I have read on this forum Sorensen is a high dollar product that people admire (despite the one bash thread that has popped up recently), so I figured I would just stick with what worked anyways on this machine for my capturing.

I am verry interesting in hearing though, why it would produce better results to capture to Vegas edit there and then to get my final product from Sorensen.

here is another dumb one for ya-what does "squeeze" in title of the product refer to?

And uh...DUDE YOU ROCK!!! I ALL THE SUDDEN FEEL LIKE I AM ON MY WAY TO UNDERSTANDING THIS!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

 

[krestofre]

I am sorry define "shot anamorphically" and then define "aspect ratio off" please.

Shot Anamorphically means that you set your DVX camera to Anamophic in the menu before pressing the record button. This will make the image in the view finder appear tall and skinny. The 16:9 setting in Squeeze will tell the MPEG-2 file to change the view to be short and fat to finally give you a widescreen image.

What I meant by Aspect ratio off is that there are several different aspect rations in video. 16:9, 4:3, 2.35:1 are the ones you're likely to experience most frequently. If your video is shot 4:3, but you try to display it in 16:9 then you're going to end up with an incorrect image.

Oddly, everything on my vegas works fine so far, exept the dv capture from DVX or my little handheld, it doesn't detect them at all??

Sorry about that. Maybe posting in the Vegas forum would help you resolve that. I'm afraid I don't know much about Vegas.

why it would produce better results to capture to Vegas edit there and then to get my final product from Sorensen.

Each time you compress video it's called a "generation." The fewer generations you have to go through to get your final product will result in higher quality. Camera -> Vegas -> DVD is only one generation because the Camera -> Vegas set doesn't compress your video, you're only compressing to get to DVD. Camera -> Sorenson MPEG-2 -> Vegas -> DVD is two generations. One generation to MPEG-2 and one generation to DVD. At least that's how it sounds from your workflow.

here is another dumb one for ya-what does "squeeze" in title of the product refer to?

It's a play on words. Sorenson is "Squeezing" (AKA compressing) your video from the larger original source to a smaller file, be that MPEG-2, Windows Media, etc.

 

[505Angel]

you just taught me allot, thanks !!!

Another question has now evolved. This may be a dumb one too. Well let me just turn this into a series:


16:9 widescreen, would you recommend this for dvd? why? would you recommend this for Ipod video being that it is so small anyways?


I want this to be widescreen style. Can I get that style and look in editing (post) or do I have to shoot anamorphically, or letter box or sqeeze mode?
In other ways what are the different ways to do this with standard footage in editing..I am thinking there is good ways. Maybe you know of a few off hand. I saw a tutorial on here.. I will look again.



Thanks for the help on this info.


I will be sure when I am done to post everything I did and learned, (plus the finished product) I have actually found some good buys and such but I will wait to post in a few months after I have used them all for a bit and in turn they have had better "testing" for a more "thorough review".

 

[krestofre]

16:9 widescreen, would you recommend this for dvd? why? would you recommend this for Ipod video being that it is so small anyways?

For DVD, yes. If you have an anamorphic 16:9 DVD then it will play correctly on any display. If it's a regular television then it will be displayed as a letterboxed image with the proper aspect ratio. If it's a 16:9 or HD TV then it will properly display on the set as well.

For an iPod ... er ... I'm not sure. iPods can't play MPEG-2. They can play MPEG-4 and h.264 (called AVC in Sorenson). I'm not sure that either of those formats have an anamorphic flag because you would theoretically just encode them at the proper resolution for correct playback. So in Sorenson I think that you would go into settings, uncheck "maintain aspect ratio" and then set the frame size to where it would display correctly. That would handle the reformatting that your 16:9 flag is doing for the MPEG-2 file. This is just an educated guess. I've never worked with a video iPod, but it's an interesting question.

I want this to be widescreen style. Can I get that style and look in editing (post) or do I have to shoot anamorphically, or letter box or sqeeze mode?

First of all, I mis-typed in an earlier reply. The DVX calls anamorphic "squeeze." So setting the DVX to squeeze mode will achieve an anamorphic image.

So anyway you can achieve 16:9 in post, but you're going to lose part of your image. You can letterbox the image by litereally putting black bars on the top and bottom of the image. In Avid they have a 16:9 mask that will do this automatically for you. The catch is that if you didn't shoot your footage with this in mind then you'll probably chop off so heads or other parts of the image that you want to be seen.

To create an anamorphic image in post, then you have to stretch your image vertically which will decrease your overall quality of the image. I've posted about this several times before so just look through the Avid forum and see if you can find it.

Hope that helps.

 

[505Angel]

oh yeah that helps alot I pertty much understand something now that I didn't before!!!. It is kind of a bummer though I should have asked this earlier becuase I have done alot of shooting allready, and it has not been in sqeeze mode. So given this, is my best option then to finalize this project as is - a regular (not 16:9) project? put it full fullscreen way for the dvd?

YOU ARE THE MAN!!! THANKS A TON!

 

[krestofre]

So given this, is my best option then to finalize this project as is - a regular (not 16:9) project? put it full fullscreen way for the dvd?

If you didn't shoot with 16:9 in mind, then probably. You can always try the letterbox in post and stretch in post options from my above post and see if it works with your footage.

 

[505Angel]

Thanks alot, I think I will try this with my footage aside from one scene I am thinking of right away I think that this will still work. Again I really apreciate your time on this.