Hey you frame rate geeks, help!

Geno

Geno

Active member
I am hot on the trail of solving this frame rate mystery, and hopefully complete this beautiful editing suite. I have HVX footage in my project. I open up a 720/24p sequence, drop it into FCP and viola, no rendering. I open up the item properties and I see a frame rate of 23.98 (24p) Good so far but the "compressor" says DVCPro60p. I need to figure out how to get this footage to a projector, which has an HDMI input. Blackmagics HD Cards would seem to be a good fit (the Intensity Card has HDMI I/O for $250) or the more costly HD Decklink for $999, but the tech support tells me that they only support 24p over 60p from the Varicam. What is the difference between HVX and Varicam footage. Something tells me that this footage should be the same thing. If the card won't work with HVX stuff, then maybe I should shoot in 60p (supported by both cards) and then use a frame rate converter or Cinema Tools to conform back to 24p when it's all done. Are there any drawbacks to this method? Can a true 24p filmic look be obtained from 60p to 24p conversion, or should I stay 24p native for maximum resolution?
 
It may sound weird but you are shooting as if it was over 60p but the camera is removing the frames. FCP is saying that you have already removed the frames. Compressor is probably reading the codec which is 60p native. If you go to project settings, you will see the DVCproHD60 codec being used.

When you export from FCP to compressor, you should be fine for DVDs. Cinema Tools should be able to put the footage over 60p again.

Some people shoot over 60p in camera to match the varicam but then you lose all that storage space on p2 - shoot 24pN to save the space.

I hookup to my projector using a DVI cable from the 2nd monitor port on my G5 Quad (Geforce 6600) and run desktop preview to the projector. OSX will properly output to a HDMI projector. Get a DVI to HDMI adaptor ~ $20.
 
Thanks for the swift reply soarprod. I wanted to avoid using one of my cinema displays for the projector. I also understand that the Cinema Desktop Preview is a lower rez proxie. I guess I could go for that if I had to, it certainly is the cheaper option. As far as the 60p over 24p. I understand the removal thing now. Thats what they mean by not supporting 24p. They may in the future support it but not now, so unless I add frames back to 60p these cards won't do me any good. Nuts, wouldn't HDMI out to a spanking 720p projector be sweet, while having 2x20" displays? Oh well, Cinema Desktop Preview here we come!
 
The quality from Cinema Desktop Preview is great - dont worry about that. Having 2 monitors and the projector might be more of a problem - you can always put in a 2nd video card. Matrox has an awesome MXO box that will output. ~$1000
http://www.matrox.com/video/products/mxo/home.cfm

The AJA Kona cards support the 24p mode ... Kona LHe is ~$1400

Ian McCamey, Editorial Post-Production Supervisor at The Orphanage, on switching to KONA for Mac VFX on “Spy Kids”
“The biggest reason is that KONA has always operated in 10-bit and was the first product to do that in OS X. The other important factor is that KONA has wonderful support for 23.976/23.98, which is vital to visual effects. In the process of evaluating KONA, we just came to feel much more secure with AJA as a company; they had been tremendously supportive and willing to help.”
 
soarprod said:
The quality from Cinema Desktop Preview is great - dont worry about that. Having 2 monitors and the projector might be more of a problem - you can always put in a 2nd video card. Matrox has an awesome MXO box that will output. ~$1000
http://www.matrox.com/video/products/mxo/home.cfm

The AJA Kona cards support the 24p mode ... Kona LHe is ~$1400

Ian McCamey, Editorial Post-Production Supervisor at The Orphanage, on switching to KONA for Mac VFX on “Spy Kids”
“The biggest reason is that KONA has always operated in 10-bit and was the first product to do that in OS X. The other important factor is that KONA has wonderful support for 23.976/23.98, which is vital to visual effects. In the process of evaluating KONA, we just came to feel much more secure with AJA as a company; they had been tremendously supportive and willing to help.”
Click to expand...
Wow! Maybe I'll have to give Kona a call. Any cards under the $1400 that get me in the ballpark. Also, I have heard some very bad things about Matrox on the Mac platform.
 
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