post production FCP -> digibeta + HDCAM master

[iakeij]

Hi all,

I have questions concerning finishing a short film project. I have the final cut of a 34 minutes short film done in a DVCProHD timeline. It is 1080/24p.
I need to finish the film in 3 different formats to meet different screening requirements: HDCAM, Digibeta PAL, Digibeta NTSC
The cost of finishing the film in a post-house is expensive, to meet my budget, I decide to do the following:

1. Copy and paste my project into a HDCAM timeline in FCP.
2. Copy and paste my project into a NTSC DV timeline in FCP.
3. Copy and paste my project into a PAL DV timeline in FCP.
4. Rent a Digibeta and a HDCAM deck.
5. Print to tapes by hooking up the decks to my MacbookPro using firewire 800.

is this process feasible? Or am I seriously missing out something? If I can do it myself, it will seriously save me like $1800 compared to letting the post house do it for me.

Any other workflow to go about doing this myself? Or help appreciated! thanks.

regards,
Jiekai

 

[adkimery]

1. You'll need a Matrox MXO or AJA Io HD 'cause none of those decks use FW connectivity.
2. Let the MXO or Io HD do the down conversion in hardware.
3. HD and SD don't use the same color space so you may need to color correct/grade the HD and SD versions separately (unless the hardware will do the proper 709 to 601 adjustments)

-A

 

[Shane Ross]

Sorry, but let me list all the things wrong with that workflow:

-Digibeta is not DV. You need to use an uncompressed 10-bit SD timeline if you wanted to output to digibeta.
-There are no digibeta decks that connect via firewire. Ony with a capture card.
-There are no HDCAM decks that connect via firewire. You need an HD capture card.
-you cannot convert NTSC to PAL simply by putting it on a PAL timeline and rendering. You need at least the STANDARDS CONVERTER from www.nattress.com.

ADKimery is right, if you need to output from a laptop, you need the AJA I/O HD...the MXO might work, depending on what format you need the HDCAM to be. If you are working at 720p and need a 1080p or 1080i master, only the I/O HD will do. The MXO cannot cross convert.

Renting an HDCAM deck and digibeta deck isn't cheap either. If I were you, I'd highly suggest taking your project to a post facility to output. Sorry but you seem over your head in this situation. When I was first faced with it, I know I was.