Hi all,

I have to edit a program on a Software Only system, (MC 3.0), with the final goal to output to SD DVD. I get a little confused as my client comes with (PAL) Beta SP, Digibeta and HDV material. So, some questions;

1 Can Software Only playback and edit Digibeta 2:1 captured on an Adrenaline?  (MXF or OMF?)

The program will be 16x9 and so is the HDV footage. The Digibeta and Beta SP are 4x3 and have to be resized. What would the right workflow be if we want to maintain a good, (best), quality?

2 Make a HDV project with Digi and SP footage mixed and export final sequence to PAL 25 SD? Than make DVD

3 Make a PAL 25 SD project with mixed HDV footage, than export to DVD.

4 These people have a Sony HDV camera, via firewire to the HP workstation and connected via Y/C to a Sony PVM 14" monitor. Is it possible to playback Digi and SP footage to the Sony preview monitor?

Thanks a lot for suggestions.

iedjie

iedjie:

1 Can Software Only playback and edit Digibeta 2:1 captured on an Adrenaline?  (MXF or OMF?)

Yes

iedjie:

3 Make a PAL 25 SD project with mixed HDV footage, than export to DVD

That's the way I'd go.

iedjie:

4 These people have a Sony HDV camera, via firewire to the HP workstation and connected via Y/C to a Sony PVM 14" monitor. Is it possible to playback Digi and SP footage to the Sony preview monitor?

Possible but sync will be way off.

Why would you go for the Pal 25 SD project?

If your Final output is SD and you don't anticipate needing an HD project, there's really no reason to work in HD and have to blow up your SD footage. It's much better to downsize the HDV.

Hi,

Being a small indie working with lots of small indie bands I tend to do a lot of stuff like this with tour footage, mixing NTSC stock footage with 1080i PAL HDV etc etc.

For best final results this is what I'd suggest.  My reasoning is that I am guessing you want to end up with 16x9SD final project and not 4x3SD and not HD at all?

Anyway, I'd capture all the footage into SD Avid project.  The HDV will be downconverted to 16x9 SD and the standard 4x3 stuff will come in as is.  I'd then export the required 4x3 shots as QT ref and in After Effects set up a new comp to 1024x576 and re-size the 4x3 stuff to suit what you want.  You'll have to do some cropping along the way but... I'd then switch on frame blending and render out as uncompressed AVI.  Import that into Avid and hey presto it'll look great.  Although AE does have a habit of crashing when rendering large chunks with frame blending on.  It can be a bit painful but the results really are worth the hassle.

If you are looking for a 4x3 SD output then definitely scale down the HDV footage.

And another point to consider is that the footage is all going to look a bit different.  1080i HDV.  720x576 Beta SP etc.  NTSC.  PAL.  I'd suggest you let your client know this from the very start and if you want it all to look kind of the same, pop the final edit into After Effects and litterally render it out again.  It'll make it look much more blended in this way and really is a finishing touch that's required imho.

If you want to go a step further you can maybe add a v. slight tint and/or destaurate the footage a touch in AE to really give it that finished look but just doing all this in Avid is going to make the footage look hugely different between shots.  I'm sure you already know this anyway...

Too much coffee here!

Regards