HD. HDV and Digi Beta workflow?

We are trying to resolve some issues for Broadcast before starting post
and there have been four of us scanning the internet for about a week
without much success. Most of the workflow items discussed are about HDV to Film etc. But this question relates to broadcast formats for television.

We have shot different episodes on two cameras: Mostly on HVX200
(DVCPRO HD 1080i) and some episodes have been shot on a Sony HVR Z1U
(1080i). We are cutting on FCP 5. Here's the kicker. Some
Broadcasters want the series delivering on Digi Betacam and some want
it delivering on HD. Obviously we can't afford to go back and shoot
everything in betacam.... problem of a small indie outfit getting
bigger I guess.

Most of out questions seem to be more to do with the HDV than the
DVCPRO HD. I assume that we will capture the HDV via firewire and edit
in sequences native to the respective cameras.

Is that correct?
Do you know what is the best procedure to go from final cut to digital
betacam with?
For example do we go firewire back to the HDV camera in the native
format or is it best to deliver a hard drive to the post house with QT
movies exported in a close comparison such as DVCPRO50?
Also are there any issues that relate to quality or broadcast
safe/luma/chroma levels?
At what point should color bars go onto the edited program?
Questions also crop up like what bit depth we work or export in... 8 or
10?
Are we best going back out to the camera on firewire by playing the
sequence, by "print to video" option in the file menu or with a
quicktime movie exported from the FCP sequence?

No need to go back and shoot digibeta, down converts are done all the time. Here is a box that will handle the HDV to digibeta.

[convergent-design.com]

Or the Kona 2, 3 and LH...they can downconvert to digibeta. That or take your HD masters to a dub facility.

I have a show that is shot on DVCPRO HD (Varicam and HVX-200) that needs to be delivered on D5 (hd) and digibeta. Planning on Kona all the way.

Or the Blackmagic Multibridge Extreme/Studio

[www.blackmagic-design.com]





For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

The technical issues of making an SD master from an HD master are pretty easy to deal with. The posts here explain a couple of good options.

Here is another consideration. When you deliver SD you are going to have to decide how to handle the aspect ration conversion. Your 16x9 HD master will have to be modified to fit on a 4x3 screen. Find out how your distribution channel wants to handle that. The easiest way is to letterbox the image so that the entire 16x9 frame is shown.

If they demand a true 4x3 image you might face some problems. Technically it is just a matter of making a choice on the downcoverter to crop off about 1/3 of the image on the left and right. The problem is that you will might lose elements that are important to the narritive of your story.

Be sure to leave time in your schedule to look at the 4x3 master, and make any adjustments to those shots that will not work if cropped.

-Vance

If you dont have the decks in house to play out to, you could also consider finishing to file formats, like 8Bit Uncompressed at 4:3 for the DigiBeta and DVCProHD for the HD version. Then send those on a hard drive to a post house that can play them to out to tapes for the broadcasters.

Broadcasters will also require you to follow their spec sheets for final delivery, which includes things like placement and duration of bars and tone, starting tc etc. If mastering broadcast tapes is not something you do on a regular basis, then its for sure a lot easier and certainly safer to have a post house do the job for you.

Thank you very much gentlemen... very helpful indeed.

We've been producing so much over the last two years but all for cable/pay and whilst production runs like a dream now, neither the budget nor the schedules have allowed us time to get involved as much as we would like in the process from completion of edit to delivery and broadcast. We'll definately go with the 4:3 safe framing with time for assessment as Vance suggests (they require 4:3 delivery) and hard drive the finals to Master in the post house as Clay suggests as none of us feel qualified to deal with or to safeguard the Broadcast specs.

Thanks