How would you mix AVC Intra, DVC Pro HD and DV all in the same project?

Hi all:

Just would like some expert opinion on this. I have a friend who will be cutting a project that I am shooting for her. She has archival footage in DVC Pro HD 720 24pN and anamorphic Mini DV. I will be shooting AVC Intra for her. She has never worked with Pro Res before and does not have an Aja i/O or Kona 3 as I do. To make this even harder, she is talking about acquiring AVCHD footage as well for a small crash cam type of POV camera. She needs to end up with a 720 or 1080 output/timeline

She uses an older G5 (I think dual 2.3Ghz) and a Matrox MXO along with FCP 6.05 but is contemplating stepping up to one of the newest Mac Pros that just released.

I assume the best, simplest and easiest way to edit this project would be to capture/transfer all of the different kinds of footage, then batch convert it all to Pro Res 422?

Does anyone know if her Matrox MXO will support display of Pro Res? I know my Kona 3 does but I know very little about the MXO as I have never used it. So in a nutshell, she needs to mix AVC Intra, DVC Pro HD, AVCHD and Mini DV all into the same HD project. How would you approach this media mixed media nightmare?

Dan Brockett

You left out the most important detail: Delivery. "A 720 or 1080 timeline" isn't nearly specific enough, and you know that. At the very least, your friend needs to settle on a frame rate, since she's already talking about mixing 24p and 60i.

My tendency on questions like this is always to settle on a delivery format and work backwards. If you're going to be delivering 1080psf23 on HDCAM SR, then that answers all your questions for you. You still have to decide, for instance, how you plan to up-res the DV stuff, but that's a much simpler question.

So how is this project going to be delivered? How's it going to leave your friend's room, in other words?

Hiya Dan,

Quote

She need to end up with a 720 or 1080 output/timeline

She needs to decide which and go from there. I would venture a guess that 720p is more of a standard and, if given a choice, I would rather downconvert than upconvert in every instance.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

At this point, her final delivery format is unknown but chances are it will be SD DVD and web clips immediately, followed by Blu Ray in the near future when the client rolls the project out to the public.

I don't think at this point she has to worry about delivering an HD tape format to the client so would it be smarter to work a 720 timeline over a 1080? Frame rates could be tricky as the AVC Intra I will shoot will probably be 1080 24p and the 720 24pN she already has is obviously 24p. But the AVCHD will probably be the Canon Vixia's 24p over 1080i format that they deal with and the Mini DV is obviously 29.97 anamorphic NTSC. I know, a real mess. I am just wondering if there is a way to make all of these footage formats and frame rates work together?

Thanks,

Dan

It kinda depends on her ratios. How much DVCPRO versus how much DV and so forth.

Frankly? Just based on what you told me, I think I'd convert everything down to anamorphic SD, add 3:2 to all the 24p material, and cut it in an NTSC timeline.

Just a quick note: the latest Mac Pro graphic cards no longer have dual DVI ports, so that will factor into her MXO setup. It requires a standard DVI port, no info on whether a Mini DisplayPort>DVI adapter works so that would have to go to her other monitor. And Matrox has not released any info about the new cards and whether or not they're even compatible with the MXO.

JK

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Hi Dan,

Yes, the MXO will support ProRes 422. What you do is pick the corresponding 'Uncompressed' MXO setting for playback.

--ken