Beta deck to G5

Okay, feeling pretty stupid these days... Trying to figure out how to wire my Beta deck to the G5. I went to Ametron and was told to get a converter but the one they showed me was expensive (and discontinued which they didn't bother to mention). Whats the best way to wire my deck to get the best possible signal to the G5? Anyone had to handle this before?

blackmagic multibridge will handle it - but its $2grand

any of the kona or aja interfaces will do it, but youre looking at several $hundred minimum. youre probably also going to need a blackburst generator.

[proapptips.com]

If you have a camera with the ability to pass thru a signal, or a deck, or buy the Canopus ADVC-110 then this works. But...BIG BUT...you compress your footage into the DV color space: 4:1:1 at 5:1 compression.

To retain quality you are better off getting a Decklink SP or AJA LA capture card, and a G-Raid FW 800 drive...

Can we assume this is a Beta SP machine and not a DigiBeta?

The US$200 options are possible, but not likely to result in great joy. The Canopus machines are very nice indeed, but they do compress to DV quality and they're noisy. Of course, they only convert S Video and NTSC Composite

You can certainly use a CamCorder to do the conversion, but they almost without exception distort the video levels during the conversion and they're composite NTSC and S Video only. We generally reserve the CamCorders for the desparation method.

The top quality way to go are all in the US$2K range. There, you can play the tape in full Sony component mode (Y, R-Y, B-Y) with the best quality possible.

We have one AJA I/O (we're very pleased) and we're getting one of their HiDef machines.

Do you need to cut uncompressed? That would be the best way and avoid multiple compression-decompression coding-decoding steps.

I would show up at the front door of a good video house and get them to do it. A lot of them can give you the work parked on a hard drive if you ask them.

You didn't say how much work there was.

Koz

Beta SP to Mac - AJA I/O LA - the best quality, least expensive solution. Does Component/Composite/S-Video in and out at up to 10bit uncompressed or will downconvert to DV or any format you'd like. Has built in timecode pass through if you connect the serial cable to your Beta Machine for remote control and frame accurate time code. AJA has about the best tech support anywhere -- if you have a problem, they will help.. Cost - about a thousand dollars....less than the full blown outboard AJA box if you only need to do the analog to digital conversion....you also have real time out while editing to any deck AND a monitor simultaniously. - Andy Field

Seems like I have a lot to think about. Problem is, I thought I had post covered so I put everything into production and there's no money left. More than half the project was shot on DV and getting that footage into the system is not a problem. I just need to figure out this Beta SP thing now.

I have so much footage I'm planning on inputting compressed video so I can fit it all. Image quality is not so important right now as I'll do an on-line edit when its all done. Frame accuracy is very important, thought.

You might want to look at the Decklink SP for $600, oe the Kona LS. Then you would need a USB -> RS422 for deck control. Plus a blackburst generator. Or you could go with an Aja IO plus a blackburst generator. And some kind of basic RAID. Either way you're looking at an investment. You might want to think about having the tapes professionally dubbed to DV for you.



- Justin Barham -

I learned about the Decklink SP earlier today. It actually looks like it'll solve most of my problems. I'm not so worried about deck control right now. I plan on dumping everything into FCP at a low resolution then logging it. Plans are for an on-line edit to finish the piece when its done so deck control won't be an issue then either.

I'd thought about professionally dubbed tapes or even paying to have the tapes transferred to a hard drive instead of investing in the Decklink. I'm going to explore the expense tomorrow when all the post houses are open. Any suggestions on a place that can put everything onto a harddrive for me?

If you're doing an off-line, deck control will be all the more important to keep it frame accurate. It's not that expensive either. The Keyspan adapter should be like $75, plus the price of the RS422 cable. However, more and more, I'm thinking you should just have the Beta material moved to DV. You'll lose a little bit of color quality, but not that bad. On the other hand, if you end up investing in a SD capture card, RAID, etc., you can do more with it in the future.

I'm not that knowledgeable about tape to HDD. In the past we've had good luck with eFilm and The Post Group when we had to go outside our shop for services we couldn't do.



- Justin Barham -

Oh Ed, we might be able to do BetaSP to HDD (DV codec) for less. But it depends on the amount of material you have, and how urgently you need it. We're a real small shop so I'm divided between all kinds of duties during the week. As it happens, I should be relatively available until Thursday. If you want, you can ring me on Tuesday after 3pm. Or email me.


Best,

justin@fancyfilm.com
www.fancyfilm.com



- Justin Barham -