Is firewire capture broadcast quality?

I know the data rate from firewire is only 3.6MB per sec. i have only a sony DSR11 dv deck which has only firewire, i figured out that if i want uncompressed 8.5mb per sec i need component out, video capture card and a bigger deck. right now, my clients are happy with the output,and the tv stations are accepting the outputs i am giving but i wonder if it is really broadcast quality . thanks
yours
sameer

Hi Sameer
What do you understand to mean by broadcast quality?
Generally, a broadcaster will provide a set of strict guidelines, on the technical side mainly related to legal chroma and luma limits, limitations on flashing imagery etc, and on the artistic side sometimes relating to the quality of image. Broadcasters differ and so do their levels of tolerance relating to these guidelines.
By firewire capture I think you mean DV quality footage. You can capture uncompressed footage over firewire too.
As Denis said, converting DV footage to uncompressed won't improve the quality of your footage - it is still originating from a compressed source - however it might allow you to perform more exacting grading on the images and bring it within legal broadcast limits.
Most of the broadcasters I have worked with have required footage to be provided on Digibeta masters but that doesn't mean you couldn't take a Mini DV tape to a facilities house and have them convert it over before you submit for broadcast.
At the end of the day, if the broadcaster accepts your footage, it is broadcast quality in their eyes and you have no problems. For your own peace of mind, though, do make a legalisation pass to make sure your footage will conform when seen on other televisions.

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Broadcast quality uncompressed video to Keynote solution???

World,
I would be really grateful if someone would help. I've done a lot of searching and cant find a definitive answer. I am looking to design a solution for generating the best quality video output through Keynote.
I am used to making slide presentations using Powerpoint/Keynote, with video output from an alternate device. My objective is to output highest quality video of around 5-6 minutes.
Most projectors are 1024x768. (Although I understand many projectors now are WXGA at 1280x800).
If I have a budget I use a professional operator and request SPBeta or a DigiSP, Pal player. In most cases however there is no money to spend and so I use a DVD player. In both cases the video is of course 720x576 (Pal).
I have the video source files as uncompressed broadcast quality, captured with various codecs, eg "Blackmagic 10 Bit, Integer (Big Endian)".
What I want to understand is whether I can compress the video files and run it through Keynote in a way that will not compromise the quality.
1. What quality is achievable?
Using a MacbookPro for output, what quality is achievable, when compared to what I am am familiar with from a) DVD and b) broadcast quality player? Assuming the same decent quality XGA projector.
When I first looked at this some years ago, there were some resolution conflicts using slides and video in Powerpoint.
But it seems to me that things have moved on and I should be able to get a comparable quality video image from the Mac, as compared to using a player. Better even (???). Good as DVD?? Good as a broadcast quality player?? Is this correct?
One of the issues that may have some impact (the impact of which I don't fully grasp) is that normally a video projector will require a change of the input "source" setting from "data" to "video" for the different outputs which presumably changes the resolution from 1024x768 to 720x576. Depending on the "source" setting.
Whereas with the solution I am seeking to plan here, I am channelling a 720x576 resolution video (however it may be compressed) into Keynote, which is outputting it at 1024x768 (to match the data/slides output resolution). That sounds really problematic and a quality killer to me. But perhaps Keynote does this well (???). Perhaps there is a conversation tactic that I can adopt to solve any issues.
So, then, which if any compression should I use, what compression format etc? I don't care about cost (give or take a few hundred) or hard disc space. I am looking to design the best solution. Using a MacbookPro as engine. I am not looking for a solution that will work "OK" or look "pretty good". I am looking to design the best solution to get the best output of the video.
But really I suppose I am trying to understand whether it is time to definitively get rid of the DVD player because I should be able to achieve that quality, definitely, as a minimum ????).
This seems like one of those things that is really easy if you're working in the space all the time. But hard to work out if you're coming at it from the purely "technical research" angle, as I have been.
Any help or advice would be GREATLY appreciated!!
Stephen

What is your source material?
Remember that the Hollywood films are mostly shot on film at 24 fps. The film is then scanned in at an amazingly high resolution. The online H.264 files are compressed from that and at 24 fps.
Let's compare that to DV, for example. Not only are you starting with far fewer pixels, you're working with 60 interlaced fields. That often gets turned into 30 frames per second for the online file.
So you've got two problems here: 1) Fields combining won't be as good looking as starting with a progressive format and 2) by having 30 fps instead of 24 fps you're going to have a larger file size even with the same settings!
Ok, so maybe you're working with HD video. You're better off, but it's still not even close to the same resolution. And unless you're working with some kind of 24p format that you've properly converted, you're still dealing with 30 fps. (Many 24p modes on cameras are actually recorded at 30 fps, and have to be properly converted later.)
I don't know if any of these things apply to you or not, but hopefully it's given you some clues. The bottom line is, this IS a "garbage in/garbage out" situation, even though your video is not "garbage." It just means that you're fighting an uphill battle here by comparing yourself to something that started at a much higher resolution to begin with. That makes a difference, even when everything is shrunk down to the same size in the end. (And that 24 vs. 30 fps thing is a big thing too.)

Windows 8.1, Premiere Pro CC, Intermittant firewire capture problems

While firewire capture works perfectly from time to time, it seems that more often it does not. Specifically, the capture freezes on the first frame present when opening the capture window. Sometimes it just starts working later in the day. Any ideas what conditions could exist to cause firewire capture to work perfectly sometimes but not others? It doesn't make a difference what deck or camera is attached. It is hit or miss with any device.
Thanks,
Bruce B.

Are you using the LEGACY Firewire driver?
http://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/kb/cant-capture-dv-hdv-video.html
-and Windows http://forums.adobe.com/message/4708997

URGENT project settings to use when creating broadcast quality television

Hi,
What project settings do I use to create broadcast quality television in a widescreen format. Note I use a mac book and also I'm in NZ so we use PAL. I'm only using animation and still pictures so haven't got any video to import.
I work for a charity museum and my boss has asked me (last minute) to make the ad as we have no money for a professional studio. I'm used to making videos for exhibits only.
Many thanks
Amy

Use the PAL DV Widescreen preset.
You will also find links to many
free tutorials in the PremiereProPedia that will quickly show you how things are done in Premiere Pro.
Cheers
Eddie
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Hello, I am contemplating buying a video camera, used. Its a PANASONIC DVC PRO AJ– D 200 BROADCAST QUALITY CAMCORDER.

Hello, I am contemplating buying a video camera, used. Its a PANASONIC DVC PRO AJ– D 200 BROADCAST QUALITY CAMCORDER.
I see it uses S-video 4-pin x 1, to transfer from the tape. I do not know if I can do this with my intel imac. Would I need a special cable?
I have no clue. thanks
Ann

Hello, I am contemplating buying a video camera, used. Its a PANASONIC DVC PRO AJ– D 200 BROADCAST QUALITY CAMCORDER.
I see it uses S-video 4-pin x 1, to transfer from the tape. I do not know if I can do this with my intel imac. Would I need a special cable?
I have no clue. thanks
Ann

Broadcast quality output

I've just spent hours chroma keying and I want to be sure of the quality of my output. As this is going to television, it needs to be broadcast quality. I'm I correct in assuming that I should output it as a quicktime movie and not use quicktime conversion? Any help is appreciated.
Thanks

Export it as a QuickTime Movie and it will have the same quality as the original.

By passing Kona for direct firewire capture/control

Greetings
First let me qualify this by saying that it's quite possible I'm missing something very basic in FCP and MAC config and use. I'm not immune to overlooking the obvious or stupid mistakes. So having said that...
I'm running a FCP 5 on a MacPro with a Kona AJA card.
In the course of trying to capture HD video from a Sony HVR-M25U deck I've had problems matching capture res/format and deck control. Tried every possible combo of capture and control preset available.
To make a very long story short, the best I could do was capture 1080i via the "capture now". (Obviously I don't get TC from the tape which will cause problems in future edit sessions.)
In the course of many discussions a possible problem might be that the KONA card is some how preventing direct Firewire capture and control.
So my question is, is there an easy way during boot up to disable the KONA? If there is a way it would (probably) allow a standard firewire ingest.
I hope this makes sense.
I guess what I'm asking for is a way to fool my Mac into thinking there is no KONA without having to physically remove it from the slot.

You don't have to disable the Kona to capture firewire, just select an appropriate easy setup (non Kona)
so you have a Kona LE?
What we usually do with HDV that needs to be repeatable or be used in other systems is bump to HDCam with new code (to avoid TC breaks) then capture the result of that.
If it doesn't need to be repeatable we come in pro res or DVCProHD so editing/ finishing is a frame based codec.
If you have hdmi on the deck and or camera you might want to look at
http://www.convergent-design.com/CDProductsHDConnectMI.htm
or via firewire
http://www.convergent-design.com/CDProductsHDConnectSI.htm
check them out at creative cow read, research, verify

Audio capture - good quality

I understand that the 5G can capture good quality audio now.
How?

No No No they do not. What is it we are trying to do,
convert the IPOD into a PVR. Not enough hardware in
the IPOD to do that. You need what I bought:
http://www.shoparchos.com/product.aspx?sku=2690790&cul
ture=en-US
Nope. I just want to access the hi-res audio capture, NOT video capture etc. The 5G iPod DOES allow hi-res audio input; but no one says how...

App to capture high quality video; clip; bulk export high quality?

Our students capture long videos in a high quality format (.DV), then often want to define clips within the movie, and hand them off to Compressor for compression. Unfortunatly, with the changes in Final Cut Pro X, we can find no viable way of doing that, and we've searched for hours in the app and online. The closet we found was to export stems out of the FCPX timeline using Roles:
http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/export-stems-out-of-your-final-cut-pro-x-timelin e-using-roles/
For simply wanting to define multple clips (no combining of clips involved), this is rather tedious, but moreso, when we use this technique, indeed only the video and audio of the clips we hand off to Compressor is seen and heard, but we end up with video black on both sides of the clip, which greatly lengthens the processing time, not to mention that we then need to trim the dead air afterwards.
We tried using iMovie 11, but unlike one or more previous versions, it is no longer possible to export multiple clips.
We've downloaded Adobe Premiere, and will be testing this.
Is there an OS X app that can capture high quality (.DV?) video/audio, make clips, then bulk export to .DV on disk, that doesn't cost over $500?

Thank you, I'm exporting to DV now to try that out.
I was choppy at my explanation, so let me go a little further. Maybe I do just use a DVD player to play this - but, let me explain further - maybe I'm not doing something right in creating the DVD.
I 'shared' from iMovie to iDvd - and burnt right to a DVD. Again, the movie was shaky on the computer. We played it on a DVD player, still a little shaky.. but not near as noticable - it looked pretty good. BUT - this is when the dvd stopped. I hit play, and it picked up right where it left off. I also was skipping through chapters, and it stopped all of the sudden. I had to go back to the main menu to start over. This was all done on a dvd player. Eventually, we played the rest of the video and it went ok. But, something tells me there might be a glitch in the DVD I created.... ?
Someone mentioned they had problems when exporting/burning right to dvd from iMovieHD. They said they exported out, then dragged the file into iDVD.. is that an option - if so, how would I go about doing that?

Using Compressor for broadcast quality?

I apologize for posting this question here, but I did a search and found in one thread that nobody goes to the Compressor forum and they all post here.
Are there any online tutorials on what the best steps are to preparing a broadcast safe MPEG2 file? There are so many options , and I honestly have not used this part of FCP much. We've got a computer playback system now and it's something I am going to utilize more often now.
Or if anybody reading this has a suggestion to steps I could take I'd appreciate it greatly.
Thanks for any help

From what I can gather, it won't be as easy as creating a file with Compressor. For starters, you will probably need to "mux" (that is, mix the video and audio together) so this automatic system will play the program when you provide it to the server. This will need to be done in a program like DVD Studio Pro. Below are some VERY BASIC step-by-step instructions. If they don't make sense, pull out your manuals and start reading. I've left out explanations and alternatives as time and space doesn't allow for everything. That's why they have manuals. But here goes otherwise:
Export the final FCP timeline out as a Quicktime file. You can do this as a self contained movie but it's faster if you don't. Place the resulting file where you can readily find it. (Note: you can also export directly from FCP to Compressor. This is a long way to do it, as FCP has to first encode it out to Compressor.)
Open Compressor and drag your new QT file into the Batch window. Look over to your right in the same Batch window under Settings and using the pull-down menus, choose something like "MPEG-2 60 min High Quality Encode". Choose "All" in this situation because you'll want to go ahead and encode your audio too. You should see two entries: one for audio and one for video. Note the Destination tab (where the file will end up). In this regard, I suggest you use the pulldown menu and choose Source. This will place the resulting file(s) in the same location as the QT file. Click Submit to begin encoding and sit back, have some iced tea and wait a while.
When it's done, open up DVD Studio Pro. (If you don't have Studio Pro, then you're really stuck because -- again-- you have to provide it as a format that the player, be it server-based system or disc based, can read). But let's assume you have DVD Studio Pro and when it opens, import up the two files into your Assets (bottom left corner). When they import, drag the video (the one with the .m2v suffix) over into the Tracks timeline. Since they both have the same name, but different suffix, the audio file should follow over and sync up with the video. You can test it by playing the Timeline. Now go to the top left hand corner of DVD SP and click on the disc icon within the By Type window. Over on the right of the interface, in the Disc window, you'll see the name of your disc (probably Untitled) and under it, a pulldown menu again. Holding it down, choose Track 1. Save your project under a name, like the name of your video. Click on the little hammer, or Build, icon near the top middle of the DVD SP interface. You'll be asked where to place the results. Create a new folder and name it-- and decide where it will be placed. Click Build and sit back. This too takes a while. When done, you can upload the resulting folder (with the two folders that will be inside labled VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS) to your server. How your "juke box" player system will locate your file is beyond me but I'm sure there is a way to make it locate the folder. When it does, there are instructions written in the DVD standard so the player can play the program.
Once again: this a very basic explanation!! But you didn't really ask for details. If you get stuck, try some of the tutorials in FCP/Compressor and DVD Studio Pro. Good luck!
Oh yeah, as the others have written, "broadcast quality" is a very loosely based term these days. When providing programs to media outlets as "DVD quality", it usually means as good as a quality you can get with the amount of space on a DVD. This all depend on your bit rate and the length of your video. There are bitrate calculators out there that can certainly help!
http://www.videohelp.com/calc.htm
PowerMac G4 (Mirrored Door) Mac OS X (10.4.8) Extra Media Drive, 400 Gig External LaCie

Mac + FCS 2 + SONY HDR Z1 for broadcast quality?

Can I get the broadcast quality US TV channels (PBS, Discovery, Nat Geo...) are asking for if I shoot a documentary with a SONY HDR Z1, edit and the post production in FCS 2 ? I also need to make a Blu Ray DVD, is it OK?
Thanks.

hey there paoloj,
it can depend on the context-- POV & Independent Lens are shows on PBS that may consider your doc as they are for indies shooting intimate, "closer look" stories generally using non-intrusive means. the same may apply for a similarly styled show on Discovery. it would be best to check out the requirements for submission to POV & Independent Lens or anything you're interested in. several years ago(pre-DV) there was a doc on PBS shot on Hi-8, the standard then was Beta SP--i believe it was "Reflections On A Spring Roll".
good luck.

Broadcast Quality Commercials

Pardon the newbie question, but it has been 20 years since I produced commercials. I have played with iMovie and FCE over the last several years, but now am looking at getting back into video production. With FCE 4, can I:
1) Use manufacturer-supplied video tracks/commercials supplied on beta, dub to a mini-DV cassette, import into FCE 4?
2) Produce/export a broadcast quality master of the assembled commercial with FCE 4?
3) Export the final commercial to the miniDV recorder and supply to broadcaster and expect good quality?
Thanks for the input.

I think I get what you mean. Back when I was head of an ad agency in the '80's, I taught electronic publishing and set up a lot of agencies, printers, newspapers, etc. While early gen electronic publishing had its limitations, when used within those limitations, you could produce stunning material. However, in the hands of untalented, untrained people, it did end up turing out a lot of cr*p (and still does!).
My main point in this thread was, is it worth my time learning FCE4 (given that it will take reading yours and other books, etc.), a lot of playing, trial and error? If in the end I can achieve broadcast quality, great. I just didn't want to go down the path if in the end it still looked like home video.
By the way, I used to have a partner in the yacht business named Wolsky.
Thanks for the input. Look forward to reading your book.

Mpeg2 broadcast quality

Hi,
I would like to export Mpeg2 TV broadcast quality files directly from Final Cut. We produce commercials and want to stop encoding files from beta tapes.
The file quality we need is Mpeg2 15-18Mb (4:3 ratio, 4.2.0 or 4.2.2).
Any idea if this can be achieved with compressor or another utility?
Thanks,
Ariel
G5 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

You could try with BitVice(http://www.innobits.com/). I have never used it but it's a very popular (not free) MPEG2 encoder for Mac.
Alberto

Capture DVD quality video

Greetings, I have a two hour show on DV tape. I want to capture it using Final Cut Pro 5 and output it to DVD Studio Pro. Could someone tell me what the best capture setting is for this or do I have to capture using Firewire NTSC. I'm trying to conserve space on a hard drive.
thanks in Advance
g5 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

What format did you shoot in? I take it as DV NTSC.
Theres no way to try an conserve disk space by capturing with a different format.
I would do this if I was trying to conserve disk space.
Capture my footage normally, with my presets set.
Edit my sequences, and export using compressor.
In Compressor I would choose the setting:
"DVD: Best Quality 120 Minutes 4:3" (or 16:9 if that's what you want.)
Using both the AIFF audio and the Dolby audio.
The files compressor makes are smaller.
Then delete your captured files.
BP

HDV Firewire capture....audio monitoring

I came across this post while searching the forum:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7212884&#7212884
Has anyone found a solution to this problem of being forced to listen to the audio when capturing HDV over FireWire. I really need to work on another app and listen to audio and I don't want to listen to what is importing. Thanks in advance for any help.

The big plus with HDMI is an all digital uncompressed signal in a full raster 1920x1080 resolution 4:2:2 color space hardware conversion into the capture card. It is my opinion that the quality is the best it will ever be. Yes you can transcode to Pro Rez given you have an Intel unit or quad G5 to keep up with the software conversion. Yes by transcoding you will avoid HDV conforming. It is well known that converting to an all i-frame codec like DVC Pro HD or Pro Rez is a great way to work from HDV sources. And yes you can either monitor HDV or any other HD format with this card.
Good Luck
Z1

Is firewire capture broadcast quality?

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