XLH1 24P to HDCAM which route?
 

Has anyone tried mastering XLH1 HDV 24P material to HDCAM?

Would it be better to once export the file to uncompressed then use Decklink HD's HDSDI to HDCAM? Or would it be the same directly outputting HDV 24P material to HDCAM via HDSDI?

Also, would HDCAM record okay if the timeline is set to handle superwhite?

Kaku I'm not 100% on this but I'll try and answer as best I can.

If you're trying to get 24psf (I.E. you're using the f series of HDCAM decks or SRW or that 2000 deck) then youneed to use the decklink to take your 24 frame timeline to send out to the hd-sdi deck. If you're doing 60i you cna jsut use the output of the camera.

Anyone else got better input?

I would make a new timeline and output UC 10Bit HDSDI.
Using superwhite with FCP combined with any lossy codec
such as HDCAM will clip your whites. It is a Quictime
conversion problem. So just stick with an uncompressed timeline.

Thanks Nick for trying anyway, yeh the deck is 2000, but my question was more like the quality thing just as Will nailed that issue. Thanks bunch tho.

Will, thanks. That is the answer I wanted.
Do you think exporting HDV timeline to uncompressed won't be good? Would it have to be 10bit instead of 8bit?

Thank God the ATTO SAS/SATAII RAID card with 8 barracuda drives in the Enhanced Tech 8 bay chassis is running 500MB/sec read/write if I had to use 10bit.

just drop the hdv timeline in a 10bit sequence and render.
or export a qt reference movie and drop it in.

that raid should work fine. we capture/playback 10bit 1080i/p with a 5 drive SATA.

I got the ATTO ExpressSAS R380 and it is great. The connectors are so much better and professional than eSATA solutions.

I will do the testing with the 10bit, thanks Will.

I will post HDCAM to FCP at uncompressed clip to share maybe. If you folks want to see it.

FCP HDV artifacts? or XL H1 compression artifacts?
 

Will,

I took a closer look to the XL H1 project that I'm helping to master to HDCAM, but I see moving grains and some compression artifacts on the clips while monitoring the signal throught the input/output route (without recording). The camera work is not that busy neither.

Would by capturing HDV as HDV in the FCP be lower than AIC and ending up having more compressions?

We forwarded the HDCAM tape which contains the output from XL H1 via Decklink HD Extreme's HDSDI this week and the lab told us it was satisfactory.
Since it was regular HDCAM (3:1:1) and it wasn't HDCAM SR (4:2:2), we tested to see if lab says okay with 8 bit output.

We are going to try with mastering on HDCAM SR a couple of weeks from now.
I will let you folks know how the result would be. In that case, I will prepare the timeline with 10bit format.

update on XL H1/HDCAM/Film route
 

I just got note from the filmmaker that they checked the outcome of the XL H1 shot movie on film and everybody was satisfied!

So, the flow was like following;

The shot the movie with three XL H1s, using all usual film making rigs.
Edit the footage on Final Cut Pro, monitoring with Matrox MXO and Eizo S2411W (connected via DVI). Then copied the FCP project data on Maxtor One Touch III firewire drive and brought it to us, Musetex. At our studio, we used Mac Pro 8 Core/FCP/Blackmagic Decklink HD Extreme/ATTO SAS RAID Adaptor R380 with 8 Barracuda 10 drives and master the project timelines to HDCAM (8bit 4:2:2).

The lab probably took it to 10bit (4:4:4) to do the color correction then to 35 mm film.

They reviewed it on reagular theater size screen and the cats were satisfied!

Thank you all for the help.

Congratulations.

Will there be a website for the film?

I would think so, the film should be coming in Nov., but features one of the most popular actor in Japan, Joe Odagiri.
I will let you know more about it when they are available.

Hi, more update.

Today, I got a call from the director person at the lab and they were all satisfied with the quality from XL H1 to blackmagic decklink HD Extreme to HDCAM. They said what got on HDCAM look pretty much identical to what was on XL H1. Now they are doing some more editing in the studio with effects and color correction.

I will make a report when I go to see the premiere show.

The film I helped with members help here just got started showing at theaters all over Japan.

Here's the link for the details in English.
http://stylejam.co.jp/english/movie/tenten.html

Thank you for your help.

Kaku, have you heard any news in Japan about the XL-H1 being updated?XL-H2 maybe!

Darrell
FIRST CINEMA PICTURES

Nope, not that I know of. Canon had a very conservative booth at InterBEE this year.