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Old December 21st, 2007, 11:48 AM   #1
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How to Convert .AVI Video to Beta?

Hi everyone,

I know this may be the wrong forum, but I’ve got a question about beta conversion. I recently finished a wildlife documentary and am planning on entering it in the International Wildlife Film Festival, which is held in Missoula each year. Anyhow, on the entry form, it says that if my video is selected for public screenings, they require a: NTSC Beta, BetaSP, or DigiBeta copy of my project. I’ve got my documentary rendered as an .AVI file and I’ve also made image files with Adobe Encore DVD 1.5 but I’m not sure on what the best way is to get my video onto Beta tape or what Beta format I should use. I was thinking Beta equipment’s probably expensive, so I might have to rent something or have some professional place do the conversion for me. I read somewhere that it may be possible to do the conversion with a mini-DV tape. Since I have Vegas 6.0, dubbing one wouldn’t be a problem. Anyway, if anybody has any input, let me know. I basically just want to know the precise names of equipment I could buy or the types of companies I’d have to go to for a conversion. I’m sort of in the dark.

Thanks,
Tristan Howard
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Old December 21st, 2007, 01:05 PM   #2
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Unlike mini-DV, Beta SP is an analog format, requiring component video for the highest quality transfer. Your options are to purchase a video card with component output for your editing system, then rent or purchase a deck and necessary cabling, or save a whole ton of cash and have someone else handle the transfer for you. Check around with area video production facilities, and you might get lucky. Otherwise, you might need to ship off your AVI file to an equipped transfer facility (probably on an external hard drive). Crawford in Atlanta is one example, but there are certainly many other choices all over the country.

Unless you're going to be doing an awful lot of dubs to Beta (any flavor), there's not really much point in purchasing (and housing) that kind of gear. It's standard definition, and dying a slow death.
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Old December 21st, 2007, 03:00 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric Darling View Post

Unless you're going to be doing an awful lot of dubs to Beta (any flavor), there's not really much point in purchasing (and housing) that kind of gear. It's standard definition, and dying a slow death.
I'm in need of the same service. Eric is right, it *is* dying, Sony doesn't even manufacture Beta decks any more, BUT, Beta SP is going to be with us for a long time to come--particularly in developing countries where HD is still a pipe dream.

Q: Anyone know a ballpark figure for dubbing out a 30 minute show in BetaSP from a portable hard drive?
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Old December 21st, 2007, 05:11 PM   #4
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The prices will be somewhat variable depending on who you use. In our shop, it goes like this for a 30 minute or less Beta SP dub from a finished digital master movie (AVI or QuickTime at DV or D1 resolution):
Tape stock: $25
Duplication: $50
Shipping - depends on method and zip code
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Old December 22nd, 2007, 01:00 AM   #5
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Well, there ya go....send it to Eric!
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Old December 22nd, 2007, 10:48 AM   #6
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Hey everybody,

Thanks for the info. I'll try to find a place that a does a conversion to beta.

-Tristan
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Old December 22nd, 2007, 12:52 PM   #7
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you didn't like Eric's offer then? For what it's worth, here in the UK your dollar price would be same figures but with a pound sign in front - about double that!

I've not had one Bets SP enquiry in a year - making the stock and equipment rather a waste of space. I just sold lots of the tape stock on eBay - and it made very little.
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Old December 22nd, 2007, 04:18 PM   #8
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Yeah, what Eric was offering seemed to be pretty reasonable. I would take him up on that if he is offering, Tristan.
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Old December 29th, 2007, 11:27 AM   #9
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Well, I haven’t been successful in finding place near me in California that does conversion to Beta. Anyway, I figure I’ll try to go with what Eric is offering. I’m assuming http://www.crawford.com/ is the place to go, as I think Eric was referring to Crawford Communications. They look like a pretty high-tech outfit. I figure I’ll e-mail them and see just how I should go about getting my materials to them. Since my video’s almost an hour long, I figure tape stock should be about $50 and duplication should be about $100. Correct me if I’m wrong. Anyway, I figure I’ll send in my AVI file on a 500 GB Seagate eSATA external hard drive.

At any rate, I didn’t dislike Eric’s offer. I was just hoping I could find someplace closer to where I live. I really don’t know much about Beta converting. Anyway, I appreciate everybody’s input on this thread. If I can get my conversion done, I’ll let you know how it works out.
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Old January 6th, 2008, 07:12 PM   #10
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I got my hard drive sent off to Crawford Communications recently. Via e-mail, I corresponded with somebody named Chip Stephenson and for my hour-long video, it's costing $340. So much for the $150 estimate. Anyhow, there's another quote for people.
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Old January 6th, 2008, 09:29 PM   #11
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Tristan, I hope you didn't think I was quoting on behalf of anyone other than myself. I figured that was clear, but hey, caveat emptor.
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Old January 7th, 2008, 01:21 PM   #12
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I remember you said the prices would be variable depending on who you use. Anyway, I wasn't that surprised and I can handle the price, so it's not really a problem.
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Old January 7th, 2008, 03:16 PM   #13
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HI

We charge $80 flat for hard drive playback to just about every format + cost of dubs. We support betasp, digibeta, dvcam, dvcpro, dvcprohd and hdv.

Chuck

www.dvdpa.com
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Old January 10th, 2008, 04:14 PM   #14
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I got my hard drive back with my beta tape in the mail yesterday. Everything seems to be okay. Still, I don't have any devices to test a beta tape. But, if a broadcaster ever needs a beta tape of my project, I should be set. Anyhow, Crawford seems to be an okay place to deal with. Stuff was done relatively quickly and professionally.
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Old January 13th, 2008, 03:44 AM   #15
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Originally Posted by Paul R Johnson View Post
you didn't like Eric's offer then? For what it's worth, here in the UK your dollar price would be same figures but with a pound sign in front - about double that!

I've not had one Bets SP enquiry in a year - making the stock and equipment rather a waste of space. I just sold lots of the tape stock on eBay - and it made very little.
Europe is different than the U.S., I don't know why. I think Europe actually declared betacam sp a non eco friendly format and that pretty much killed the format a few years ago.

However, the betacam sp format has been given a bad name by all the digiheads who didn't know great it can be. As far as acquistion goes, I don't recommend betacam sp for shooting in tight quarters or busy environments. However, for standard def it is a terrific format for doing interviews with.

Betacam SP is an excellent playback format for film festivals for too many reasons to list. All I can tell you is I have yet to be at a DV festival that wasn't beseeched by a delay because they were using DV as the projection format, the kind of delays and hiccups that just don't happen with the betacam sp gear and tape format.

The Mac Mini has turned out to be an amazing device for taking anything it can play back as a computer file and playing it back in standard def via the built in computer to analog convertor port. (although you do have to buy an aftermarket mac connector for 20 bucks). The only gotcha may be is whether or not it fills the frame entirely. Although one can do a slight zoom in if necessary.

However, if you can just do a layback to mini-dv and then have that "bumped" to betacam sp, you will be in good shape. I strongly recommend putting at least one minute of color bars and tone at the head of your dv tape.

I would suggest 30 seconds of black, one minute of SMPTE COLOR BARS WITH PLUGE, 30 more seconds of black, then program starts on hour one.

Ask for a straight across copy from your DV copy to the betacam sp format, preferably R-Y, B-Y, Y, component signal straight across with matching time-code if possible.

The trickiest aspect is can you actually make the picture and audio content match your color bars video and audio levels. MOST people do not match them and basically the copy comes out wrong as the duplicator will use the color bars and tone as a reference that unfortunately doesn't actually correspond to the program content.

Not the duplicators fault either.
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