Best Process For Mastering
 

What is the best method for mastering commercials or music videos when mastering for national tv? Just wanted to know what everyone else does for mastering purposes to get that rich color on tv spots. When I edit and preview on my Panasonic BT-LH1700W monitor I like the result, but that does not transfer to the masters I send out to the stations airing the spots or the master I send out to the record companies for distribution. I usually output to DVCPro from my AJA Kona Card LHE from a Final Cut Pro Timeline. My Source video is HDV from a Canon XL-H1 on a DVCPROHD108060i timeline. When I do a realtime downconvert from my 1080i timeline to my DVCPro deck, I lose color in the transfer. I have noticed that when I export a quicktime movie from my FCP timeline and resize in after effects to a 720x480, then drop it into a FCP 720x480 timeline and output to the same DVCPro deck, the color is alot better. I know DVCPro is not the best quality for mastering but what can I do if I do not have a beta deck. Can I send a quicktime movie to a transfer house and get a good quality beta transfer or is it the same as outputing to DVCPro and taking it to my local transfer house for a beta transfer?

Thank you,
Baldo Lopez
delRio Advertising,McAllen,Tx.