I've got my documentary edited on FCP, with PAL DV from a Canon XL1 footage, some effects and constant subtitling. It's been invited to the MarDelPlata Intl. Film Fest where they ask for a BetaSP copy. My sequences are PAL DV, but I could easily change them to something else. I have already done some PAL DVcam mastering and it would be easy to take such master to dub to BetaSP. But I wonder if there's another way to go that would improve quality. I imagine some kind of sequence setting to make a QT movie and take it with a hardisk to a copy house and go straight to BetaSP. ???

It's a shame they don't give you the option of DVD or DigiBeta, both of which would be better, much better, quality than SP. Easiest thing to do is to get a dub made from your DVCAM master to SP. It's not worth the money for you to try and get a better quality output, really.

Graeme

Graeme,
I agree DigiBeta is much better than BetaSP, but I think BetaSP is better than DVD, at least to my eye. I actually want to master DigiBeta also. How should I get it out of FCP for DigiBeta?

Well, betaSP has about 75% of the resolution of DVD, and it's softness can hide details. If you're DVD is not looking better than BetaSP, I'd investigate a better DVD MPEG2 compression software.

For output to DigiBeta, get a decklink or AJA card or I/O. You need a fast-ish hard drive for uncompressed SD.

Graeme

I'll go to some post house to master to DigiBeta, but I have to take some form of QT movie on a hardisk. My question is what type of QT movie should I make to get the best out of my subtitled PAL DV material.

In order of bestness:

10-bit uncompressed
8bit uncompressed
Photojpeg 75%

Dupe your timeline, change the compression to the above, re- render and export.

Graeme

thanks Graeme.