FYI: Video Demo of Film workflow and Liquid 7.x

[Steve Mullen]

Originally Posted by Stephen L. Noe

True the casual user may not ever want to know about these type of things. However, for the purposes of this community that may be using the ProHD solution for film transfer, knowledge of the scaling is relevant.

I agee that the pro needs to know ALL this. But:

1) the pro cannot learn this because it is undocumented.

2) Avid is not aiming Liquid at this group. It has Composer for this audience!

This is a conflict I see no EZ solution to.

Moreover, without a VBR DVD encoder, folks will not use Liquid to edit HD with the goal of going to DVD. Since that it the primary path for HDV shooters, by definition, Liquid can NOT be optimal for the very customers who Avid is aiming it for. And, the minute Avid uses Sonic (as they have suggested for making Bluray DVDs) they lose the integrated nature of Liquid.

And here, I part company with Jack -- if the DVD encoder were fixed and the power tools documented -- it is the ability to stay in one application that is so attractive to me.

In the next series of HDV@Work I'm going to document my HDV workflows.

But, who is going to document the 3 or 4 different color correctors? And, 3-4 different keyers? (By the way, the Green Screen chroma-key is great!)

One of the CC is powerful, but I can't even find the Black Level and While Level controls. Why do I want to see my colorspace in a cube? There are no settings for 709 colorspace, only 601 colorspace. In short, as Jack says, IF one has weeks to learn Liquid, you are all set. That's why there needs to be an "HDV Tutorial for Liquid."

Avid claims HDV is documented, but that is so damn Avid. Yes, HDV I/O is documented, but not the WORKFLOW. And, after reading Stephen's posts I doubt they have anyone inhouse who could write what they need. Avid should hire Stephen to write the tutorial.

[Jack Walker]

Originally Posted by Steve Mullen

And here, I part company with Jack -- if the DVD encoder were fixed and the power tools documented -- it is the ability to stay in one application that is so attractive to me.

I agree that if the encoder were fixed, staying in the application would be very advantageous. The reason I went to Procoder was specifically the below par results I got from the Liquid encoder (going back to 5.5, but I don't think there's been any improvement).

On the color correcting front, the big color corrector with the waveform monitor doesn't have keyframing. One of the other color correctors has keyframing, but not waveform.

I just color corrected ten hours of old beta tapes that had been originally corrected "on the fly" it appears, by different people with different equipment settings. Since the original video had been shot by the same person, in the same studio with the same settings, it would have been easy to make correctikons by looking at the waveform and setting keyframes and clicking various presets (this was studio audience, host, guests setups).

However, since the fancy colorcorrector, with the waveform was added to Liquid but not integrated, I ended up having to open the new colorcorrector, check the monitor, close it, go to the basic color corrector set keyframes and set the values, go back to the other one, etc. etc. I can put a lot of cuts in and colorcorect using different correctors as needed (which I did), but there were a lot of transitions where the correction had to change over time, necessitating key frames.

On the good side, the different correctors gave identical results with identical settings, but how to set the settings varied, and the new color corrector really needs keyframes.

In many cases, specific little problems are not significant for hobby projects... but for professional projects, this issues all add up adding considerably to editing time and frustration.

The all-in-one app is very attractive for many projects. However, the results need to be professional throughout the workflow. Superb first generation editing becomes a moot point when subjected to subpar encoding and amateurish DVD authoring.

[Steve Mullen]

Originally Posted by Jack Walker

I agree that if the encoder were fixed, staying in the application would be very advantageous. The reason I went to Procoder was specifically the below par results I got from the Liquid encoder (going back to 5.5, but I don't think there's been any improvement).

EDIUS 4 BROADCAST ARRIVES NEXT WEEK

On the color correcting front, the big color corrector with the waveform monitor doesn't have keyframing. One of the other color correctors has keyframing, but not waveform.

HADN'T NOTICED I SO BUSY FIGURING-OUT THE CONTROLS!

However, since the fancy colorcorrector, with the waveform was added to Liquid but not integrated, ...

I THINK YOU'VE HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD. GREAT FUNCTIONS -- NO INTEGRATION. OFTEN THIS HAPPENS WHEN THE ORIGINAL CODERS ARE NOT PRESENT AND NO ONE DARES OPEN THE OLD CODE.

On the good side, ...

THERE ARE SO MANY GOOD SIDES. I JUST ADDED 5.1 AUDIO TO A PROJECT IN AN HOUR. REALLY FEEL A TUTORIAL IS ALL THAT'S NEEDED.