Video Salad
Posted by Dylan in High Definition, Video/TV on June 26th, 2009
In days gone by there was two types of video - PAL and NTSC. That was it. There were different tapes, but the video that came out was basically all the same. Any machine with the right plugs could plug into any other.
High Defininition has changed that… What could have been an opportunity to do away with the confusion and frustrations between PAL and NTSC instead has achieved the exact opposite. In fact recently Scott from Editblog queried on Twitter, “Does anyone have a link to a list of all of the various HD formats and frame rates out there?” - No, I don’t think anyone does. I’ve certainly never seen one. So I’m going to attempt to make one… There will be omissions - all the video formats and framerates*:
Standard Definition
- PAL
Framerates: 25 fps
Rasters: 720×576 (non-square pixels)
Dominance: Upper Field (Lower Field in DV formats) - NTSC
Framerates: 29.97 fps
Rasters: 720×480 & 720×486 (non-square pixels)
Dominance: Lower Field
Notes: 480-line in DV formats.
High Definition
All HD formats are upper-field dominant. For the formats below I will list their nominal specifications, and make notes to qualify those. These are only the base modes, some formats are capable of over- or under-cranking to produce different recorded framerates.
- DVCPRO HD
Modes: 720p23.98, 720p25, 720p29.97, 720p50, 720p59.94, 1080i50, 1080i59.94, 1080p23.98, 1080p25, 1080p29.97
Notes: In DVCPRO HD 720 modes are rasterised at 960×720. In 1080 the raster is 1280×1080 for 60Hz modes, and 1440×1080 for 50Hz modes. Video is sampled at 4:2:2. - HDCAM
Modes: 1035i59.94, 1080i50, 1080i59.94, 1080i60, 1080p23.98, 1080p24, 1080p25, 1080p29.97, 1080p30
Notes: Raster size is 1440×1080 with 3:1:1 sampling. Progressive formats are actually “PsF” - a progressive image in an interlaced signal. - HDCAM SR
Modes: 1080i50, 1080i59.94, 1080i60, 1080p23.98, 1080p24, 1080p25, 1080p29.97, 1080p30, 720p59.94
Notes: Raster is 1920×1080 for 1080 modes, with either 4:2:2 colour difference sampling, or full 4:4:4 RGB sampling. - XDCAM HD
Modes: 1080i50, 1080i59.94, 1080p23.98, 1080p25, 1080p29.97, 720p50, 720p59.94
Notes: Raster in HD422 variant is 1920×1080, otherwise it is 1440×1080. 720 is only available in HD422 variant. Sampling is 4:2:0 in XDCAM HD, and 4:2:2 in XDCAM HD 422 - XDCAM EX
Modes: 1080i50, 1080i59.94, 1080p23.98, 1080p25, 1080p29.97, 72op23.98, 720p25, 720p29.97, 720p50, 720p29.97
Notes: Raster in HQ mode is 1920×1080, in SP mode it is 1440×1080. Sampling is 4:2:0 - HDV
Modes: 1080i50, 1080i59.94, 1080p23.98, 1080p25, 1080p29.97, 720p23.98, 720p25, 720p29.97, 720p50, 720p59.94
Notes: Raster in 1080 is 1440×1080, 4:2:0 sampling. 720 modes are only available in HDV Mode 2, which is incompatible with the 1080-version, Mode 1. - AVCHD
Modes: 1080i50, 1080i59.94, 1080p23.98, 1080p25, 1080p29.97, 720p23.98, 720p50, 720p60
Notes: Raster can be 1920×1080 or 1440×1080 depending on implementation, sampling is 4:2:0. The format was jointly developed by Sony and Panasonic, but their implementations are incompatible with one another. - AVC-INTRA
Modes: 1080i50, 1080i59.94, 1080p23.98, 1080p25, 1080p29.97, 720p23.98, 720p25, 720p29.97, 720p50, 720p59.97
Notes: 1080 raster is 1440×1080, 720 raster is 920×720, in 50Mb/s mode, with 4:2:0 sampling. In 100Mb/s mode they are full raster 4:2:2.
Summary
Where I haven’t mentioned a raster size specifically (usually for 720 modes) I believe they are full-raster.
At a fundamental level the following ‘baseband’ modes are available:
1080 Interlaced at 50Hz and 59.94Hz (providing 25 and 29.97fps).
1080 Progressive at 23.98, 25, 29.97, 50 and 59.94 fps.
720 Progressive at 23.98, 25, 29.97, 50 and 59.94 fps. Technically the 25 and 29.97 modes are not real modes and actually frame double into 50 and 59.94 modes typically.
HDCAM also implements a 1035 line mode.
Within these formats there are some variants also. DVCPRO HD can be a tricky case, with it’s Varicam system recording all modes in 59.94/60Hz modes.
Also, while I have specifically outlined it above, some formats also implement ’round number’ modes for the NTSC-rates (so 24, 30 and 60 instead of 23.98, 29.97 and 59.94).
There will be mistakes and ommisions in the above list, as it’s incredibly difficult to find accurate details on the capabilities of each format.
I count 73 variations in my list above, which doesn’t take into account formats where the same mode has multiple implementations with different characteristics (such as XDCAM EX’s SP and HQ settings).
48HOURS Finals Clip
Posted by in General Ramblings on May 26th, 2009
Fractured Radius, as the 2008 Auckland winner, created a special video to play at the 48HOURS Auckland finals. It is our guide to the competition’s trophy - The Apee
Horses for Courses - Avid vs. FCP
I am an Avid editor really. I know Avid, I use it every day and I am totally at home with it. But I’m not afraid of FCP, I can operate it, feel pretty comfortable with it, but it’s not my ’safe place’ and I’m not a quick or effective.
But one big issue for me, not being as familiar with FCP as I am with Avid Media Composer, is where are the strengths and weaknesses of each system. What jobs suit which system best. So I’m appealing for feedback from those better acquainted with the two systems.
Avid editors who’ve switched to FCP, or vice versa, or even better people who are using both systems actively.
Supposing you have both Avid Media Composer and Apple Final Cut Pro at your disposal, cost is not a factor, what jobs end up in what system? And why?
My overall impressions are that FCP is strongest overall in situations where you’re doing it all in one, capture, edit, finish and output. While Avid is much stronger for offline/online workflows. Also, I consider Avid a much stronger contender for multi-editor networked work, with Unity. While FCP requires a very careful approach in the same situation to avoid media management problems.
Where are the real traps? Anything that you think should be totally avoided in one system or another?
Have you shifted a regular job from one system to another? Why? What have been the pros and cons of that shift?
I’m keen to hear comments about this, but I’m not really interested in any comments that can’t at the least acknowledge that both systems have genuine strengths and benefits. Fan-boys need not apply. Would be good to know the type of work you’re doing, and what version or generation of each system you’re most familar with (ie. are you making your judgements based on Xpress DV from 2004?)
XDCAM EX Workflow in Avid
Posted by in Avid, High Definition, Video/TV on February 23rd, 2009
I’m a fan of XDCAM EX. I like the format and think it offers great quality given it’s bitrate and cost. The cameras are good the SxS media is pretty decent. I have my general reservations and concerns about Solid-State recording, but assuming you have a reasonable process for managing backups you should be fine.
When EX first came out there was no EX support. It was added in Media Composer 3.0.5 I believe. Shortly after that happened Sony released version 2 of their Clip Browser software which had a ‘Avid AAF’ export function that made it a lot easier to get EX footage into Media Composer. Avid even posted a tutorial about the process.
Essentially this feature unwraps the MP4 XDCAM EX files and re-wraps them as MXF Op-Atom (Avid’s mediafile container) and places those files directly into one of Avid’s media directories (such as F:\Avid MediaFiles\MXF\2) and then creates an AAF file that contains a clip describing that shot (basically the easiest way to get the shots into a bin). This process is simple and reasonably quick and works fine… Or so I thought.
What is lacking in this process in Metadata control. When Clip Browser generates the MXF files it’s creating files that lack some of the metadata that Avid would normally use to relink a clip to media. Most obviously there is no Source or Disc Label associated with any of these clips. What this means is that Avid cannot relink this media. So if the Avid MXF file you create from Clip Browser is lost at all it cannot be relinked. Even going back to Clip Browser and re-exporting the same clip or clips to the same media directory will not create media that Avid will reassociate with existing clips or sequences.
Basically if you import clips this way you are absolutely locked in to those specific media files. No backup short of storing the actual files as they are created in the Avid MediaFiles directory will allow a recovery or relink.
The easiest way to avoid this problem is actually to use the older process. Using Clip Browsers ‘MXF for NLE’ export setting. This will create OP-1A MXF files that you can then import into Media Composer (the Avid will rewrap them as OP-Atom and relocate them to it’s media directory). It is a slower process, but as it’s a standard import process all the necessary Metadata will be stored with the clips to allow a Batch Import later.
Ideally this will soon not be necessary if Avid incorporates EX import directly into Media Composer, cutting out the Clip Browser middle-man.
Dylan’s Templater
Because I needed something to do the job, and I’ve been rediscovering Windows application programming, I created a simple application to make it easy to create Avid project templates.
It’s a pretty simplistic application, but seems to do the job, there’s more detail on the Dylan’s Templater page (linked above).