DV Specs for Scoring

[westla]

I'm finally moving to firewire video (Canopus) for scoring films. My old PCI card died a few months ago, and I have a new film coming in the door this week.

My question to other film/tv composers who are using the Canopus ADVC 100/110 for their video is:

What do you ask for in terms of specs from the editor.

Previously I asked for QT files broken into reels. But the Canopus doesen't output QT movies.

So do you ask for .dv files? (is there a certain spec you ask for)

Or, do you just get QT movies and convert them into .dv yourself using QT Pro, or some other program.

Thanks

[m2]

I have them generate a QT. Usually any flavor of '.mov' will do. Then, Using QuickTime Pro [29.92 from Apple] and I convert the movie file to a .dv stream. The .dv file works great with the ADV 100 box. You could have the editor generate the .dv files as well but I have had some mixed results with that in the past.

Note that the .dv has a tendancy to be a frame or 2 behind on play back trough FW. You can compare your sync by switching the playback off of FW to see the JPEG on the Mac screen to check for offset,

QuickTIme Pro can be downloaded from Apple in about 15 mins - what with all the stuff they ask you to fill out. The download is really just a key I believe to the software that is already present with OSX versions of QT.

Good luck with your film!

[westla]

Now here's a dumb question (maybe):

Does it matter how they compress the QT movie. If I'm going to convert it to a .dv movie will it be the same size?

ie. if movie A is a 1gb QT movie

and movie B they compress more and is a 500mb QT movie

when I convert them to .dv will there be any size difference?

[dix]

.dv files are just over 200mb a minute, w/o sound, regardless of what the original file's size was.

[westla]

thought so .. thanks

[westla]

Now when you say "without sound" ... how do you use this for scoring to picture? Where do you get the dialogue and foly sound from?

[m2]

You would get your dialog from the editor as well as either an OMF or a comped track that is mono or stereo. You I/P that track to your DP session and sync it with TC spotting and/or head and tail pops.

[westla]

thanks m2 ....

man I miss my DC30+ already. It was great when the card could handle the audio and the video.

[m2]

Yeah I know. I feel the same way about the Fuse cardS I have laying in the closet. . .

[mr miyagi]

I do the same thing - I usually get a Quicktime movie (making sure they specificy that it's 29.97 drop or non-drop), and a separate OMF file. I convert the Quicktime to the .dv format in Quicktime Pro, and I have an ADVC100 box as a firewire to analog video interface to my regular TV monitor. My video sync adjustment is pretty large, 5 frames. But everything has been working great up to this point. I upgraded last night to 4.6 so we'll see what happens now!

[scoremusic]

If one of you asks for a QT File: do you ask for a special resolution or file size?

Tom

[westla]

If one of you asks for a QT File: do you ask for a special resolution or file size?

Tom

It dosen't really matter, because when it gets converted into a .dv movie, it ends up the same size.