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Author Topic: Best way to present a video promo? Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-07-2013 12:38 PM                     Dolby DSS200 Christie CP2260 Gefen switcher/scaler + DVD/Blu-Ray Computer to play PowerPoint. Was given a 60sec. promo to play in front of a movie. It was delivered as WMV. (MPEG4 @ 720x480 anamorphic.) What's the best way to attack this? Right now, they have it playing on the computer but that is a real pain because you have to manually start the video. He computer is on the desk across the room. The pregnant pause looks sloppy and unprofessional. I could convert this to MPEG2. The Dolby should play this. Right? I could convert to DCP but I have only tinkered with Open DCP, briefly. No real life experience at it. I have FinalCut Studio.. I can convert to almost any format. My biggest concern is getting the video scaled up to the right size so it will look half decent. It might take some trial and error to get it to look right. I am thinking that the easiest, fastest and most bullet proof way of doing this would be to use FCP to make a DVD and play through the Geffen scaler. Just put five seconds of black at the beginning and end to cover the transitions. What do you think? One of the local TV stations is sponsoring one of our movies. This video is part of the sponsorship. I just found out about this. It needs to be on the screen, yesterday.  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-07-2013 12:52 PM                        No budget: DVD Yes budget: hard-disk recorder (e.g. AJA Ki-Pro) or video tape (e.g. HDCAM) Or make a version that has extra black and the head and tail and play that on the computer. Then, make a movie playlist that has black at the beginning that runs the exact length of the promo, and do a change-over after the promo to the (already playing) movie playlist.  |  IP: Logged Carl Hetherington Film Handler Posts: 93 From: York, North Yorkshire, England Registered: Jul 2012 posted 04-07-2013 12:56 PM                        You could drop it into DVD-o-matic: http://carlh.net/software/dvdomatic and it should create a DCP with a few clicks. And if it doesn't, feel free to let me know  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 04-07-2013 01:04 PM                     I agree with Carl, it usually works straight away and does not really require much hassle. Give it a try.  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-07-2013 01:37 PM                     I think I'll make a DVD. That's the easiest end fastest way. Then, when that's working, I'll try to get it to play from the server. The DVD can be the fallback in case I can't make the server work. The HD recorder or HDCAM aren't an option. I will look into DVD-O-Matic. I just need to get up to speed. I'm looking at this from two perspectives: get it done now and get organized for the future. In the future, what formats and specs should I ask for content to be provided in? Assuming I have DVD-O-Matic and/or Open DCP plus FinalCut, I think I can handle most anything people throw at me, provided the quality is good enough. Could I just say, "Anything as long as its HD?"  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 04-07-2013 01:54 PM                     Assuming that your feature is DCP, then the best way (obviously) would be to try converting the promo to DCP. Sooner or later, we're all gonna need to know how to make DCP's. So, you might as well try that software. Specifying a preferred format is all fine and good, but my experience is that people won't always play along. You'll need to develop workflows, as you go along, for all the different formats you'll see. Low-rez stuff -- consider "bread boxing" (aka "window boxing") instead of trying to scale it all the way up to 2K. BTW, I've had to resort to what Scott described. It works, but it took some practice to get it just right. (You could do it with DVD -- it doesn't have to be HDCam.)  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-07-2013 02:06 PM                        quote: Randy Stankey I will look into DVD-O-Matic. I just need to get up to speed. Randy - if you have a video file already, it only takes about five minutes to get up to speed with DVD-o-Matic. That's including installing the software, reading the manual and starting your first DCP on its way to processing. Seriously, it's that easy.  |  IP: Logged Terrence Meiczinger Film Handler Posts: 45 From: Orono, Me, USA Registered: Dec 2008 posted 04-07-2013 05:33 PM                        If you are looking to convert from a video, I've heard DVD-O-Matic works like a champ and overall that will be easier than OpenDCP. The drawback when converting from video is really that it's only going to be 8-bit color. However, if that is what the original source is, then it doesn't matter. If the original source is 16-bit color, then exporting to TIFF and then using OpenDCP could give better results. They are similar programs, but aimed at slightly different work flows.  |  IP: Logged Dennis Benjamin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1445 From: Denton, MD Registered: Feb 2002 posted 04-07-2013 07:01 PM                        DVD-O-MATIC has made my life so much easier. We run pretty obscure stuff here occasionally. Instead of requesting the trailer for an independent film - I just make my own now. I just get an 1080p or 720p version of the trailer and convert it....  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 04-07-2013 09:25 PM                     Dennis -- where do you get your trailers from? -- I'm looking for a source for trailers that don't have the Apple or Yahoo logos in the corner...  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-07-2013 11:03 PM                     I just finished converting the WMV into a DVD and a DCP. It actually took longer to burn the DVD than it did to make the DCP. FinalCut had to convert the WMV to MPEG2 whereas I was able to use QuickTime to write out the video directly to a usable format. The DVD will work as a fallback in case I didn't do the DCP right. According to the computer, everything looks okay but I won't know until I try to load and run it tomorrow. It always bugs me when I can't test my work right away. First, I'm finicky about getting things just right. Second, I always make lots of mistakes. That's why I did it both ways. At least one will work. I'll try to let you know how it worked out, tomorrow, when I go to the theater. Thanks for all the advice!  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-08-2013 11:57 AM                     Update: It's working. Made a DVD and a DCP. Both work but the DCP looks better. I'm pretty sure that's because of the scaler. Still, it's there in case it's needed. The only thing I need to fix is a brief flicker as the program transitions from the clip to the feature. I think that's because the clip is 30 fps while the feature is 24 fps. I'll just redo the clip at 24 fps. Shouldn't be a problem, should it? The clip is scaled up from 720x480 to full screen. It does look grainy. Nothing I can do about that, really. I'll just have to "encourage" people to provide better video in the future. Without going into a lot of detail, if I just asked for "anything in HD," would that be sufficient? Yeah, I know... Not everybody will supply video in the right format or resolution even though you tell them to. But, this video comes from a TV station. You'd think they would know better.  |  IP: Logged Dennis Benjamin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1445 From: Denton, MD Registered: Feb 2002 posted 04-09-2013 09:20 AM                        Manny: If you go to HD-TRAILERS you can find the "Theatrical Release" version of the trailers (Usually) - they do not have the "Apple" or "Yahoo" stamps on them. They are usually good about putting up mirror sites to versions of the trailers with no junk on them. -Dennis  |  IP: Logged Scott Norwood Film God Posts: 8146 From: Boston, MA. USA (1774.21 miles northeast of Dallas) Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-09-2013 10:12 AM                        If the TV station produced the video, then it is probably 60i. If you convert this to 24p, you will have plenty of motion artifacts. Better to leave it as-is and close the douser breifly during the transition.  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-09-2013 11:29 AM                     The supplied file was 720x480@29.97. It was packaged as a WMV. The CODEC was MP4 with Windows Audio. I don't know if there were other settings inside the CODEC. I transcoded up to a lossless CODEC before making it into a DCP. Yeah, I know that's like flying a helicopter just to cross the street but I've had better luck getting good results with fewer artifacts that way. I just remade the DCP and made sure to put an extra second of black at the end and that seems to have stopped the flickering. The picture isn't the best because of so much upscaling. It it will have to do.  |  IP: Logged

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