For the Pro shooters - where do you telecine?

Alex · Post by **Alex** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 1:49 am

companyofquail wrote:Alex,

Could you please post a link?

Film and Video transfers is located in Northridge California.

I don't remember their website address.

http://www.thetransferstation.com/

Post by **audadvnc** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 2:16 am

Alex wrote: Simply go to a Digibeta facility, put the BetaCam SP edit master in a DigitBeta Deck and make a digital to digital
copy onto an actual Digi Beta Tape.

Just a note for newbies that aren't acquainted with BetaSP and Digi Beta. BetaSP is an analog format tape and electronic path, the 90's standard video acquisition format at all local and national TV stations. Digi Beta is a modern update using digital circuitry and digital tape of the same format size.

Strictly speaking you can't make a digital to digital copy from an analog tape; the analog playback circuitry in a Digi Beta deck is effectively the same as it is in an SP deck. I doubt that, other than Digi Beta's superior tracking system, there would be any difference in playback quality of a Beta SP tape from an SP deck than that of a Digi Beta deck. You would of course need a Digi Beta deck to record the transferred material.

Where Digi Beta really shines is that, once recorded in a digital format such as Digi Beta, the program signal is passed as digital information during tape copies, with much less generation loss than experienced in analog formats. Also, it can be easily transferred to and from computer editing and engineering workstations for manipulation. Digi Beta is one of the better digital formats, holding more color information than DVCAM and is more mechanically stable than miniDV.

Post by **steve hyde** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 2:17 am

Alex wrote:
companyofquail wrote:Alex,

Could you please post a link?
Film and Video transfers is located in Northridge California.

I don't remember their website address.

http://www.thetransferstation.com/

Alex, How many carts can they xfer in an hour with the rank system?

Steve

Post by **steve hyde** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 2:22 am

Robert,

What you say makes sense. I think Alex's point about dubbing from SP to Dbeta is a way of maintaining the quality of the SP master digitally...

Steve

Alex · Post by **Alex** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 2:36 am

I have taken a BetaCam SP master that was to be released for home video and brought it to a Digibeta house.

They took the betacam sp edit master tape and put it in a digiBeta deck. Although the signal is being transcoded to digital inside the digibeta machine, it is outputed as a serial digital signal to another digibeta deck which records the signal as a digital betacam signal. My opinion is that probably the transcoded serial digital signal is better than if you went from an analog betacam deck to a digibetacam deck. How much better I have no idea.

It sounds like it could be identical whichever you do it, but I thought the digibeta copy done using two digibeta decks just rocked.

Post by **super8man** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 3:18 am

I use Yale Labs in North Hollywood - never had a problem...now, the bigger question is, what is a pro shooter? Someone who gets paid to use Super 8? Man, that's limiting your audience some.

Post by **audadvnc** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 3:58 am

Alex wrote: Although the signal is being transcoded to digital inside the digibeta machine, it is outputed as a serial digital signal to another digibeta deck which records the signal as a digital betacam signal... <snip>

It sounds like it could be identical whichever you do it, but I thought the digibeta copy done using two digibeta decks just rocked.

Digital transfer between decks is probably the most straightforward high-quality transfer, but a component analog transfer from an analog source tape should be nearly identical (assuming the transfer suite has properly adjusted their machines). Component analog transfer requires more cabling.

BetaSP is a YUV component analog format; that is how the information is stored on the tape. To convert BetaSP to DigiBeta you run it through the A/D converter of the DigiBeta deck. Whether that conversion is done inside the playback DigiBeta deck and transferred digitally, or within the recorder if you transfer YUV analog component between machines, should make little difference in transfer quality.

The main difference from a video house's viewpoint is that one technique requires two DigiBeta decks where the other method only requires one. The price difference between machines of the two formats is significant, on the order of 5 figures. All other things being equal, the additional cost of that second DigiBeta machine would eventually translate itself into higher fees to the customer.

You would more likely notice a quality degradation if you transfer NTSC composite analog between decks, as some color information gets scrambled in the conversion from YUV to NTSC composite.

DigiBeta decks also have a superior Dynamic Tracking feature. Sometimes I've had persistent dropouts on SP tapes that could be read on DigiBeta decks.

Robert Hughes

Alex · Post by **Alex** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 4:22 am

I've always been of the opinion that when the video processing happens right off the video heads, it's usually going to be slightly better than keeping it as an analog signal, sending it to another machine in analog and then converting it inside the second machine.

The price difference between a new BVW-75 and a Digital betacam deck is not that great, and a player only digibetacam source deck can be had for a lot less.

Post by **shralp** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 8:57 pm

I'm with you Steve, give the network what it wants. As for my in house stuff, I don't see any reason to go to HD either. This and the fact that HD decks are $66,000. I also do simultaneous Xfers on Digi Beta and DVCAM as well and that works just fine for me. So yup, makes no sense to me to go to HD unless there really is a need to.

Generatrix - Wish I could post something for you but again, I just don't have any way to get my footage from the HD Masters, (which are in New York at the network), onto this forum.

I totally agree with the Beta Sp and/or Digi Beta workflow, its really all you need.

Funny how The Transfer Station doesn't even tell you what gear they are using to transfer film to tape, doesn't have a demo that you can look at, doesn't tell you what kind of gear they use for "primary and secondary color correction", etc etc.

And no Alex I'm not saying that they do a crappy job with the above statement so take your fingers off the keyboard and mouse in preparation to defend them. You don't need to....

Alex · Post by **Alex** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 2:58 am

shralp wrote:
Funny how The Transfer Station doesn't even tell you what gear they are using to transfer film to tape, doesn't have a demo that you can look at, doesn't tell you what kind of gear they use for "primary and secondary color correction", etc etc.

And no Alex I'm not saying that they do a crappy job with the above statement so take your fingers off the keyboard and mouse in preparation to defend them. You don't need to....

I agree with your first paragraph, the second one wasn't necessary.