Preston Herrick

FWIW, the independent feature, "November", shot by Nancy Schreiber, ASC (with the DVX) was shot (I believe) full-screen with the WS image extracted later in post for the film-out. It won the Best Cinematography award at Sundance a couple of years ago. So yes, you could do this as others have done and do with other cameras as well. In that case the only real advantage to shooting in squeeze mode would be if you were going direct to DVD or something and were going to display on a true 16:9 display. Squeeze offers no advantage for film-out by nature of the way it works. In fact, shooting 4:3 could actually give you more options in post for letterboxing and re-composing vertically.

There are a number of pros and cons. For me it boils down to this: The adaptor provides 33% more resolution over squeeze mode because it utilizes the entire CCD. Squeeze mode extracts an area of the CCD equivalent to a letterbox image (ie: less of the CCD). IMO, the difference when viewed on an NTSC monitor isn't night and day. If you plan to do a film-out, the adaptor will yield the best results. The adaptor requires more care (more time) when shooting. You have to watch the combination of f-stop and focal length more closely to ensure sharp, clear results. Under some shooting conditions this may not be practical. I'm sure you'll hear other pros and cons. I'm not dissing the adaptor. I own one. That's just my take in a nutshell. You can also find a lot of information and opinions at www.dvxuser.com

Good question. Probably the circuitry - like doing an E to E recording (head to head). Have you tried another player just for grins?

Does everything you run through the TBC look like that, or is it isolated to that one VHS tape? What speed was the original tape recorded at? It's possible that the signal on the original recording is so poor that not even a TBC will clean it up. And, if the tape was recorded at SLP speed eons ago that wouldn't surprise me.

What happens when you bypass the TBC? You would expect improvements but, I have a lower end Panasonic deck with a simple built in TBC. If I play back old VHS tapes recorded at SLP speed with the TBC on, I get results very much like your picture. When I turn the TBC off, the picture actually improves. I don't know why - maybe an engineer could tell me, but it certainly is odd. I doubt either of your decks or monitor are causing the problem.

Actually, you're not necessarily losing resolution. You're just not maximizing it as you would with the adaptor. The squeeze image is derived from the same area of the CCD equivalent to a letterboxed image or shooting in the letterbox mode. The end result will appear no worse or better on a 4:3 display (letterboxed) than if you had shot in letterbox mode. Like Rich said, the adaptor allows you to use the entire CCD (hence 33% more resolution). As a fellow Canopus user you might want to consider using the Panasonic 24p preset in Premiere rather than Canopus. In any case, try right clicking on the clip in the bin and select "Interpret Footage". Select a widescreen setting from the drop down. This will display the image properly in Premiere, however you'll still need a 16:9 monitor (or a switchable monitor) in order to view the output as a widescreen image on your analog output.

I've shot with and own full size pro cameras as well as the DVX. Although there are a few things that take getting used to, I like it a lot. Based on the problems you describe it sounds like you got a dud (which isn't common). A previous renter probably got a number of menu settings screwed up too.

Yes, I think the decision to shoot interlaced or progressive is an aesthetic one and my decision is usually based on the nature of the project - more-so than for technical reasons. I love 24p but there are instances where it doesn't seem the most appropriate. The GL1's pseudo "30p" is feeble compared to the DVX. I've got a DVX and a DVC200 (full size) - and Super 16 gear. Each has it's place, although the film gear is starting to gather dust.

Here is another interesting site and product if you're interested in high quality, small gauge transfers and it's been around for awhile: http://www.moviestuff.tv/8mm_telecine.html

The stock lens does go pretty wide. There is some barrel distortion at the wide end of the lens already. I know Matt McDermitt is a fan of using the attachment - his stuff looks pretty cool.

Yeah, I think the end result (when going to DV or DVCAM) also depends a lot on the transfer facility, the decks they are using, and consequently what path the signal takes between the telecine and deck. I had some transfer work done (BTW Matt, it was S16 CP footage) where it was SDI from the telecine right into the deck. I thought it looked every bit as good as previous BetaSP transfers, if not better. Talk to the facility about the signal path.

The DSR-11 is a no-frills workhorse. I've got one and never have any problems. I've had stuff telecined to a much higher end deck than the DSR-20 (I believe it was an 1800 via SDI) and it played back just fine on the 11. Can't imagine how or why there would be a problem unless it was an isolated incident - or maybe the post house deck has the problem.

I've got a Pioneer and a Sony burner. I agree, there is no difference in quality. However, for me, +R burned discs will not play in the players that my -R burns will. Since there's no compelling reason to burn +R discs I'll stick to -R for now. I also read an article recently with some tests done with the new DL burners with +R DL discs. The test concluded that there was a 71% chance that a consumer DVD-Video player couldn't read and play back content stored on both layers of the disc. (Check out Feb. 05 issue of DV magazine)

You could also spend a wad of cash and send your ground glass out to be "brightened". www.laserbrighten.com

Check with these guys: DVfilm.com They do filmouts and may be able to help.

I PM'd you...

Well, don't get hung up on semantics. Call it Panasonics implementation of a 3:2 pulldown - whatever. I fully understand the differences between 24p Normal and 24p Advanced. PPro will remove the pulldown, extra frames, whatever you want to call it from footage shot in either mode. The short of it is: if you want or plan to do a film-out down the road, shoot 24pa. You don't have to shoot in 24p Normal to use PPro 1.5. In fact, it'll remove the "pulldown" whether you want to or not (a current flaw in Premiere) regardless of the mode.

You're likely to get varying opinions on this and there's a certain amount of snobbery when it comes to Avid since it's been used in the industry for so long. However, I've used Premiere for years and of course, PPro more recently. We're finishing a short film shot with the 100a in PA mode. It has worked very well so far, no problems, and effectively removes the 3:2 pulldown to work in true 24p mode. Vegas and FCP will do it too. If removing the pulldown in not important or necessary to you (and most of the time it isn't) then just about any NLE, including Avid Xpress, will get the job done. IMO, you'll see no discernable difference between the two on output.

I've got an Elmo 16-CL projector. 16mm channel loading sound projector with manual, extra take-up reel sitting on a shelf ready to ship. Some guy called me all hot to buy it so I boxed it up but then he flaked out. Been sitting here ever since. Make me an offer I can't refuse and it's yours. Box weighs 37 lbs.

Perhaps the colorist used little or no noise reduction in the transfer. The denser the negative, the more light they have pump through it. As the gain goes up, so does the noise - which requires more NR. With NR, you walk a fine line before the image turns to mush. Of course, NR in telecine can help manage 16mm grain.

In a nutshell, you'll be shooting film at 24fps (unless you chose to shoot at 30 but you would be consuming 25% more film) and television is 29.97fps (at least in NTSC-land). We'll just call it 30fps for the sake of explanation. Each frame of TV is made up of two fields which are interlaced. So, essentially you have 60 individual pictures that make up a second of TV or video. 3:2 pulldown is a method of creating the extra frames necessary to convert your 24fps film rate to 30fps television rate. What it does is, it periodically takes fields from adjoining frames to create the 6 "missing" frames necessary to end up with 30fps. Introducing 3:2 pulldown in telecine is generally a requirement to go to tape. Your budget and plans for post production will determine what format you will telecine to but I'm guessing you'll go to BetaSP or some lower end digital format then capture in your NLE in whatever flavor you prefer. Telecine to a higher end digital format would be best but might not be in the cards.

You can either adjust the refresh rate of the computer monitor to 1/60 second (60hz) or adjust the shutter speed of your camcorder if it has a synchro scan feature. If neither of these are options, or don't know how to do it, you can shoot a computer LCD monitor (flat panel display) and you shouldn't have any issues at all.

Like Phil said, this is a technical issue. Shoot at 0 IRE (the standard of all DV including HD). When it hits an analog stage (like VHS dupe, BetaSP, whatever), add setup. When your DV material hits a broadcaster they'll adjust their proc amps so that black starts and 7.5 for the NTSC world. In my opinion, if you shoot at 7.5 you'll create headaches for yourself down the road in other areas.

There are a number of parameters that need to be tweaked and adjusted still. If you haven't already done so, I would open the instruction file (a .pdf) that shipped with the plugin to learn more about the various adjustments. It is quite possible though that you will never get a good or acceptable key depending on the greenscreen footage.

I guess the assumption is, if it doesn't have a registration pin, it must not have a steady image. I have a CP (in fact I had it modified for S16) and everything I've shot with it has been telecined. Never noticed a stability issue other than some occasional weave near the end of rolls.