Premium Member Phil Rhodes Posted May 19, 2014 Premium Member Share Posted May 19, 2014 He claims that since this one is HD that it is different and isn't necessarily going to play on PC or even a stock Mac. A basic machine might struggle to play the file at full frame rate (especially off a DVD), but what you're seeing sounds like a much lower-level issue. Performance problems wouldn't cause ffmpeg to complain it doesn't have the proper file structure, for instance. Still just sounding like a bad DVD, which can happen to anyone. I assume you've tried simply copying the file off it onto a hard disk, and working from that? Try copying it several times, see if any of the attempts work. If the OS refuses to copy the file, it's pretty much clear that it's a bad disc. P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Matthew W. Phillips Posted May 19, 2014 Author Premium Member Share Posted May 19, 2014 I assume you've tried simply copying the file off it onto a hard disk, and working from that? Try copying it several times, see if any of the attempts work. If the OS refuses to copy the file, it's pretty much clear that it's a bad disc. P Yes, I tried copying it several times. Strange enough, I went back to the Fry's where I said there was one single 13" Mac Book Pro. Only Mac in the whole store that could recognize it. The workers were nice enough to let me copy the file onto the hard drive, import it into iMovie (didnt have FCP on it) and export a 720P file so at least I have something. I had a flash drive with me so I got the file. I told Doug about it and he uses this as validation that his file was good (instead of considering the fact that no other PC or Mac in Northern California other than this one odd laptop can play it.) Suffice to say, I told him to forget about it and I am just satisfied to see my camera test. In good will, I asked him if he could recommend a good lab that I can use that is more Avid/PC friendly. I assumed we could end things on a good note. Nope...he had to be cynical and say "No one really uses anything other than Pro Res these days. You wont find anything else." I then mentioned 2k scans and he said "That wont really benefit you. Besides, it is more what people do with the file than the scan rate. You can get a 2k scan that looks like mud." implying that every lab other than him does shabby work and has a narrow mind about workflow. Wow, some ego on that one. I'm done with Spectra but I need another lab. It is this elite lab attitude that has contributed to the demise of film and makes people shoot digital. It is almost not even worth it anymore to shoot film :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Burke Posted May 19, 2014 Share Posted May 19, 2014 I really don't know why they were resistant to you asking for another pass or a new file. Digital media get screwed up all the time, it is the norm. Sending you another copy on new media is really no big deal. Shame on them. Corrupt file, replace, it's a no brainer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Matthew W. Phillips Posted May 19, 2014 Author Premium Member Share Posted May 19, 2014 I really don't know why they were resistant to you asking for another pass or a new file. Digital media get screwed up all the time, it is the norm. Sending you another copy on new media is really no big deal. Shame on them. Corrupt file, replace, it's a no brainer. He did not believe it got corrupted. He claims it has never happened in the history of his business. Seriously, that is what he said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Matthew W. Phillips Posted May 19, 2014 Author Premium Member Share Posted May 19, 2014 Here are some grabs from the 720p version I got from the iMovie. Not full HD, sadly, but still look good IMO. At least my camera works now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregg MacPherson Posted May 20, 2014 Share Posted May 20, 2014 For camera tests you may be ok just examining the neg. You can use a loupe (a diopter/magnifier) to examine the neg directly. I met one or two people that did it with the naked eye. A regestration test you could project the neg. Same with a test chart for sharpness, I think, though I never did. If you want to see positives from your tests with neg, at the right lab a work print will be cheap enough, cheaper than the prices you have been paying for transfrs. Projectors are quite cheap. You have reacted before against the lomo tank idea, but they are a great way to save money on tests. And fast to use once you learn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Matthew W. Phillips Posted May 24, 2014 Author Premium Member Share Posted May 24, 2014 I just wanted to announce that I received a call from Doug at Spectra and he is going to refund the cost of the datacine. Although him and I still disagree about things, I do commend him for being committed to customer satisfaction. I suppose he did all he could and I know I did all I could to get this file to work. FWIW Spectra does incredible work. This is why I am so upset that my workflow is incompatible with theirs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirk DeJonghe Posted May 24, 2014 Share Posted May 24, 2014 Welcome to the brave new digital world. Life will never be as simple as it was. How will it be five years from now with every manufacturer having his own blend of fileformats, hardware, OS, metadata etc, etc. How much chance is there that 50 years from now your files will still be readable? Your negative will still be fine. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Phil Rhodes Posted May 24, 2014 Premium Member Share Posted May 24, 2014 Matthew, I've no idea who's said what to whom on this occasion, but from what I've heard here I'm still convinced that it was just a bad DVD. ProRes is widely compatible. If they're telling you otherwise, that's their idiocy, because if they lose you as a customer on the basis of a dead DVD they could have replaced in minutes, that's a terrible deal for them. P 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Matthew W. Phillips Posted May 24, 2014 Author Premium Member Share Posted May 24, 2014 Matthew, I've no idea who's said what to whom on this occasion, but from what I've heard here I'm still convinced that it was just a bad DVD. ProRes is widely compatible. If they're telling you otherwise, that's their idiocy, because if they lose you as a customer on the basis of a dead DVD they could have replaced in minutes, that's a terrible deal for them. P I am pretty sure he found this thread because he seemed upset that I referred to him as "cynical." He mentioned how they spent a lot of time building their reputation and whatnot. I wasn't trying to ruin anyone's rep, just trying to get some footage and establish a workflow with someone. But at least I will have some cash in my pocket to try to go about it again somewhere else instead of just being angry that I'm out money with no lab to sync workflows with. Now, to find a new lab. One hopefully that is PC friendly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Phil Rhodes Posted May 24, 2014 Premium Member Share Posted May 24, 2014 These days I just wouldn't use DVDs. Flash is likely to be more reliable, and flash that's bigger than a DVD is trivially cheap. It's not a workflow issue, anyway. It's just an optical media reliability issue. P 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirk DeJonghe Posted May 24, 2014 Share Posted May 24, 2014 It would be helpful to know what is really wrong with the DVD, may save hassle in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Matthew W. Phillips Posted May 24, 2014 Author Premium Member Share Posted May 24, 2014 It would be helpful to know what is really wrong with the DVD, may save hassle in the future. I still have it. I offered to send it back to them but he didn't say he wanted it back. I would host the file on my website for someone to download and try but it is 3.8gb and may take awhile to download. Still, I may try that for any helpful party who wants to check it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirk DeJonghe Posted May 24, 2014 Share Posted May 24, 2014 If you don't mind uploading it to my ftp site, PM me and I will create an account and password. We can all learn from this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Site Sponsor Robert Houllahan Posted May 24, 2014 Site Sponsor Share Posted May 24, 2014 I agree with Phil, we have been using allot of 32G USB 3 flash drives for smaller film scan jobs and they work great, much better than DVDs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Matthew W. Phillips Posted May 24, 2014 Author Premium Member Share Posted May 24, 2014 I agree with Phil, we have been using allot of 32G USB 3 flash drives for smaller film scan jobs and they work great, much better than DVDs Sounds like a good idea, Robert. Do you guys work with PC formatted hard drives or only Mac? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Howell Posted May 24, 2014 Share Posted May 24, 2014 get a copy of MacDrive. I'm 100% PC based and have a set of mac formatted drives that spend their life ferrying footage to and from different labs. A license costs lest then $50 and I'm yet to have a problem with it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Matthew W. Phillips Posted May 24, 2014 Author Premium Member Share Posted May 24, 2014 get a copy of MacDrive. I'm 100% PC based and have a set of mac formatted drives that spend their life ferrying footage to and from different labs. A license costs lest then $50 and I'm yet to have a problem with it already tried macdrive for this file...still didnt work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Adrian Sierkowski Posted May 24, 2014 Premium Member Share Posted May 24, 2014 Depending on OS version, exFAT is a good choice for interoperability. Anymore that's generally what I save my disks too for clients. Else, NTFS is a good choice since it's readable by mack and readwrite on PC, or FAT32 with file-segmentation (if possible) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Phil Rhodes Posted May 24, 2014 Premium Member Share Posted May 24, 2014 This entire episode is blown out of proportion to an absolutely ludicrous extent. This happens, client calls me, I say "okay, I'll drop another disc in the post," and it's over. P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Matthew W. Phillips Posted May 24, 2014 Author Premium Member Share Posted May 24, 2014 This entire episode is blown out of proportion to an absolutely ludicrous extent. This happens, client calls me, I say "okay, I'll drop another disc in the post," and it's over. P I agree. But Spectra didn't. So here we are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Cunningham Posted May 25, 2014 Share Posted May 25, 2014 Even 64 and 128gb are reasonable now. I even send sata HD and ssd drives. Far easier than optical media and way faster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Site Sponsor Robert Houllahan Posted May 26, 2014 Site Sponsor Share Posted May 26, 2014 I usually format the 32g (and larger) thumb drives as NTFS and we have a mix of NTFS and HFS+ hard drives for rental Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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