New to HDTV

[garret]

Hi,
We work in post in europe mainly doing cartoon series for America and Europe. We will be getting in HD series soon and need to upgrade our studios. We have no surround capabilities at the moment eitherso obviously thats the first thing. I'm lookin for advice from you guys who are doing HD as to any good courses we can do to learn and also good resources online in order for us to get our heads around it. I've got some good stuff from Dolby already but its quite a big jump for us so Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!! Thanks, Garret

[Matt82au]

i definatly second this call. i work in what is mostly a commercial post environment, where everything is currently SD and (mostly) stereo. things are changing in the market so if anyone has any good resources they can point to i would also love to hear it!

[georgia]

Hi,

I do commercial HD stuff including 5.1. We just finished an HD concert for Crash Test Dummies for HDnet.

If you want to be properly setup for HD commerical Broadcast you need:

1. A good 5.1 DAW system ( 48k 24bit is fine )
2. CALIBRATED 5.1 system (see the ROOM CALIBRATION thread by Dr. Sound for details )
2a. I also recommend a consumer 5.1 system for "checking" your work
3. A good Downmixer
4. Dolby E and Dolby AC3 encoders
5. Dolby Decoder ( there are a few options here )
6. SONY HDcam deck
7. Panasonic HD deck
8. Well configured patch and cabling system
9. Tri-sync Generator & solid house sync or at least an HD video Sync reference ( and an SD Ref SYNC helps on occasion )
10. Basic Knowledge of HD and SD Video Decks
11. Moderate to good understanding of Metadata and the Dolby encoder options and settings ( don't rely on just pressing setup 6 )
12. Paitence, Excellent Documentation skills, detail orientation in your work.

...and a notebook full of broadcast and cable channel delivery specs!

I'm sure the guys will add a few things to this list as well!

Cheers
geo

ps; Alot of this stuff can be rented for gigs as well. Buts its a little expensive. The Sony HDcam deck we use is like $60,000 new and rents for about a $1000 a day.

[garret]

Hey Georgia,
Thanks for the info! We are a fairly big post facility running seven audio suites three of which are full mix suites and the others for revoicing and tracklaying and four edit suites. So in terms of knowledge of decks, house sync and specs we are fairly up to date.Its where to go to learn all about how to work with metadata and the procedures involved in 5.1 that i'm really interested in because although there is great resources theres nothing like actually doing a hands on course to learn this stuff first hand!! The list you gave is a great help and starting block so hopefully more of you good people will chime in!! Thank you...

[gallery]

Alot of this stuff can be rented for gigs as well. Buts its a little expensive. The Sony HDcam deck we use is like $60,000 new and rents for about a $1000 a day.

Dont forget that you can BUY a VirtualVTR HD video system for about $5000 which will allow you to work in HD with a non-linear player. So, rent the HDCam for half a day to transfer, and spend the rest of the week's budget to OWN a Hi Def Video player for Pro Tools

Using the DVCProHD codec ($199 with SoundTrack Pro) or the PhotoJPEG codec (free with QT), you can digitised direct from HD-SDI into DVCProHD or PJPEG in full resolution Hi-Def compressing realtime to disk as it captures. This gives you fantastic quality picture, but only requires 1 SATA Drive, (not a Raid system).

Playback of these formats under control of Pro Tools is very smooth, reliable and tight - much, MUCH nicer than using a linear HD deck. If you can get the material delivered on Hard disc you will save yourself the deck rental too.

Typical Setup:
- Dual 2.7GHz G5
- AJA Kona LH card (or LHe for PCIe macs)
- VirtualVTR (or VVTR Pro)
- Midiman Midisport 2x2 Midi interface (or use 9-pin if you prefer)

This is a tried and tested formula which works great and performs superbly. Let me know if you have any questions.
http://www.virtualvtr.com

Cheers

Mark Gilbert