This is topic Best way to present a video promo? in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=16;t=001456

---

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 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.
 

---

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 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.
 

---

Posted by Carl Hetherington (Member # 7107) on 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
 

---

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 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.
 

---

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 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?"
 

---

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 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.)
 

---

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 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.
 

---

Posted by Terrence Meiczinger (Member # 5059) on 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.
 

---

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 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....
 

---

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 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...
 

---

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 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!
 

---

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 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.
 

---

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 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
 

---

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 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.
 

---

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 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.
 

---

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 04-12-2013, 01:35 PM:
 
Thanks, Dennis. Every time I've been to that site for trailers, it's got the Apple logo burned in the lower-right corner.

Next question:

How come my trailers come out of DVD-O-Matic as 30GB in size??

I've had features with smaller files than that. I'm used to the typical trailer being around 2-3GB in size. What am I doing wrong?
 

---

Posted by Carl Hetherington (Member # 7107) on 04-12-2013, 01:41 PM:
 

quote: Manny Knowles

---

How come my trailers come out of DVD-O-Matic as 30GB in size??

---

quote:

---

DCP Frame Rate...60 (This is the default "best")
DCP will use every other frame of the source.
DCP will run at 12% of the source speed.

---

also the color space was wrong -- black bars (letterbox) came out pink, etc.

No more default values for me.
 

---

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 04-12-2013, 05:25 PM:
 
Yeah, that's part of the problem with web-sourced trailers. Very often they have 30fps time references.DVD-o-matic has options for it, but it can't do magic.

Maybe you're able to find one with 24fps timing. Yes, the itunes trailers have a faint apple logo, but they are high quality 1080p24. You could mask the apple logo out with DVD-o-matic...(duck'n cover...)

It's unbelievable you don't have official online trailer sources as they are common in europe. We get all trailers in DCP format as downloads.

Try Youtube + Minitube download application. Still, 30fps - but your server should be able to play 30fps.

From where and how did you download this trailer? Probably the issue is source based.

- Carsten
 

---

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 04-12-2013, 05:28 PM:
 
Yeah the trailer situation here is bullshit.
 

---

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 04-12-2013, 05:41 PM:
 
Oops - I was wrong - I just downloaded the official 'Reality' trailer from youtube (through 'ClickToPlugin Safari Extension->Quicktime Player') - its actually 24fps.

- Carsten
 

---

Posted by Carl Hetherington (Member # 7107) on 04-12-2013, 06:59 PM:
 
OK, it seems that DVD-o-matic got very confused by the file what you gave it. Can you describe how to download it, and I will take a look?

Thanks

Carl
 

---

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 04-16-2013, 04:05 PM:
 
Let it be known that the "YouTube Downloader" application (on my Mac) is not the way to go. The downloaded files play okay by themselves (Mac or PC) but caused problems for DVD-O-Matic.

I had better luck with the "Flash Video Downloader" for Firefox on my Windows PC. I've done a few different trailers and...so far so good.

This is a big help.
 

---

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 04-16-2013, 04:47 PM:
 
The "Flash Video Downloader" plug-in for Chrome isn't too bad at grabbing .FLV files or even .MP4 videos not wrapped in a Flash container. Unfortunately that plug-in no longer works at YouTube. Kind of a bummer. I liked downloading music videos and other clips then transferring them over to my phone or other devices to play without having to stream them.

 

---

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 04-16-2013, 04:59 PM:
 
I use minitube (Mac, Windows, Linux). It comes with it's own minimalistic YouTube Browser/SearchFunction.
We had issues with a lot of browser addons - broken files, unstable playback, etc.
Grabbing Streams can be problematic it seems.

Sometime we do (fast)reencodings or rewrappings with MPEG-Streamclip - which also allows basic trimming to get rid of the occasional added intro or 'now in 3D'.
That also usually solves the issues with unstable playback.

- Carsten
 

---

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 04-16-2013, 05:53 PM:
 
Video DownloadHelper for Firefox still works:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/

YouTube and several other places.
 

---

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 04-16-2013, 11:24 PM:
 

quote: Randy Stankey

---

Video DownloadHelper for Firefox still works:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/

---