Hello all! So i created a :30 spot in After Effects CS3 for my company and now our Canadian office wants a copy but are requesting it in HDCAM. I have no idea exactly what they are asking. Could someone explain or tell me what settings i need to use to achieve this?? Thanks!
Re: HDCAM by Lars Bunch on Mar 17, 2008 at 5:37:04 pm
Hi,
HDCam is Sony's professional level HD tape format. In the regular HDCam format, the video is stored in the 4:2:2 color space. It can be any number of frame rates; 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, 30 etc. The aspect ratio is 16x9 (1920x1080) although what is actually stored on tape is 1440x1080.
Basically you will need to get your animation on tape. You will need to check with a local post production house to see if they can put your spot on tape and if so, what codec do they need it in. If you are not in a major city with post production services, you may need to ship a firewire drive to a post house in L.A. or NY.
If they are using an Avid Nitris you will need the DNxHD codec
If they will be using Final Cut, you will probably be best off rendering it out in the Uncompressed 422 codec. If they have a Kona system, here is a link for those codecs...
If you get it onto a firewire drive and over to the post house, they can put it on to tape. But be forewarned, HD tape is really expensive and there are a huge number of variables so make sure the post house is familiar with this sort of work before committing to using their services.
You should talk to a technician at the post house about all these variables to make sure that you are providing them with what they need so they can do the transfer properly.
