Obscure SVHS to FCP to SVHS to prosumer DVD...etc.

[Richard Brown]

> i am having another WAY obscure problem.  One client gives me  SVHS 
> tapes . I feed them thru a Sony media converter into FCP and edit.
> I then feed the edit back thru the media converter to another SVHS as 
> an edit master (luckily this is all to change real soon)
> They take the edit master and have a receptionist dub it into a 
> prosumer DVD recorder .
> The DVD recorder Gltches on the Transitions (dissolves flips etc.) and 
> shows an error of Copy Protect. ONLY ON TANSITIONS. the rest is fine. 
> No problem is apparent on the tape. Any thoughts?
> Jim

That is extremely strange, to be sure. Transitions are the vexing issue 
for many MPEG encoders, and you mention "flips" as well as dissolves. It 
might be the prosumer DVD recorder is getting thrown a curve with your 
transitions. VHS, even SVHS, has its problems with signal levels. I 
would backtrack across the various transitions and maybe even do a few 
tests, repeating the same transition, but on TOP of the transition, put 
an NTSC Safe filter in FCP,  and try it with the various modes (as to 
how conservative) the video is to be rendered. Also, it would help to 
put up the waveform/vectorscope and review the footage... how are 
levels? Chroma? The NTSC safe filter will minimize problems in these 
areas. Perhaps do a before and after on the footage and see if there is 
a marked change. The other potential problem with SVHS is its odd paring 
of somewhat higher resolution with regular VHS chroma - not the ordinary 
VHS signal that may be expected by the prosumer DVD recorder. Perhaps 
it's reading something from the format difference combined with added 
complexity brought on by the transition... but hey... just guessing...

Richard Brown