HD Animations - How too?

[Austin]

Okay, I finally got a chance to test our XBox 360 pipeline, and after a few trials we got it to work. The XBox supports WMV, MPEG-1, and MPEG-2, however as a .wmv the max bitrate is 8Mbps (and is a major pain to convert), whereas with an .mpg the max bitrate is 19.2Mbps, which is more well suited for HD content. I exported the .mpg files thru Premiere Pro 1.5. Although our Matrox RTX100 doesn't support HD, you can set Premiere to disable hardware support and make an HD resolution timeline. Also, the .mpg file needs to be an actual .mpg with embedded audio, not just an .m2v that has been renamed to .mpg, these files won't work with the XBox.

You have to have a PC running Windows Media Center Edition to stream video files to the XBox, which we picked up at a local computer shop for about $140... although you're not supposed to be able to buy this OS on its own, only pre-installed on an 'approved' system.

This seems like an okay solution for viewing your own HD content, especially if you don't have a capture card that is HD ready. It's not exactly editing in HD, but you can at least view what you've made this way.

[percydaman]

wow craziness. lemme ask you though, if your running the footage from a pc, through the xbox, to the plasma, why not just go straight from the pc to the plasma?

[Dynedain]

wow craziness. lemme ask you though, if your running the footage from a pc, through the xbox, to the plasma, why not just go straight from the pc to the plasma?

Because then they couldn't justify an XBox as a company expense?

[Austin]

LoL, well we already had the XBox for one. And we're not going to a plasma, just an HD CRT with component inputs. Our editing card doesn't support HD, and AFAIK there isn't a way to broadcast an HD signal (not just a 1920x1080 picture) from a PC without additional hardware. To be honest I'm not even sure if there is any available hardware yet that lets you do that. Anyone done any research into this?

[Infrared digital]

When rendering out at the compressed size, are there not problems when editing the movie in Premiere or After Effects ?

[Austin]

By compressed size do you mean HD1080 res, 1920x1080? Not sure about AE, but in Premiere you configure your timeline to match this resolution. If your edit/capture card doesn't support HD however, you'll have to disable hardware support, which slows down the process considerably. As a workaround you can downscale your clips, edit with the corresponding SD clips, then export the EDL and apply it to the HD clips.

[panthon]

Who makes a hard-disk HD player? I did a quick search but didn't find anything.

http://www.akihabaranews.com/en/en/n...+recorder.html

[momentum]

mabe i'm not understanding what is going on but wouldnt it just be easiers to get one of these cards

http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/hd/

and cut out the x-box and media version of windows. They work with most video editing softweare. Then watch it straight out of the program of choice.

And from what i have read (as i have not used it) Discreet--opps Autodesk Media and Entertainments (they could have chosen a smaller name) cleaner does a great job of compressing and it is software.

[Austin]

Yeah, an HD capture card is definitely the best way to go for viewing HD content. Until now decent capture cards have been pretty expensive; the BlackMagic card you linked up is the cheapest I've seen so far. It's still twice as expensive as an XBox, though. Not that an XBox replaces a capture card by any means, but we had one already, and if we didn't it would be a good excuse to get one :P

[panthon]

If someone around is using Avid Xpress Pro HD 5.5 or above, it can trigger a full res HD full screen play to any monitor connected to the computer. If u happen to own a 1920X1080 16:9 LCD monitor and use it as client monitor via DVI, u will be able to see HD playing from the AVID program itself. Awesome!

[jpl1040]

HD player

FYI, for HD display, we bought one of these

http://www.digitalconnection.com/Pro...ideo/mb100.asp

and play it on one of these

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FEHTDC/
- > true 1920x1080 LCD display

and it's top notch.

I encode to MPEG2, 1920x1080 using Premiere Pro. I connect via HDMI.

The MediaBox is a little flakey but you learn what formats and processes to avoid so that it doesn't lock up.

Let me know if you need any more info!

Jim Lammers
President
Trinity Animation, Inc.
676 SE Bayberry Lane, Suite 103B
Lee's Summit, MO 64063-4389
Office: 816-525-0103
Toll Free US/Canada: 800-548-1578
fax 816-525-1594
web: www.trinity3d.com
email: jim@trinity3d.com

[percydaman]

thats a cool little gizmo jim. Ill pass that guy onto the boss and see if we can make use of one.

[jpl1040]

thats a cool little gizmo jim. Ill pass that guy onto the boss and see if we can make use of one.

Thanks PDM, I think you'll like it. You have to buy a hard drive with the MB100, so it's about $480 out the door. But it can use playlists, will play virtually any MP3, JPG, etc. It claims to play WMV, MPG, VOB, AVIs with DivX and XviD and some other formats. I had a downloaded XviD HD movie I tried to play and it would not work, so it isn't perfect. But my own relatively short MPEG2 files play beautifully, and with that $2000 42" LCD it looks pretty amazing.

I think most animators will want to have a MediaBox and an HD LCD in their office, if only to play demo reels. It's too cheap and looks too good to pass up.

Best regards

Jim Lammers

[tricky]

Old topic I know, but wondered what the latest thoughts are with HD outputs? Are many people doing HD animations? How much longer is it taking than SD? Are you charging more to do HD?

[stilgarna]

Our 3 last projects were HD...

Our 2 next HD too

2H to 5Hours a frame... (Rendering + Compositing)

Yes we charge more to do HD... Because of rendertime... Because materials need to be better and geometries need higher resolution...

(30 Quads 2.8Ghz + 6Gb each) + (7 workstations Quad 2.66 + 8Gb each)

Best regards...