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Which Dubbing Format for Acquiring Archive Footage?

Hi there,

I'm intending to acquire some archive footage from a TV station for use in a documentary feature. Please can anyone tell me what the best dubbing format for this is?

Thanks...
 
dont quite understand the question?

Do you get to tell the TV station what format you want the footage delivered in? I would think you would not get to chose that.. ???

Hi there,

Yes, apparently the station want me to stipulate the format: "2. Dubbing format required for your production/use."

Any thoughts on the best choice for this?
 
You want something that is of high quality that fits in with your workflow. If you only have a miniDV deck to ingest footage, then receiving a DVCPRO tape is going to be of no use to you, even though it's a better format.

For best results, HDCAM SR is the way to go, but you'll probably have to pay to dub it to computer for use in your edit.

Can the TV station not provide you with a file? If they can, then that makes it a bit easier to get higher quality footage but even then it's mostly dependent on your own needs and workflow, and isn't really a question any of us can answer - a ProRes file is potentially less useful than a DNxHD file if you're editing with Avid, or on Windows, for example.
 
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You want something that is of high quality that fits in with your workflow. If you only have a miniDV deck to ingest footage, then receiving a DVCPRO tape is going to be of no use to you, even though it's a better format.

For best results, HDCAM SR is the way to go, but you'll probably have to pay to dub it to computer for use in your edit.

Can the TV station not provide you with a file? If they can, then that makes it a bit easier to get higher quality footage but even then it's mostly dependent on your own needs and workflow, and isn't really a question any of us can answer - a ProRes file is potentially less useful than a DNxHD file if you're editing with Avid, or on Windows, for example.

Thanks very much for the info.

If a digital version is possible would it be the same quality as HDCAM SR or would some kind of compression be inevitable?

In terms of my requirements I really just want the highest quality I can get.

FYI I'm editing with Premiere - if there's any more information I can provide please let me know.
 
If a digital version is possible would it be the same quality as HDCAM SR or would some kind of compression be inevitable?

In terms of my requirements I really just want the highest quality I can get.

To be honest, it depends what it is - there can be a point of diminishing returns. If it's archive footage that was shot on Digibeta, then there's going to be little difference between codecs. HDCAM SR is a codec you could use, but you'd be fine with ProRes, DNxHD, Cineform etc. Even DCPRO HD, assuming you could get it into Premiere.

If it's more recent, and therefore in HD, you may want to be more careful about your selection of codec but if it's archive, then it's likely in SD anyway, unless it's old film that's been rescanned/re-teleceined into HD or 2k.
 
Interesting but rather bizarre advice. Sorry Jax, I don't know why you are talking about footage, video codecs and video quality when the OP's question was ...?

Yes, apparently the station want me to stipulate the format: "2. Dubbing format required for your production/use."

A rather vague way of asking an audio question, which is typical and one of the reasons why it's often so difficult to meet the stringent audio requirements of most TV broadcasters. This question could be asking in which audio format you want the sound delivered, in which case they should have asked what audio format rather than what dubbing format. Alternatively they could be asking what type of mix you want: M&E, DME, full mix, etc., but then they should ask the type of mix rather than the dubbing format.

Given the choice, you should ask for just the full mix. If the question also/instead refers to the audio format then I cant really answer because I don't know what formats Premiere plays well with. Probably a time-stamped BWF interleaved LoRo wav file would be the easiest for you to deal with but again, I'm not sure how well Premiere plays with BWF wav files, it should be OK though.

For those who don't know, "dubbing" is the act of re-recording audio. In the UK, the TV industry uses the term "dubbing mixer" instead of the American term "re-recording mixer".

G
 
Interesting but rather bizarre advice. Sorry Jax, I don't know why you are talking about footage, video codecs and video quality...

For those who don't know, "dubbing" is the act of re-recording audio. In the UK, the TV industry uses the term "dubbing mixer" instead of the American term "re-recording mixer".

I'm sure your advice and knowledge in regards to audio is correct, I merely took 'dubbing' to mean what we generally refer to as 'dubbing', especially when coming from television stations, archival footage etc. - and that is specifically the 'dubbing' of footage onto a tape medium. A lot of television networks still work in tape medium (a major television network here was still using digiBeta up until only a few years ago).

I know dubbing, in the narrative world, is moreso referred to in regards to audio, but as you say the question is rather vague in this case when applied to audio, but makes more sense (at least to me :)) when applied to video..

Or maybe I'm just a visuals guy, so that's the conclusion I jumped to :D
 
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