8/19/10
CUFPOS402A
Information Technology for Production
Week Two:
Production Hardware / Software Overview
File format for video and film production
Aspect Ratio and World wide system
Progressive Vs. Interlaced
Tutorial
Creating PDF document
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
Production Hardware / Software Overview
CPU - The Central Processing Unit
(CPU) or the processor is the portion of
a computer system that carries out the
instructions of a computer program, and
is the primary element carrying out the
computer's functions.
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
1
8/19/10
Production Hardware / Software Overview
RAM - Random-access memory (RAM) is a
form of computer data storage. Today, it takes
the form of integrated circuits that allow stored
data to be accessed in any order (i.e., at
random). "Random" refers to the idea that any
piece of data can be returned in a constant
time, regardless of its physical location and
whether or not it is related to the previous piece
of data.
By contrast, storage devices such as magnetic
discs and optical discs rely on the physical
movement of the recording medium or a
reading head. In these devices, the movement
takes longer than data transfer, and the
retrieval time varies based on the physical
location of the next item.
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
Production Hardware / Software Overview
Graphic Card / Video Card A video card, video adapter, graphicsaccelerator card, display adapter or graphics
card is an expansion card whose function is to
generate and output images to a display.
Many video cards offer added functions, such
as accelerated rendering of 3D scenes and 2D
graphics, video capture, TV-tuner adapter,
MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, FireWire, light
pen, TV output, or the ability to connect
multiple monitors (multi-monitor). Other modern
high performance video cards are used for
more graphically demanding purposes, such as
PC games.
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
2
8/19/10
Production Hardware / Software Overview
Graphics processing unit (GPU)
A GPU is a dedicated processor optimized for
accelerating graphics. The processor is
designed specifically to perform floating-point
calculations, which are fundamental to 3D
graphics rendering. The main attributes of the
GPU are the core clock frequency, which
typically ranges from 250 MHz to 4 GHz and
the number of pipelines (vertex and fragment
shaders), which translate a 3D image
characterized by vertices and lines into a 2D
image formed by pixels.
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
Production Hardware / Software Overview
Video Memory
The memory capacity of most modern video
cards ranges from 128 MB to 4 GB. Since
video memory needs to be accessed by the
GPU and the display circuitry, it often uses
special high-speed or multi-port memory. The
effective memory clock rate in modern cards is
generally between 400 MHz and 3.8 GHz.
Video memory may be used for storing other
data as well as the screen image, such as the
Z-buffer, which manages the depth coordinates
in 3D graphics, textures, vertex buffers, and
compiled shader programs.
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
3
8/19/10
Production Hardware / Software Overview
Hard Drive
A hard disk drive (hard disk, hard drive, HDD)
is a non-volatile storage device for digital data.
It features one or more rotating rigid platters on
a motor-driven spindle within a metal case.
Data is encoded magnetically by read/write
heads that float on a cushion of air above the
platters
RAID
RAID, an acronym for redundant array of
inexpensive disks or redundant array of
independent disks, is a technology that
provides increased storage reliability through
redundancy, combining multiple low-cost, lessreliable disk drives components into a logical
unit where all drives in the array are
interdependent.
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
Production Hardware / Software Overview
Defragmentation
In the context of administering computer systems,
defragmentation is a process that reduces the
amount of fragmentation in file systems. It does
this by physically organizing the contents of the
disk to store the pieces of each file close together
and contiguously.
Cause of Fragmentation
Fragmentation occurs when the operating system
cannot or will not allocate enough contiguous
space to store a complete file as a unit, but
instead puts parts of it in gaps between other files
(usually those gaps exist because they formerly
held a file that the operating system has
subsequently deleted or because the operating
system allocated excess space for the file in the
first place). Larger files and greater numbers of
files also contribute to fragmentation and
consequent performance loss. Defragmentation
attempts to alleviate these problems.
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
4
8/19/10
Production Hardware / Software Overview
RAID
Level 0 - Striped Disk Array without Fault
Tolerance: Provides data striping (spreading out
blocks of each file across multiple disk drives) but no
redundancy. This improves performance but does not
deliver fault tolerance. If one drive fails then all data in
the array is lost.
Level 1 - Mirroring and Duplexing: Provides disk
mirroring. Level 1 provides twice the read transaction
rate of single disks and the same write transaction
rate as single disks.
Level 5 - Block Interleaved Distributed Parity:
Provides data striping at the byte level and also stripe
error correction information. This results in excellent
performance and good fault tolerance. Level 5 is one
of the most popular implementations of RAID.
Level 6 - Independent Data Disks with Double
Parity: Provides block-level striping with parity data
distributed across all disks.
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
Production Hardware / Software Overview
I/O (Input / Output)
Short for input/output (pronounced "eye-oh"). The
term I/O is used to describe any program, operation
or device that transfers data to or from a computer
and to or from a peripheral device. Every transfer is
an output from one device and an input into another.
Devices such as keyboards and mouses are inputonly devices while devices such as printers are
output-only. A writable CD-ROM is both an input and
an output device.
Common I/O for video production
USB (Universal Serial Bus)
Firewire (IEEE 1397 Interface)
Ethernet Port (10Mbps /100Mbps /100 Mbps)
ExpressCard ( Sony XDCAM express card)
SD Card Slot
SDI (Serial Digital Interface)
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
5
8/19/10
Production Hardware / Software Overview
USB / Firewire Comparison
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
Production Hardware / Software Overview
SDI (Serial Digital Interface)
Serial digital interface (SDI) refers to a
family of video interfaces standardized by
SMPTE. For example, ITU-R BT.656 and
SMPTE 259M define digital video interfaces
used for broadcast-grade video. A related
standard, known as high-definition serial
digital interface (HD-SDI), is standardized in
SMPTE 292M; this provides a nominal data
rate of 1.485 Gbit/s.
SDI Speed Chart
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
6
8/19/10
Production Hardware / Software Overview
Capture Device
High-end production environment often
uses 3rd-party capture device to capture
video / audio data.
Common capture formats are: 4k, 2k, HD,
SD
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
Production Hardware / Software Overview
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
7
8/19/10
Production Hardware / Software Overview
Editing
Grading
Adobe Premiere
Apple Color
Sony Vegas
Da Vinci System
Avid Xpress / Media
Composer
Autodesk Lustre
Apple Final Cut Pro
3D
Autodesk Maya
Compositing / Effects
Autodesk 3D Studio Max
Adobe After Effects (Layerbased)
Autodesk Softmage
Apple Shake (Node-based)
Autodesk Flint, Flame and
Inferno (Node-based)
Blender (Node-based)
The Foundry Nuke (Nodebased)
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
Production Hardware / Software Overview
Apple Final Cut Pro
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
8
8/19/10
Production Hardware / Software Overview
Adobe Premiere
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
Production Hardware / Software Overview
Avid Media Composer
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
9
8/19/10
Production Hardware / Software Overview
Adobe After Effects
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
Production Hardware / Software Overview
Apple Shake
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
10
8/19/10
Production Hardware / Software Overview
Autodesk Flame
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
Production Hardware / Software Overview
Foundry Nuke
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
11
8/19/10
Production Hardware / Software Overview
Apple Color
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
Production Hardware / Software Overview
Da Vinci 2k
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
12
8/19/10
Production Hardware / Software Overview
Autodesks Lustre
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
File Format for Video & Film Production
A file format is a particular way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file. Some file
formats are designed to store very particular sorts of data: the JPEG format, for example, is designed
only to store static photographic images. Other file formats, however, are designed for storage of several
different types of data: the GIF format supports storage of both still images and simple animations, and
the QuickTime format can act as a container for many different types of multimedia. A text file is simply
one that stores any text, in a format such as ASCII or UTF-8, with few if any control characters. Some file
formats, such as HTML, or the source code of some particular programming language, are in fact also
text files, but adhere to more specific rules which allow them to be used for specific purposes.
Filename extension
One popular method in use by several operating systems, including Mac OS X, CP/M, DOS, VMS, VM/
CMS, and Windows, is to determine the format of a file based on the section of its name following the
final period. This portion of the filename is known as the filename extension. For example, HTML
documents are identified by names that end with .html (or .htm), and GIF images by .gif.
Internal metadata
A second way to identify a file format is to store information regarding the format inside the file itself.
Usually, such information is written in one (or more) binary string(s), tagged or raw texts placed in fixed,
specific locations within the file. Since the easiest place to locate them is at the beginning of it, such area
is usually called a file header when it is greater than a few bytes, or a magic number if it is just a few
bytes long.
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
13
8/19/10
File Format for Video & Film Production
Codec - A codec encodes a data stream or signal for transmission, storage or encryption, or decodes it
for playback or editing. Codecs are used in videoconferencing, streaming media and video editing
applications.
Common known video file format & codec
AVI (Audio/Video Interleaved)
A file format for storing and playing back movie clips with sound on Windows-based PCs. An AVI file is
organized into alternating ("interleaved") chunks of audio and video data. AVI is a container format,
meaning that it specifies how the data will be organized, but is not itself a form of audio or video
compression.
MPEG1. This format is often used in digital cameras and camcorders to capture small, easily transferable
video clips. It's also the compression format used to create Video CDs, and commonly used for posting
clips on the Internet. The well-known MP3 audio format (see definition below) is part of the MPEG1
codec.
MPEG2. Commercially produced DVD movies, home-recorded DVD discs, and most digital satellite TV
broadcasts employ MPEG2 video compression to deliver their high-quality picture. MPEG2 is a "heavier"
form of compression that removes a larger portion of the original video signal than DV, however, it's more
difficult to edit with precision. The MPEG2 codec allows for selectable amounts of compression to be
applied, which is how home DVD recorders and hard disk video recorders can offer a range of recording
speeds.
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
File Format for Video & Film Production
.Common
known video file format & codec
MPEG4. A flexible MPEG container format used for both streaming and downloadable Web content. It's
the video format employed by a growing number of camcorders and cameras
DV (Digital Video)
DV is the format used by many digital camcorders, usually on Mini DV cassettes. Though the DV format
employs a form of lossy video compression (applied in real-time as you record with your camera), it's still
memory-intensive. When transferred to a computer, a DV clip requires roughly 1 GB of storage per 5
minutes of video. (Clips are usually stored on the computer as QuickTime or .AVI files.)
QuickTime
QuickTime is a file format for storing and playing back movies with sound. Though developed and
supported primarily by Apple, Inc., this flexible format isn't limited to Macintosh operating systems — it's
also commonly used in Windows systems and other types of computing platforms. In Windows,
QuickTime files usually appear with the ".MOV" filename extension.
WMV
.wmv: A Microsoft format. .wmv stands for Windows Media Video. .wmv files are tiny because they are
highly compressed. This is one of the smallest sharing formats, so it is for the end stages of your video
project.
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
14
8/19/10
File Format for Video & Film Production
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
Aspect Ratio
The aspect ratio of an image is the ratio of the width of the
image to its height, expressed as two numbers separated
by a colon. That is, for an x:y aspect ratio, no matter how
big or small the image is, if the width is divided into x units
of equal length and the height is measured using this
same length unit, the height will be measured to be y units.
The most common aspect ratios used today in the
presentation of films in movie theaters are 1.85:1 and
2.39:1.[1] Two common videographic aspect ratios are 4:3
(1.33:1), universal for standard-definition video formats,
and 16:9 (1.78:1), universal to high-definition television
and European digital television.
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
15
8/19/10
Letterboxing
Letterboxing is used as an alternative to a full-screen, pan-and-scan transfer of a
widescreen film image to videotape or videodisc. In pan-and-scan transfers, the
original image is cropped to the narrower aspect ratio of the destination format,
usually the 1.33:1 (4:3) ratio of the standard television screen, whereas letterboxing
preserves the film's original image composition as seen in the cinema. Letterboxing
was developed for use in 4:3 television displays before widescreen television
screens were available, but it is also necessary to represent on a 16:9 widescreen
display the unaltered original composition of a film with a wider aspect ratio, such as
Panavision's 2.35:1 ratio.
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
Letterboxing
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
16
8/19/10
Progressive Vs. Interlaced
Interlace is a technique of improving the picture quality of a video signal without consuming
extra bandwidth. Interlaced video was designed for display on CRT televisions.
Interlaced scan refers to one of two common methods for "painting" a video image on an
electronic display screen (the other being progressive scan) by scanning or displaying each
line or row of pixels. This technique uses two fields to create a frame. One field contains all
the odd lines in the image, the other contains all the even lines of the image. A PAL based
television display, for example, scans 50 fields every second (25 odd and 25 even). The two
sets of 25 fields work together to create a full frame every 1/25th of a second, resulting in a
display of 25 frames per second.
Progressive or non-interlaced scanning is a method for displaying, storing or transmitting
moving images in which all the lines of each frame are drawn in sequence. This is in
contrast to the interlacing used in traditional television systems where only the odd lines,
then the even lines of each frame (each image now called a field) are drawn alternately.
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
Progressive Vs. Interlaced
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
17
8/19/10
Progressive Vs. Interlaced
Interlaced
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
Progressive Vs. Interlaced
Progressive
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
18
8/19/10
Progressive Vs. Interlaced
De-interlaced
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
World Wide Video System
NTSC (480i) – 720 x 486 29.97 frame per seconds (FPS)
PAL (576i) – 768 x 576 24.95 frame per seconds (FSP)
© Copyright Queensland School of Film & Television 2010
19