Anyone export to Beta SP?

[RedGiant]

I know it's a sin going from 4k to Beta SP, but that is the format that some festivals are still using. I am wondering how to get our footage ready to master in Beta SP. We will be exporting to tape in a studio (not sure if they use FCP or PC software - assuming mac) which has Beta decks, proper hardware to get from computer to deck, etc. No, we can't ask the studio's post guy what settings, as we will be doing this process ourselves within the studio.

Am I being naive or can we just take a hard drive in (with a properly formatted file) drop it in a timeline and print to tape? Am I missing something, is it more complicated than that?

In addition, I was reading the frame size must be 720x486, not 720x480. Can anyone confirm that?

If we downconvert to the proper frame size and change the frame rate to 60i - then take that file in on a hard drive can't we just drop in timeline and export to Beta tape?

I'm not very technical with this stuff so any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Mark Crabtree]

oh boy, whole can of worms here. Red 4k is great. Any 4k is going to be very over sampled for 1080. The trip from 4k to 1080 is a no brainer. Using RedCine or Red Alert or Scratch you can make great 1080 from R3D 4k. Even 1080i. Not so with SD (720x468) 59.94i. Turns out the trip is just too far from 4k to SD 60i. The extreme over sampling creates massive aliasing when doing direct renders from 4k to SD 60i. You will only see it when you look at this SD 60i on a regular interlaced monitor. Any horizontal or diagonal lines that move in a verticle direction will waffle in and out and the will display heavy aliasing. So far it seems the best solution is to output a 1080 SDI from your NLE into an HD deck, Sony or Panasonic. You can lay off to tape and recapture from the deck's SD 60i SDI out or use EE and go from one NLE to another if you have more than one. The aproximately $25,000 Teranex does almost as good a job as the decks. My favorites are any of the VariCam type decks like the 1400. If you search you'll find lots of posts on this. You will have the same problem going from P2 1080 to SD. This problem is a real pain I know but real it is.