Screening formats guide

Editing station
  • In most cases a Mac Pro with a video card (eg, Blackmagic, AJA), that sends a signal to SDI, HDMI or Component to the projector.
  • The use of a video card is required. It is possible to use USB video cards to send the SDI signal, making it possible to use laptop computers (eg MacBook Pro with a Matrox MXO or laptop with a Blackmagic Intensity UltraStudio or Shuttle)
  • Sans carte vidéo, on revient dans le domaine des Computer Media, beaucoup plus problématiques.
  • A technique widely used in film schools and some festivals.
  • quality
    09
  • reliability
    04
  • flexibility
    09
  • widespread in big cinemas
    02
  • widespread in small cinemas
    03
Benefits
  • High quality: an editing station can directly read the master avi or quicktime or mxf
  • Much better and cheaper than HDCAM
  • It's inexpensive to screen a film in a room equiped with an editing station: just copy the master on the station.
  • Flexible: it's easy to view a particular subtitle track or to choose a particular version of the soundtrack or of the audio
Disadvantages
  • Hard to implement if the room is not already equipped with an editing workstation
  • Is as reliable as the computer. But computers are more likely to interrupt a screening than VTRs are.