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the truth about XDCAM
hey so it’s an odd time to be thinking of a new aquisition format as there are many competing technologies out there at the moment, P2, HDV, HDCAM etc… and who knows who will come out the winner.
so for us the thought of HDV sends chills down the spine what with its not widely advertised feature of turning your brand new G5 or Mac Pro into a beige G3 with its horrendous conform and render times.
what I’m wanting to know about XDCAM, is it just a glorified version of HDV? I know it’s an Mpeg2 based system but are they doing something that makes it much of a step above HDV?
the cameras look nice and the production workflow is not much differnt from tape based digibeta etc…
what about the post workflow is this still an Mpeg 2 Long GOP situation masquerading behind some snazy PR?
I want to be a beliver – can anyone help me?
G5 DP 2.0 (Power PC)
4.0G RAM
OS 10.4.8
QT 7.1.3
FCP 5.1.2
BMD Decklink Extreme 5.7.2
PAL Land -
27 Replies
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Not the best written article but it may give you some of the information you seek.
https://digitalcontentproducer.com/workflow/xdcam_high_seas_11282006/
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thanks for the link i will check it out
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You should get valuable information with this link from UK:
https://www.dvuser.co.uk/content.php?CID=144 -
On paper XDCAM is underwhelming. In practice, with the right NLE, it’s terrific. 35mbit mode is visually cleaner than 25mbit mode.
Heaving a cleaner camera head feeding the codec helps too.
I’ve worked with quite a bit of native DVCPRO HD/Varicam footage in FCP, and have native XDCAM HD material from my F350 as well. I’d never have a problem reaching for the XDCAM over the Varicam, any day. It’s not like DVCPRO HD at 24fps/40mbits is all that high of a standard to surpass.
New website, new work online:
https://www.nateweaver.net -
[paulos] “the cameras look nice and the production workflow is not much differnt from tape based digibeta etc…”
I think you’ll find the workflow is VERY different to tape based workflows. Although the 35mb codec is Mpeg2 based it certainly isn’t HDV it’s a completely different implementation of the codec and it shows in the pictures. As for editing on a Mac well I get pretty much all the RT effects with the 35mb codec I get with DV footage, certainly doesn’t slow my fast Mac down to a beige G3!
So there is a conform at the last stage if you want to go back to disc, but that only uses some of the vast amount of time you’ve saved while using the excellent XDCam HD workflow.
Biggest sales point for me apart from the Picture quality and price is that you can import clips from a disc whilst continuing to edit at the same time!
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We purchased 3 330’s and put HD lenses on them, we love the cameras and the pictures they make. The workkflow is the best part…. proxy footage for logging, saving days on the capture time. We found the conform and some labeling issues on clips to be the only real issues. Labeling the disc just takes time and needs to be done it’s basic housekeeping — just a bit more high tech. You need the clips to be labeled individually if you ever want to reconnect media. The conform was alot faster with dual 2.7’s 4 gigs of ram compared to a dual 2.o with 2 gigs of ram on the same project that we saw right away.
I posted earlier about settings with a Kona 2 card in the Kona forum with no response but I am testing some of the updated driver setting as we speak.
Good luck
Bob
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the conform is only necessary if going back out to XDXAM discs? so if you were going out to tape the conform would be unnecessary – is that correct?
thanks
G5 DP 2.0 (Power PC)
4.0G RAM
OS 10.4.8
QT 7.1.3
FCP 5.1.2
BMD Decklink Extreme 5.7.2
PAL Land -
At this time we are finding it necessary to conform when going back out to tape, it seems like its rendering. The timeline & media is native XD cam HD and now with the new drivers from aja for our kona 2 card which gets us out to tape with a SD downconvert seems to have some new settings that we’re trying, I’ll keep you posted.
There are so many different configurations ours is to deliver an SD version via our Kona 2 card and also a XD cam HD back to our XD cam HD (F30) deck via FAM mode.
Bob
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I’ve never had to conform laying off to HDCAM or Dbeta. If the timeline is rendered or full preview, it can be done without waiting.
New website, new work online:
https://www.nateweaver.net -
Hi Nate,
I would like to know how to do that…are using edit to tape? what is your configuration?
Thanks
Bob
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