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What’s the best way to do HDV?
We are finally looking seriously at moving into HD and will probably start out doing HDV mainly due to the lower storage and processor requirements.
I currently have a Decklink Extreme card for SD work and was wondering if the better way to approach HDV would be either getting the Decklink HD Extreme card or going with Cineform’s Aspect HD codec. Is there any benefit to having both?
Other then this the only other initial purchase I can think of would be a monitor, and I am leaning towards the Dell ultrasharp 24″ for this.
I’m interested in any experiances with these workflows and and suggestions. Thanks. -
2 Replies
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Unfortunately CineForm and Decklink won’t work in concert.
I assume that Decklink is most likely similar to AJA with its own HDV workflow, which would consist of transcoding the incoming HDV to a Decklink codec, probably a lightly compressed one, making some really large files…or it might be able to play back native HDV within an uncompressed project environment, allowing you to avoid native HDV render issues, but keep the files at their native size. I’d definitely get some definitive info from BlackMagic on the specifics.
CineForm’s Aspect HD is srictly software. Aspect transcodes HDV to a variable bitrate (HDV is constant bitrate) 8 bit codec with all frames available…no long GOP system. VBR allows more bits where picture content warrants it and is more efficient where the bits aren’t needed. While it won’t change the CBR footage from HDV, it does allow for very high quality transcoding from long GOP HDV and preserves quality very nicely through post. The Aspect codec is also available to After Effects and other software on your system, which is not the case with HDV native.
Monitors: I just used my Dell 24″ for a shoot yesterday. It works pretty well. LCDs take some getting used to… The 24″ is the most flexible monitor with the biggest variety of inputs including analog component. My 30″ Dell only takes dual link DVI…for which there are very few HDSDI converters even made right now.
TimK,
Kolb Productions,
Creative Cow Host,
Author/Trainer
http://www.focalpress.com
http://www.classondemand.net -
Thanks for the feedback. I’m sorta leaning toward aspect as an initial solution because it seems very flexible and I have only heard good things about it.
One I’ve had more experiance with HD I figure then I’ll start making hardware choices. We plan on renting cameras for the first few jobs to see what we like best.
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