• Adobe Premiere Pro

  Capturing HDV footage

  Posted by Chris Bowman on August 11, 2010 at 10:58 pm

  Hi all,

  Apologies if this has been asked time and time again but I cant seem to find a clear answer.

  Basically I use a Sony Z5 camera to shoot and I edit in PP. Up until now I’ve only ever worked with standatd DV footage. However, I’m fully aware that my camera will shoot at 1080i so would like to take advantage of this.

  My question; Do I capture the 1080i footage in the same way I capture DV? i.e. via the firewire cable. Or do I need to purchase new hardware to cope with the HD footage? HD Cable? Capture Card?

  FYI – I’m a pc, and windows 7 was my idea. 😉

  Many thanks. C.

  Jon Barrie replied 15 years, 9 months ago 3 Members · 4 Replies
• 4 Replies

• 

  Todd Kopriva

  August 12, 2010 at 1:54 am

  Here are a couple of pages that you should check out:

  – setting up an HDV system

  – capturing HDV footage

  ———————————————————————————————————
  Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
  Technical Support for professional video software
  After Effects Help & Support
  Premiere Pro Help & Support
  ———————————————————————————————————
• 

  Jon Barrie

  August 12, 2010 at 3:55 am

  Nothing extra. Same FireWire cable. External hard drive to capture to and playback. Just make sure the capture settings are set to HDV. that’s it.
  – Jon

  Jon Barrie
  aJBprods
  Jon’s YouTube Tutorial Page
  follow Jon with twitter
• 

  Chris Bowman

  August 12, 2010 at 10:47 am

  Excellent! Thanks guys.

  Now, another question. And the real reason for me posting…

  Basically footage was accidently shot (not by myself, I’d like to point out!) in 1080i format instead of DV, and for this particular project, the outcome needs to be a DVD in standard definition, 16:9.

  So what is the best way to compress the HD footage? Is it simply a case of scaling down the footage in premiere to fit the 720 x 576 monitor? Or maybe using additional compression software – I have a copy of WinAVI? or I did notice in the Z5 camera settings something about compressing whilst capturing?

  It goes without saying that maintaining quality is of the upmost importance.

  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

  Cheers. C.
• 

  Jon Barrie

  August 12, 2010 at 11:01 am

  I’m pretty sure the camera has an internal down converter so the Firewire signal is DV and captured as such. I’ve been working in shooting HDV and ingesting and cutting out to DV this way with the Z1P for years, since CS3 days. It’s probably the easiest way forward considering your project is DV and this is slip up and you plan to go to DVD. HDV still requires more rendering time, especially when scaling is involved.
  – JB
  PS: The down converter would be under ilink in the camera in/out settings.

  Jon Barrie
  aJBprods
  Jon’s YouTube Tutorial Page
  follow Jon with twitter

Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up