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Transcode the HDV Demon
Despite the many lines of info I have just read Im still slighty confused. I have a large HDV job coming up and need to convert to the best format. Given that is a 2.4 Macbook Pro with 4g of ram I dont have a capture card or an Io HD so do I.
1) Capture in DVCPRO HD via Firewire
2)HDV native and transcode 2 ProResIf option 2 what is the best way to Transcode? Is it a simle as using the Pro Res sequence setting or do I need to run the HDV footage through Compressor.
In the past I have not enjoyed HDV to edit with so would love the advice on the best format.
Cheers
nath
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5 Replies
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Hello
When I last checked, the authority on the subject of HDV to DVCPro conversion was Graeme Nattress of https://www.nattress.com/. He thought it was a bad idea to convert HDV to DVCPro HD, manly because it introduced another level of compression. He also added that most top end Macs will handle the HDV (Mpeg2) stream just fine.
However, some others say that this second level of compression is worth it in order to get better quality transitions and titles within a DVCPro timeline. An article I read sometime ago gave the opinion that editing in HDV was fine for cutting projects only but suffered once graphics and transitions were added.
Now, ProRez is the new kid on the block and sounds very promising to me and from what I hear is better than the DVCPro codec and far superior to HDV in many ways. Exactly how much better, I don
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[Nathignite] “HD so do I.
1) Capture in DVCPRO HD via Firewire
2)HDV native and transcode 2 ProRes “1- HDV cameras & Decks are not capable of sending out a DVCPRO HD, so you cant capture DVCPRO HD from a HDV Tape via firewire.
2- With out an IO HD or a Kona Card you cant capture to PRORES, so if you want to convert the video to PRORES then you will want to use compressor
You can of course just edit the HDV footage in a PRORES timeline, doing this makes it so anything that needs rendering will be rendered in PRORES not in HDV.
In picking a workflow, I like to start from the end and work backward. Knowing where the video is headed you can then choose the beat bath to get it there. I might pick a slightly different workflow if I am only going for the web then if it will be going to DVD, and things might change a little more if I plan on the footage being shown in HD.
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The even easier way to do this is to cut in an HDV timeline, but set up the rendering options to use ProRes. When you’re ready to do a final render, change the timeline to be a Prores timeline. You won’t have to re-render any of the effects you’ve already rendered.
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Editing HD without a card and external HD monitor sounds like a problem waiting to happen. I have a client that edits HDV without a card & monitor all the time and then we Media Manage her show onto my computer. The first thing we see is all the problems with slo mos and frame blending settings on an interlaced monitor. This is music video so there are lots of image manipulations that all need to be fixed on the final monitor. Most of her issues could be sorted in the edit room but instead she gets to pay me to do it on a proper monitor. Then we grade.
An alternative is to offline using DV and then online with a machine that can ingest via HD SDI and use either uncompressed or ProRes. This puts no strain on your laptop during editing and gets the best result later. Recapture can be faster than transcoding through Compressor.
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Michael G
Well said…
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