• Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

  HDV workflow…questions

  Posted by Mike A. on November 7, 2007 at 11:46 pm

  Hi,

  Im sort of new to the HDV editing world and had a few questions.
  Im shooting with the Canon XH-A1, using FCP 5 and will author on DVDSP3.

  First thing is first. Everything I shoot will end up on standard DVD with a few exceptions on Blue-Ray or HD DVD. So Im trying to get the best quality possible. I’ve been playing around on my own for awhile but haven’t been impressed with the results.

  So…how should I be captureing the HDV footage into FCP?
  Right now Im capturing through Firewire with:
  Sequence Preset: DV NTSC Anamorphic
  Capture Preset DV NTSC 48Hz
  Device Control: NTSC Basic

  If im right the Camera is down converting it to SD which is how I am editing it. Right? Is this the best way or should I be capturing another way?

  From there I encode through Compressor 16:9 and author in DVDSP. Playing back on an HDTV it looks ok, but I think it can look better.

  I guess I should wait to see if Im doing things right before I ask anymore questions.

  Thanks,
  Mike A.

  Chris Poisson replied 18 years, 9 months ago 3 Members · 4 Replies
• 4 Replies

• 

  Chris Borjis

  November 8, 2007 at 2:57 am

  I’ve done this with HDV footage and the best quality I found was to capture and edit the HDV as HDV.

  when your all done, export that timeline to compressor with a dvd setting and make sure the resize section of it is set to best quality. It will take 3 to 4 times longer than your timeline to compress it, but it will look fantastic with no aliasing.
• 

  Mike A.

  November 8, 2007 at 3:15 am

  OK….sounds good.

  What settings do I use to capture HDV? Is it possible to do through Firewire?

  Before exporting to Compressor, do I need to Export it as a Quicktime Movie first?

  Also, I saw in a magazine that there was a HDMI capture card available for Apple. I think it was $149. Would that work?

  Thanks Again.
  Mike A.
• 

  Chris Borjis

  November 8, 2007 at 7:02 pm

  [aazz44] “What settings do I use to capture HDV? Is it possible to do through Firewire?

  Before exporting to Compressor, do I need to Export it as a Quicktime Movie first?

  Also, I saw in a magazine that there was a HDMI capture card available for Apple. I think it was $149. Would that work?”

  yes it works over firewire.
  There are easy setups for HDV, use the appropriate one.

  You might export it out of fcp as an uncompressed or prores file before going to compressor, it will take less time that way.

  you don’t need to capture over hdmi, will not make any quality difference and you would need hdmi out from your camera which does not have that interface.
• 

  Chris Poisson

  November 11, 2007 at 3:46 pm

  AAzz44,

  About the HDMI business, your camera does not have HDMI out, but you can use one of the little Canon’s like the HV20 I believe. Of course, you will need an AJA iOHD or a Blackmagic Intensity card to capture it that way. Whether quality would be better is debatable.

  I do what was recommended, I capture native HDV from an A1 only I put it in an SD timeline set to 8bit. FCP will add the shift fields filter, unless you shoot 30p.

  Have a wonderful day.

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