• Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

  Pro Res 422 & HDV – which one???

  Posted by Joe Louw on February 8, 2009 at 12:26 pm

  I’m new to this video industry and I’m learning at a super fast pace.
  Just one obstacle I’m facing now which has probably a very simple answer. Although my question might be long, the answer might be very simple. So sorry for the long question but here goes.

  I’ve been told that when you shoot HDV, you should get out of the HDV (MPEG 2) format as soon as possible because you are editing in GOP. Now I understand the whole GOP structure and I know that you are working with 15 pictures and it is not the best way to edit. This all makes perfect sense to me.

  I’ve just started capturing my HDV footage (shot on 1080 50i PAL) in FCP. I’m working through Essential Editing from Larry Jordan (I know the information given in the lessons might be out-dated but he mentioned working with HDV the best is to capture it HDV, edit in HDV and export in Pro Res 422). I read an article yesterday on the internet https://library.creativecow.net/articles/poisson_chris/hdv-prores.php explaining how to capture your HDV footage in FCP with Pro Res. I’ve done a small test and discovered that the Pro Res file size is 4.5x bigger than the HDV footage. (My HDV footage average about 11.8GB per hour). Now the interesting test that I’ve discovered was that the captured Pro Res footage (which is the bigger file size) exports 4 x faster.

  Another interesting discovery was that both Pro Res captured footage and HDV captured footage, after very little editing, plays very well in Quick Time. BUT the captured and edited in HDV footage, plays with a pause just before and just after every cut (edit point) in VLC player. The edited HDV footage, captured in Pro Res, does NOT play in VLC player. But besides all these discoveries that I’ve made, my question is; HOW SHOULD I CAPTURE MY HDV FOOTAGE IN FCP????

  Should I capture it with Pro Res turned ON or just HDV?

  The type of editing that I’ll be doing mostly will be showreels and short 5 – 10 min clips, as well as stock footage.

  PLEASE, PLEASE HELP?????
  Regards
  Joe Louw

  Ryan Spanger replied 17 years, 2 months ago 2 Members · 1 Reply
• 1 Reply

• 

  Ryan Spanger

  February 21, 2009 at 10:15 am

  If your edit involves a number of layers, transitions, colour correction, keying etc then use Prores.

  If it is mainly cuts only then stay in HDV.

  Ryan Spanger
  Video Production Melbourne

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