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Any value to the Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC) for HDV in FCP 5?
I am currently editing HDV in FCP 5. Cuts only works fine in native HDV, but everything bogs down when doing effects/layering. I know that DVCPRO transcoding would help here, but at a cost of increasing disk space for the project by 5 times. The Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC) transcoding involves only a small increase in project size.
Does transcoding from HDV to AIC give one performance benefits? How much better is DVCPRO in terms of rendering speed? It seems that the AIC might give me a lot more ‘bang for my buck’ than DVCPRO.
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7 Replies
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All the reviews I’ve heard say stay away from the AIC for HDV work. If you want to improve the performance and quality of your image, go uncompressed 8 or 10bit HD into the system.
DVCPro HD is a gorgeous codec as I use it everyday with native Varicam material.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.comDirector, “The Rough Cut”
https://www.theroughcutmovie.comNow Posting “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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[walter biscardi] “All the reviews I’ve heard say stay away from the AIC for HDV work.”
Walter,
For the record, I’ve heard the same thing. However, there was a fellow who gave a presentation at the LAFCPUG meeting a few months ago, who had a program that showed how much video information was actually lost when converting to AIC vs. DVCProHD. According to what he showed us, AIC retains considerably more video information than DVCProHD with similar or smaller files sizes. Perhaps Michael Horton can tell us who that fellow is so that we can all look into this further.
DRW
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HDVxDV. Brad Wrights utility for converting HDV to whatever you want to convert it too. He’ll be at the lafcpug meeting tonight
Michael Horton
lafcpug
https://www.lafcpug.org -
Wow Micheal, that was fast. I would have thought you’d be memorizing your lines now for tonight’s performance. Of course, having been to a few of those performances, I guess I should know by now that everything is completely improvised.
DRW
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Yes…it was a comparison of HDVxDV vs AIC…and HDVxDV was the better compression.
At another LAFCPUG meeting…the one at the DV expo, A director and a man from AJA (Jon Thorne) gave a presentation on capturing the JVC HDV format shot at 24p as DVCPRO HD using the Kona 2. Even then they stated that the DVCPRO HD codec treated the footage nicer, smoothing out areas of bad artifacting.
Here is the writeup on that process:
https://www.aja.com/pdfs/AJA_whitepaper_HDV.pdf
Shane
Alokut Productions
http://www.lfhd.net -
Shane will be at the lafcpug meeting tonight too as a Guru. He’s at home right now improvising ways to not get stumped.
🙂
Michael Horton
lafcpug
https://www.lafcpug.org -
That’s right. Practicing in front of a mirror right now.
Shane
Alokut Productions
http://www.lfhd.net
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