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best 1:1 DVCAM quality, firewire or component?
As the subject reads, in an online from DVCAM, what would render the better quality of picture once imported into avid? 1:1 Firewire in? 1:1 component in?
How about going out? Should we go out firewire or component for the better quality? Does any of this really matter that much?
Regards
Sam
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5 Replies
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I would certainly say that firewire would be the best option. DVCam (or any dv material) is already compressed when it goes to tape so the firewire “capture” is actually just a transfer of digital files. same when it goes back to tape, the quality should not change. I would think that to go component would require an analog conversion along the line and that could cause a loss in quality… though it would probably still look good.
Life is linear. Edit life.
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Depends on how much rendering and back and forth you aniticipate over Firewire. DV is compressed and every time you render anything, the file gets decompressed then recompressed. You can come in FireWire and once decompressed, capture as 1:1. Do all your work as 1:1 till the final output back to DV over FireWire or encode to MPEG2 for DVD, etc. That would be a higher quality than capturing 1:1 from analog component.
If the question is work in DV25 over FireWire versus analog 1:1, it would be pretty close and most likely not noticeable. It depends as the previous poster noted, how good the A to D converter is as well as control over the color and levels when capturing.
Michael
anything 24fps
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“how good the A to D converter is as well as control over the color and levels when capturing.”
That’s the big question to ask for component. I prefer to bring in my dv25 over firewire so it is exactly as it was shot, then do all color correction in Avid or (even better) on a DaVinci during tape to tape.
Life is linear. Edit life.
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Thanks a lot for your input. It was a question that it’s been nagging me for quite a while. I thought firewire would always be the better way but somehow I’ve been living in this silly limbo….
Another question though, how about HDV? Would it be easier to do a 1:1 HDV as HD component in instead of 1:1 HDV firewire in? Wouldn’t HD component in render a better and easier signal to work with compared to a HDV signal? How would avid digitise the HD component signal froma HDV deck? As HDV? (doubt it) as DVC PRO HD? Someone at the studio raised the question yesterday and we all kind of went silent…
Thanks
Sam
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If you decompress the HDV signal via an external device you will have an analog HD signal. Some devices will keep this digital via an HD-SDI Using an Avid with a DNxcel board, either the analog component or HD-SDI will be captured as one of the DNxHD resolutions.
Or, similar to the DV workflow already discussed, you can capture HDV over FireWire and work in native HDV which is an MPEG2 format. You can always transcode the HDV clips into DNxHD within the system and take advantage of the FireWire digital capture.
Michael
anything 24fps
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