Capture HDV as DVCproHD with Kona LH and firewire control

[David Roth weiss]

[Erik N] “I did try the HDV capture as Prores and that worked well but I would like the option of batching and I dont think I can do that with prores.”

Capturing HDV to Pro Res via firewire captures every take on a tape from camera start to camera stop on each tape, that sure seems like batch capture. Of course logging muct be done after the fact, but that’s no big deal.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

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A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Erik Naso]

Your right. I want to log and capture. Sorry about the wrong description. It would help if I can ask the question right. I think I need more sleep.

[David Mcgiffert]

Here Erik,

Take two of these and get some well deserved rest.
We all know what it’s like…

All the best,

David

[Jerry Alto]

Erik- To get your machine control you need to open the log and capture window and select the Capture Settings tab and select your machine control there.

The normal Audio/Video settings won’t let you proceed.

Once you have have everything working right make an Easy Setup.

Hope this helps.

Jerry

G5 Dual 3GB Ram
FCP5 Studio
External 1 TB SATA Raid 0
Kona LH, Second system w AJA ioLA
Sony Z-1

[Erik Naso]

Thanks. I will try that again. I was in easy setup using the firewire settings. I tryed all of them with no luck so went to log and capture and changed the capture setting to firewire. I did try all the available firewire settings but none worked for my XH-A1.

[Tim Allison]

I’m confused. ProRes422 is just a codec, just like DVCproHD. How come you can batch digitize with one, but not the other?

I don’t have a Kona LH, but we do have a Kona 3 and an Io-HD. Select ProRes or DVCproHD in the Easy Setup menu. After you do this, you will probably need to go the Audio/Video settings, and change machine control to Firewire. That always works for me.

[Michael Gissing]

I used to capture from a Canon H1 via HD SDI uncompressed using firewire control. The camera had to be set to downconvert to DV via firewire and then machine control worked in a custom setup.

That said, transcoding to DVCPro100HD via component inputs is not a good workflow compared to straight ingest as HDV and setting render to ProRes. You don’t want the double hit of component conversion and transcoding to Pro100. Messy workflow and technically more of a drop than HDV in and ProRes render.

I am happily doing that with a 2.5 G5. Personally, I can’t see any point in considering DVCPro 100HD unless it is also your camera format. I don’t see a role for it in HDV particularly since ProRes.

[Erik Naso]

I want to do log and capture. Mainly for safety reasons. If my drive dies then I will be able to rebiuld the project and relink the video to my sequence. Batching the whole tape in HDV to prores wont give me that option. Final Cut wont log and capture HDV to Prores. I am working on a training DVD series that has several hours of HDV. If the only way to achieve my goal is to log and capture in HDV and render in prores then I will go that way.

Thanks.

Erik

[Michael Gissing]

[Erik N] “If the only way to achieve my goal is to log and capture in HDV and render in prores then I will go that way.”

The transcoding is the same and it uses less drive space than going to ProRes on capture.

That said, there are some that don’t like editing in HDV. I am recapturing and onlining documentaries and I have not found issues working with the HDV in via firewire and ProRes render workflow.

[Erik Naso]

Thanks for the info. I think I need to reevaluate my work flow. At my day job I use Avid with standard def only. My home studio is Final Cut. I am not as savvy with Final Cut yet but getting better and to honest the HD thing is giving me a headache. When I finally come to a solid work flow with HDV I know it will be much easier just not their yet.