Captureing HDV and digitizing the selects back to HDV tape, lossless?

[Tim Kurkoski]

Capturing then exporting back to HDV will pass through two generations. The MPEG-2 stream data from the DV tape is transcoded into the Cineform Intermediate codec after capture. When exporting back to tape, the Cineform codec is transcoded back to an MPEG-2 stream.

I haven’t looked at the options in a while, but there is a function where you can save the MPEG-2 streams (rather than Premiere deleting them after capture). These can be sent back to the camera, but I think you need another utility to do it. Steve, Tim, help me out here?

[Steven L. gotz]

If you really want to edit the M2T file, you can get the MainConcept plugin.

However, the change from M2T to Cineform is practically lossless. And the conversion back is very clean.

I suggest you try it out and decide for yourself. It also depends on how you plan to distribute it. If it will be played back directly from the camrea, it might be noticeable if you look really hard. If you are going to do anything else, it probably will not be noticed.

Steven
Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5.1 / After Effects 6.5 Pro https://www.stevengotz.com
Learning Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 https://www.lynda.com
Contributing Writer, PeachPit Press, Visual QuickPro Guide, Premiere Pro 1.5

[Tim Kolb]

If you got a hold of an application that could handle HDV natively on the PC (Ulead or Pinnacle), and sorted your footage, you’d end up doing some MPEG re-compression anyway as the GOPs would have to re-order and that would require a new compression pass…and a lossy one at that.

PPro takes the footage and converts it fairly gently…you will probably end up with less loss than editing it native, but each circumstance is a little different.

TimK,

Kolb Syverson Communications,
Creative Cow Host,
2004-2005 NAB Post Production Conference
Premiere Pro Technical Chair,
Author, “The Easy Guide to Premiere Pro” http://www.focalpress.com
“Premiere Pro Fast Track DVD Series” http://www.classondemand.net