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Compare quality of DVD’s from HDV FTG VS SD DVD?
Hello,
I am deciding on a couple of camera’s to buy and know that things are most obviously moving into HD. However for event work at the prosumer level, which is what I am inquiring about today (not broadcast) and since I am thinking of things in terms of end product, as us old editors do, has anyone compared DVD’s made from a sequence cut in FCP, compressed in DVD studio pro and out put to DVD using HDV versus SD footage? Is an HVD master a big improvement or is it about the same once it’s all compressed for a DVD? I know folks are saying blue ray is here but at the most basic consumer level I am not convinced yet? Any one done any tests on the quantitative quality difference?
Thanks
Mary Ann -
2 Replies
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Most things cannot be distributed as Blu Ray only, not for a long while so real question for less than Hollywood releases is how long will it be before we can afford to do both.
The question of shooting HDV vs DV is more complicated than most consider. There is more to it then just quality. Going to HDV will add a lot of time to your workflow, can your projects/fees warrant this extra time? When you deliver in SD are you looking for still in 16:9 or do you need to reconform to 4:3, if you do it adds even more time to your workflow.
There are a few areas that make working (shooting) in HD more demanding. You need more light than DV, you need better lighting and you need more precise focusing. The lack of attention to these details will hurt a HD project.
My rule of thumb is never by anything for something that you maybe doing down the road because by the time you get down the road there will probably be better stuff for less money.
If you do want to take the plunge into HDV my one recommendation is to build an edit system that takes the footage out of HDV on ingesting. That way you are not editing in the HDV codec.
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Michael,
Thank-you for your response, I appreciate your time on this. And, I really agree with your position on this. I have noticed so many vendors so excited about selling all the new technology and I can understand that to keep pushing us forward into better technology but a reality check of exactly where we are right now with utilizing all these HD options is very helpful.
And a side note, a lot of the celeb’s I have worked with hate HD because of all of that great detail everyone is excited about….. and we ended up having to re-shoot some of them on another medium just to release the film.
Thanks again.
Mary Ann
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