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Downconverting to SD
We have an upcoming project shooting on the HVX-200. The project consists of ten one-hour episodes. The plan is to shoot in 720p but edit and deliver in SD. One other fly in the ointment is that the network would like delivery of an HD master (1080p) along with the SD master (although it will only be broadcast in SD at this point in time).
Our concerns in setting up an efficient workflow are centered on 1) downconversion of the 720p material captured on the P2 cards for SD editing, 2) archiving of the original HD material for future repurposing and 3) on-set transfer of the data on the P2 cards using the P2 store and/or a laptop.
(We are trying to avoid cutting in HD due to the large amount of footage and attendant RAID storage requirements- not to mention the always present budgetary constraints.)
Any help is greatly appreciated!
Bill
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3 Replies
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Cutting 720p in DVCPROHD is not much more involved than cutting in DV with FCP. The data rates are higher by a factor of 3 to 4 depending on your shooting mode, but not requiring raids or the like. It can be cut on a stock powerbook with the built-in hard drive for example. You would then have a solid master for the downconvert and upconvert.
Noah
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Noah, I think this is a valid question…how do you integrate footage acquired on P2 cards or a Firestore or like data drive from the HVX-200 (or other P2 cameras) into a standard definition uncompressed project or sequence? Creating a DVCPro 50 or DVCPro HD sequence is not always possible in some broadcast environments, as all work stations need to be the same, typically 8 or 10 bit standard definition uncompressed. In my world Digital Betacam is still the gold standard for broadcast delivery. I work with material acquired on many different tape or film formats but at some point they are down converted/transferred and/or frame size adapted (anamorphic/center cut/letterbox) to Digi Beta.
Or, with an HD originated tape or disc format that has a VTR or VTR like device for playback, those transport devices typically have hardware down conversion capabilities built in that can be used to output SD-SDI with the choice of center cut, anamorphic or letter box frames sizes to your SD uncompressed project. But how do you get this from a P2 card? Is it strictly a software render situation to get from the MXF file to SD uncompressed or does Panasonic have some VTR like box that gives this output in real time? If it is a software only solution is Apple’s Compressor what is used to down convert and frame adjust? Any help would be great as I think many of use in the broadcast world see this camera as a useful acquisition tool but are at a loss to figure out how to integrate it into an uncompressed standard definition workflow with out too much software based conversion.
Thanks in advance!John Pipes
Producer/Director/Editor
http://www.homerunfilms.com -
John, you said it much better then I did- thanks!
We are also concerned about the most efficient way to archive a safety copy of the footage and are particularly interested in what others are doing in the way of on-set workflow. What real-world transfer speeds are others seeing from P2 cards into the P2 store? And also from the P2 store out to a laptop?
As far as I know there currently is no VTR-like hardware device that will output downconverted SD from a P2 source. Am I missing something?
Thanks again for any help or suggestions.
Bill
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