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Dumb question: compressing HDV footage when capturing?
This is a dumb question, but is there any type of compression/loss of image quality when capturing 720p24 HDV footage?
Capturing with FCP 5.1.4 right out of the JVC GYHD100U camera, off HDV footage on mini-DVs via firewire to an external hard drive. Sequence/Capture presets set to HDV, device control set for HDV Firewire NDF 23.98.
Footage is captured as Quick Time files. Are these files truly 1:1 digital copies, and therefore make it unnecessary to go back and access the original tape masters via some sort of online scenario?
Some enlightenment would be greatly appreciated. Thanks very much.
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6 Replies
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If you capture through FireWire, what you get in your HD is bit by bit exacly what you got in your tapes. To get something different (compression or upgrading to other codec) the stream that come from the Firewire should be processed on the fly by mean of some hardaware or software.
rafael -
Thanks very much Rafael. Exactly what I wanted to know.
Rich -
Hi Dave, thanks.
Say I make a cut, just straight cuts, and export as a self-contained quick time movie. Have I lost any image quality from the original captured clips? Do I need to online from the original captured clips to match my cut to keep the image quality the best it can be?
As for rendered stuff (some color corrections/blow-ups/fades) what would you recommend? Taking the original clips to an effects house and reproducing my effects there, then dropping into the full sequence?
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks again
Rich -
No you’re not going to lose any quality if you do straight cuts. The only reason you would lose quality during a render is if you’re rendering back to an HDV native timeline, and this would be minimal quality loss. What you could do is set your sequence to render everything in “high precision 10-bit YUV” or duplicate your timeline and make this new copy a 10-bit uncompressed sequence, if your system can handle working in uncompressed. I do all my HDV work in ProRes, it’s 10-bit so your renders look nice, but you’ll need studio 2 for that.
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Matt, thanks so much for the info, really helpful. And thanks again to Dave and Rafael, too.
Rich -
Rich,
The most practical thing is to just put your native HDV in an 8bit (10bit is overkill IMO) timeline or in a ProRes one if your system can handle it. If your timeline is SD it will add the shift fields filter if your footage is not progressive. Do not let FCP change the sequence to HDV when you put in the first clip. You will have to render but it’s only one hit, quality loss is pretty minor. This has been my workflow for more than 6 months now, works great.
Have a wonderful day.
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