-
DV footage capture to what codec?
I’m updating a film I shot and made on DV years and years ago when archiving whole projects on a hard drive was unaffordable.
So, I’ll be recapturing the tapes to FCP to intercut with new footage to be shot on HD on my F3. What a mix.
Is there any advantage to digitising the old DV footage as prores? It’s not going to get any better and there are not many effects to be added (so re-compression is minimal).
Mickey
-
5 Replies
-
If you recapture as DV then it is just a straight data transfer. Once in FCP you might want to use Compressor or third party software to do the scale up to HD. At that stage the rescaled footage should be Prores 422.
Compressor with frame controls on will rescale better than FCP plus you can change the field order to upper in the one pass.
-
I’m taking the alternative SD route. The delivery format will be DVD and the new footage in HD will only constitute 20% of overall program so I’ll be downscaling the HD.
Is capturing to pro res from DV still worth it? I can capture directly from firewire or through my mxo2 mini.
Mickey
-
No real advantage in converting to ProRes on ingest as DV runs fine in FCP. However I would recommend doing the final render in a ProRees422 sequence so that the final material, particularly graphics are rendered in a codec that doesn’t kill text like DV.
The downconverted material can be ProRes422 in SD. If you convert to ProRes on DV ingest, you may lose source timecode. That is the case going firewire in from HDV to ProRes. If so it is another reason to stick with firewire DV ingest.
-
Thanks, I’m already capturing in DV and will set the sequence as SD prores422. It’s interesting how many people have recommended digitising in prores, swearing that it ‘looks’ better.
Mickey
-
It certainly looks better to render in ProRes especially with grades or other plugins applied and text. There is no other advantage.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up