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DVCPRO HD workflow question… Please Help….
Man, I need some help with all these new codecs….
I recently started editing a show that is intended, ultimately for SD DVD release, but I’m definitely having some qualms about the workflow for the production company I’m freelancing for…
They’re shooting 720p Varicam, importing on the Panasonic HD deck via the Kona and converting the footage to Uncompressed SD 8-Bit for the edit. Eventual masters are being made for delivery on Digibeta. This seems a bit funky to me. First off, I don’t understand why things wouldn’t be kept DVCPRO HD for the edit, the native format right? Isn’t the bandwith requirement smaller on DVCPRO HD than Uncompressed 8-bit SD? I’ve heard about some compression problems, but is the format stable? Most Varicam footage I edit in SD has been downconverted to DVCPRO 50 for the SD edit. I don’t see any advantage to Uncompressed SD since things will be compressed on DVD anyway… no heavy graphics or color correction to take advantage of the uncompressed format. Is Uncompressed 8-bit HD a bigger file than Uncompressed 8-bit SD? The bandwith requirement is higher, isn’t it? Converting to Uncompressed SD just seems like a hard drive space killer for no apparent reason to me. How big are the DVCPRO HD file sizes?
Wouldn’t it be better to keep everything DVCPRO HD, import from the DVCPRO HD tape over the Kona, keep it all native, edit in DVCPRO HD, then layoff and SD Master to Digibeta? Then there would be no need for going back with an EDL and onlining in HD if they ever wanted to remaster…. ? This workflow just seems all backwards to me…. Any advice?
– Jonathan
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3 Replies
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DVCPRO HD has a MUCH smaller filesize than uncompressed 8-bit SD or 10-bit SD. And there is no need to capture it with a capture card, you can capture it via firewire from a 1200 or 1400 deck just fine.
720p60 is 53GMB/hour
720p30 is 26.6 GB/hour
720p24 is 21.4GB/s
Uncompressed 8-bit is 61GB/hourI highly recommend capturing it native via firewire and edit in a DVCPRO HD timeline. When you are ready to make a DVD, just export via compressor and use one of the SD presets. There isn’t even a need to downconvert to SD and render. Compressor will render the HD as an SD DVD. 90 minutes took me 12 hours…but it is very doable.
Shane
Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net -
That’s definitely what I was going to recommend. I’m not running their post, I’m just freelance editing. Correct me if I’m wrong, but since the Varicam shoots and records to DVCPRO HD tapes, the inital content is already compressed 7:1, right? So what is there to gain by importing and working with a uncompressed codec? Especially since the final output is SD DVD. The quality is never going to be better than the original compressed image. If anything working in DVCPRO HD allows for a future HD DVD to be made, right?
Yeah I’m aware compressor can downconvert for encoding, but this is a big job, a 25,000+ discs, and compressor won’t be handling the MPEG2 compression, it will be done a replection house.
It seems like the best workflow is DVCPRO HD tape, imported DVCPRO HD codec, work in DVCPRO HD timeline, deliver DVCPRO HD master to be dubbed to Digibeta for the delivery…
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We’ve captured in 8bit SD for SD only edits off Varicam footage in the past. There’s nothing wrong at all with doing this workflow and quite honestly, the data rates for 8bit are not all that bad.
We’ll set the 1200A up to center punch the footage via SD-SDI and just come straight in 8bit and complete the edit.
Personally I prefer to edit in whatever format we’re going to deliver in and if the final delivery is SD, then I’m always going to go 8bit SD uncompressed. Even with light graphics work, the less compression you add to the graphics before you make the DVD, the better they will look on the DVD.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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