DVCPROHD workflow on PC

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Peter,

I’m not sure if your HVX-200 system provides any software or codecs for working with DVCPRO HD on Windows. If it does, you should be able to transcode your DVCPRO HD material in to an uncompressed 8 or 10-bit format suitable for use with your DeckLink HD card. Does it provide some software for working with DVCPRO HD on Windows?

On the Mac platform, Final Cut Pro HD provides a DVCPRO HD codec in QuickTime which is then available to all video applications on the Mac as they all support QuickTime.

Unfortunately on Windows, there is no equivalent. I believe that Windows XP Service Pack 2 may have added hardware support for DVCPRO HD via FireWire but does not provide a software codec. So a video application such as Premiere Pro or Vegas would need to provide that and I’m not aware of any application providing DVCPRO HD support at the moment. Even if they did, the support would probably be limited to FireWire captures and might not work with media provided to you via another source, eg on a disk.

There are expensive proprietary systems on Windows which provide DVCPRO HD capture but that doesn’t enable you to share your files with anyone else in your facility or with a client unless they have the same system.

DeckLink cards are built upon open formats so you can give your files to anyone else and they should be able to open them. The most they might need is to download our freeware AVI and QuickTime codecs

I believe your camera also has uncompressed component analog output so one option would be to use your DeckLink HD in conjunction with a (US$1995) Multibridge convertor. The Multibridge will convert your component analog output from the camera in to uncompressed HD-SDI which your DeckLink HD will capture.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Peter Halverson]

Thanks for your reply. I don’t believe the HVX-200 will be shipping with a codec for Windows. It would be fantastic if they did, but I don’t think that is part of Panasonic’s plan.

Would DVCPROHD files playback realtime in conjunction with the DeckLink HD using Final Cut? or would I be forced to render them into the Blackmagic codec to work with those files?

Any comment on the HDLink and Apple Cinema 20″ for 720p?

Thanks again, I really appreciate the fact you take time to answer questions in this forum. Keep it up.

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for your kind words which make it all worthwhile 🙂

[Peter Halverson] “I don’t believe the HVX-200 will be shipping with a codec for Windows.”

That’s strange as it limits the usefulness of the camera with Windows PCs. I’m sure there must be logic to that somewhere!

[Peter Halverson] “Would DVCPROHD files playback realtime in conjunction with the DeckLink HD using Final Cut? or would I be forced to render them into the Blackmagic codec to work with those files?”

Yes, any DeckLink HD series card will be able to play back DVCPRO HD files in realtime using Final Cut Pro HD on a G5 with PCI-X slots. We will also have HD cards for the new PCIe versions of the G5’s in the next few weeks.

Final Cut Pro HD 4.5 and 5.0 install a DVCPRO HD codec which can be used system-wide on the Mac and is not limited to FireWire captures. DeckLink users often capture from a DVCPRO HD camera or deck to a DVCPRO HD timeline in Final Cut Pro HD and then perform monitoring and/or output in an uncompressed format to a D5 deck in real time.

You can even use FCP to capture from a full resolution 1920 x 1080 HD source, such as a HDCAM or D5 deck, and save to a Blackmagic HDTV1080 DVCPRO HD timeline. The captured file is amazingly high quality and this means you can capture and playback full resolution HD to a single disk, such as a FireWire drive. I have even been able to perform sustained capture and playback of DVCPRO HD to my iPod 3G via FireWire which proves how efficient this codec must be. The iPod should never be used for practical use but it demonstrates how nice this codec really is at about 14.5 MB/sec including audio.

Rendering of the files should not be necessary if you use the correct easy setup in Final Cut Pro. We install our own easy setups so that should be easy.

[Peter Halverson] “Any comment on the HDLink and Apple Cinema 20″ for 720p?”

Sorry I overlooked answering that question. Yes, the 20″ display has a resolution of 1680 x 1050 which is plenty for displaying 1280 x 720 material. There will be a black border around the 720p image as it will be displayed pixel for pixel for accuracy rather than being stretched. The discontinued 17″ ADC monitors from Apple were great for 720p as there was virtually no black border around them. If you want a big image and are not so concerned with pixel for pixel monitoring, then a consumer HDTV with HDMI input is a good option as they usually automatically scale the incoming picture to fill the display, no matter what the format. New HDLink’s include a HDMI adapter so you can choose to use HDLink with DVI-D or HDMI displays.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design