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FCP HD formats
I’m shooting a 35mm short that we want to transfer to HD for an edit in FCP. We were planning on using Duart for the transfer. We would finish on HD, but keep the film in case a distributor wants a film final version.
Duart has this info posted on the website:
“Your 35mm or 16mm film can be transferred to D1, D2, D5, D5-HD, HDCAM, DVC ProHD, Digital Betacam, Beta SP, DVC Pro, Mini DV, DVCAM, Umatic, Umatic SP, Hi-8, 8mm, SVHS, VHS, DVD and to Files.”
I was going to transfer the 35 film to DVCPro HD Files on a Hard drive, because that is the codec that comes prepackaged with my Final Cut Pro. Should I be looking at the other HD formats? Does FCP handle DVCPRO HD better than other formats? Are there increased costs if I use other codecs?
Thanks for your input,
Jay
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10 Replies
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Are you planning on the final film being transferred back from HD onto film, or are you planning on having the negative cut?
DVCPRO HD is a compressed form of HD that FCP can capture via firewire. But it isn’t suitable for blowing up to film. What people generally do (what I did) was trasnfer the film to D5, have DVCAM dubs made with matching timecode, edit and then go to a facility that could edit with the D5 master and online the project. Then you have a D5 master than can be transferred to film.
To edit any other form of HD other than DVCPRO HD you’ll need an HD capture card and high speed drive RAIDS, which is why it is wise to online and finish at a facility that has that setup.
Shane Ross
Alokut Productions
http://www.lfhd.net -
Shane is absolutely right…however, i’m not sure if this solves your issue.
If you are doing a “film out”, then that’s another discussion.
But it seems that film is a “back-burner” option, and you are trying to make your final product on video tape. If that’s the case, then DVCpro HD may be fine. It’s not the best, but it’s certainly the cheapest.
Also, you will need to find a lo-res setting to edit your film anyway. It doesn’t make sense to edit in full res, unless you have a raid, with tons of gigs to spare. DVCpro HD is pretty good quality, considering the amount of hard drive space it takes up.
I just cut a film on HD-CAM…but the final product was for broadcast. If I had to do it over, I would have used DVCpro HD…it’s not exactly as good as HD-Cam, but a lot cheaper to rent the decks.
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[Berry Helfand] “I just cut a film on HD-CAM…but the final product was for broadcast. If I had to do it over, I would have used DVCpro HD…it’s not exactly as good as HD-Cam, but a lot cheaper to rent the decks.”
I do not agree with that Berry,
I have found that my HDCAM masters to not be as good as they can or should be for mastering, I still prefer D5 over HDcam (SR is a different matter) How can you say that a 3:1:1 color space can be better than something that is 4:2:2?Gary Adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation
Chicago, IL USA -
The way I understand it, you’re having it transferred directly to disk. So the cost of a deck rental isn’t an issue. In that case, I go with the best format possible (assuming this is going to be a film-out or a video master). Disk drives are very cheap nowadays.
Your concern was that DVCPro comes with FCP. While that’s true it comes with it, it implies that better formats do not come with it. That is incorrect. You can edit uncompressed in Final Cut without having to purchase anything else (other than the disk drives).
Sean
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Thanks for all the advice. Yes, the plan is to finish in HD, but we’d like to keep open the option of returning to film in the end. We’ll probably have to transfer back to film from our HD footage because we will be adding some special effects & computer generated shots.
I have edited DVCPro HD with FCP, but I have never edited with D5. I looked at the sequence preset settings, and I don’t know how to configure the sequence preset for HD footage for anything besides DVCPro HD. Is there a downloadable preset for D5?
If I have all the footage transferred to D5, then I could use FCP to make some lower rez files with the same timecode for offline editing, correct?
Thanks again.
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D5 would be digitized at uncompressed 10-bit 4:2:2 or 4:4:4, depending on the capture card you get. DVCPRO HD does not require a capture card, or anything more than FW800 or external SATA Raids, but once you want to capture D5 at full resolution, then you are looking at a Decklink 4:4:4 card, Kona 2 (or Kona 3, depending on your model of G5) and Fibrechannel Raid drives…plus an HD monitor and D5 deck rental. Unless you know what you are doing, then I’d suggest against this. Find a place that has an HD FCP Online system and operator, and a D5, and have them do the online for you. Then transfer the D5 footage to DV, or DVCPRO HD if you have the room, and perform the “offline” creative cut.
Shane Ross
Alokut Productions
http://www.lfhd.net -
[Shane Ross] “D5 would be digitized at uncompressed 10-bit 4:2:2 or 4:4:4, depending on the capture card you get.”
Shane
sorry dude but the D5 deck is not Dual link only single link HDSDI. so its 4:2:2 only.
Gary Adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation
Chicago, IL USA -
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I would be getting all the footage transferred to D5 on a hard drive by the film developer, so I would never have to capture it, or output it to a tape, I’d go straight to DVD. I just wanted to make sure FCP could handle the footage.
I’d probably convert the footage to standard definition to edit it, so the machine doesn’t get choked up, then I’d go back to the D5 footage for the final online.
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FCP won’t choke. As long as you have a fast drive array capable of HD, like a Fibrechannel or SCSI 2 array, or an 8 drive SATA RAID. You can edit full res HD all day long.
Shane Ross
Alokut Productions
http://www.lfhd.net
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