FCP HDV capture problem – PLEASE HELP

[Sally Lundburg]

I’m sorry this took me so long to reply, thank you for your response!
I am a little out of my league here. Before this I’ve edited short industrials, and experimental short pieces and a 1 hour doc that originated in super 8 and 16mm. These were all ingested via firewire and finished (SD) to either digibeta or mini-dv for transfer to dvd.
This was all shot in HDV and will be a 1/2 industrial doc. Our promised deliverables include (1 HD, 1 digibeta, and layoff to hardrive.) Now, I wonder why we said 1 digibeta and 1 HD…different formats. my partner works at a PBS affiliate where perhaps this is a standard deliverables, but I wonder if it was necessary for this project…as this project will be for internal dvd distribution. )

YOU WROTE:
[No Pro Res in that version as far as I know, however you could edit in DVCPro HD, or at least finish in that codec. How much material will you be loading for your edit? ]

I will probably ingest a few hours of footage for this 1/2 hour doc I’m guessing.

YOU WROTE:Depending on that, you could:
Rent some time with an AJA io-HD or Motu V3HD, taking the component output of the HVR-M15U deck, feeding one of those boxes and ingesting the material as DVCPro HD.
OR:Ingest your footage as HDV via Firewire, and then convert it via software to DVCPro HD.
OR:Do your basic edit in native HDV and then convert the material used (plus some handles) to DVCPro HD before you do any titles, graphics etc. ]

What is the advantage of converting to DVCPro HD?

YOU WROTE:
[But there are lots of factors to consider. How are you going to deliver this project? If you’re going back out to HDV, it might be best to stay in that codec instead of converting back and forth. ]

Deliverable answer above…since I am new to this and am on a small budget (so no new equip or software)…I”m wondering if I CAN just do this on HDV I anticipate very little effects other than lower thirds, titles and color correction. I could try and leave that to the online if I’m having problems. Also another editor I know with teh same camera and deck, down converts to NTSC when she captures. Is that an option? PRO and CONs?

YOU WROTE:
How are you going to monitor the edit while you work? You can’t feed the deck via firewire and see a picture on a monitor like you can with dv. With your computer a Matrox MXO is probably the least expensive monitoring option.
Wow…I looked up the Matrox…that looks great…will put that on my list, but not sure for now.
In the past I’ve monitored via firewire though my camera, now I’ve montiored capture via rca cables out of my deck. I didn’t know you couldn’t do this for the edit.

YOU WROTE:
[Are you anywhere near a major market where equipment rental might be an option?]
I hate to say small budget again. but I am also in the deep dark beauty of the mountains of the big island of hawaii. so I have to build my own empire. Slowly.

[David Smith]

[sally lundburg] ”
What is the advantage of converting to DVCPro HD? “

It takes a lot less computer power to play and edit with, because every frame is distinct. HDV’s “Group of Pictures” approach makes for small file size, but more computations as the current frame is usually interpolated from the previous and next I frames in the GoP structure.

[sally lundburg] ”
another editor I know with teh same camera and deck, down converts to NTSC when she captures. Is that an option? PRO and CONs? “

You wrote that you need to deliver an HD copy, so it doesn’t seem to make sense to down convert. If you only had to deliver in SD (and you said this was destined for internal company use via DVD) then that might be a very good option considering your current equipment and the workflow you’re used to.

You might find some of these links useful:

https://www.adamwilt.com/HDV/

https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/fcp_homepage_index.html

and this page, which is a big list of other HDV links:
https://www.stevengotz.com/hdv.htm

Regards,
David

[Sally Lundburg]

David, thanks so much for your reply. I will review all the links you sent.
This forum is incredibly helpful…much appreciated.
sally