-
Finishing HDV video with effects–should I transcode?
I am currently shooting HDV with the Sony HDR-HC1 and I have found that FCP does a great job with the native HDV footage for the basic editing. However, when I finish with titles and some simple motion graphics effects using multiple video layers I find the system becomes very sluggish (a DP G5 1.8).
Should I transcode at this final step to another codec to improve my performance? Since I have narrowed down my original footage to a much shorter piece by this point the time and drive space to transcode would be manageable. If I should transcode, what codec should I go to?
Thanks for any thoughts.
P.S. For those considering it the HDR-HC1 produces fantastic images at reasonable light levels!
-
2 Replies
-
Hey raltman
WE are doing a project we shot on hdv. we captured all the takes as separate clips instead of “one big capture”. This makes it easier for us to find stuff. I set up media manger to recompress everything dvcpro hd making a new project and about an hour later it was done. visually it looks the same as before, realtime performance is about the same or maybe a little better,but its rendering stuff a lot faster like 200% WE are doing a lot of speed tricks so its good we can render quickly.
I have done jobs at HDV and it seems my client was always asking ” i thought this machine was supposed to be fast?” After researching we found a few alternatives: Trascode it all to Apple intermediate but you lose the time code (even if you arent going to recap, timecode is how we locate stuff Apple DUH?) 10 bit uncompressed 1080i (huge files, like 3 gB for 20 seconds)
or DVCPROHD (files size not too bad, and its apple native!)Im sure there is a way once you have signed off on the takes you are using in your show to trasncode just that media to DVCPROHD. I would definitely do it to a new project as well (its agood idea to make a new folder for the media also. something like “MYProject DVCPRO HD”
The advantage to doing it hdv native is that it takes up less room on your media drives AND you can edit it on a laptop (but just cuts and dissolves. Once you start tricking around its render city!)
If I am missing anything, or am steering down a wrong road, could someone please chime in and STOP ME FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE STOP ME AHHHHH!!! 🙂
hopes this helps
bee eph -
Bob,
You’re thinking is accurate. There are only four ways to finish an HDV job properly, and keeping things HDV native isn’t one of them, unless its just cuts and disolves only without titles and efx:
1. Capture directly an intermediate (iframe) format
2. Transcode everything to an intermediate (iframe) format at an early stage
3. Transcode your cut project to an intermediate (iframe) format
There are valid cases for each depending upon the situation.
DRW
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up