H.264 Pro

[Danny Hays]

I answered this on the Sony Vegas forum. Take a look.

[Luke Maslen]

Hi Scott,

H.264 is full resolution codec and will store a full 1920 x 1080 pixel image. By comparison, HDV deliberately loses some of the picture and saves it at 1440 x 1080 to keep the data rate low.

HDV uses 4:2:0 chroma subsampling whereas H.264 Pro Recorder uses 4:2:2 so the color is better with H.264.

This does not mean that you should rush out and convert all your HDV material to H.264 but if you have a choice of acquiring new material in one format or the other, I would suggest choosing H.264.

Regards,

Luke Maslen
Blackmagic Design

[Scott Francis]

I have not been able to see and “system requirements” on this unit..I currently capture via firewire to laptop and tape on my Sony FX1’s. The picture I see is MUCH nicer on my component preview than the HDV codec that I am recording to. What are the computer requirements for this unit? I have some older laptops that do fine with HDV, and since it is a hardware converter, is the computer just capturing data?
Thanks for your help!!

Regards
Scott Francis

Scott Francis
Mind’s Eye Audio/Video Productions

[Alex Gerulaitis]

Ditto, don’t see minimum system requirements. At the very minimum (pun intended), would like to see “any computer with a USB 2.0 interface able to capture up to 480Mbit/s (60MB/s)”.

It would be great to know the minimum OS requirements; how to set or change encoding data rates if possible; what are the pre-set or maximum encoding data rates for a given incoming signal.

Thanks!

Alex (DV411)