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HDV and Prores workflow suggestions
Hi-
So, I’m starting a project in FCP 6 and am curious if anyone has any workflow suggestions that take advantage of the new integration features.
My source material is NTSC HDV shot with the Panasonic GY-HD100. I’m bringing it in via the Aja LHe board. My tendency before was to bring everything in AjaKona LH: 720p 59.94 DVCProHD via the component inputs because of the relatively low data rates and high quality. I’m starting on a much larger project that will be in various stages of production and post production for years and am wondering if people have suggestions.
1. Can anyone recommend a codec that approaches the quality of DVCProHD but that takes up even less space. I’m going to up-rez way down the road but I’d like something that is fast and easy to convert later on.
2. What about Pro Res? If I decide to keep my project at fairly high quality is there any reason not to go with the Pro Res codec? I know the jury is still out on this but it seems like an improvement over DVCProHD and it only takes up slightly more space.
Any suggestions would be very much appreciated. Thanks to all on the cow for all of your help.
Quinn
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10 Replies
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[qcostello] “NTSC HDV”
🙂 NTSC or HD. Can’t be both.
[qcostello] “Panasonic GY-HD100”
The GY-HD100 is a JVC camera.
[qcostello] “Can anyone recommend a codec that approaches the quality of DVCProHD but that takes up even less space. I’m going to up-rez way down the road but I’d like something that is fast and easy to convert later on.”
Photo-JPEG @75% is smaller than DVCProHD I believe, and the quality is better. You run into other issues though. Effects render as RGB, effects are not real-time, and Final Cut doesn’t officially support it except for OfflineRT. DVCProHD is pretty small. I don’t know why you need to squeeze it any more. Buy more hard drives. You can buy 400GB hard drives for $90 nowadays.
[qcostello] “What about Pro Res? If I decide to keep my project at fairly high quality is there any reason not to go with the Pro Res codec? I know the jury is still out on this but it seems like an improvement over DVCProHD and it only takes up slightly more space. “
No, the jury is not still out. It never was. ProRes is a much better codec. It’s not “arguably” better. It is better. No controversey.
But it’s bigger. Twice as big. You said you wanted something smaller.
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Sorry about the screw-ups in my post. I meant HDV recorded with the JVC GY-HD100.
I recorded some test footage using the regular ProRes setup and it said it only took up about 15 percent more space than DVCProHD so, if I decide to stay at high quality, I think I’ll just go with ProRes.
I’m curious about the workflow that involves capturing native hdv through the firewire and then rendering in ProRes. I really want to capture with my LHe card because I can monitor it on my big screen as I go. I haven’t, however, found any info about an offline/online solution that makes use of my Aja capture card.
Sorry about all the confusion here.
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[qcostello] “I’m curious about the workflow that involves capturing native hdv through the firewire and then rendering in ProRes. I really want to capture with my LHe card because I can monitor it on my big screen as I go. I haven’t, however, found any info about an offline/online solution that makes use of my Aja capture card. “
Capture HDV over firewire. Edit the clips on a ProRes timeline.
You monitor while editing using your Kona. If you want to monitor while capturing over FW, plug the camera’s analog output directly into the monitor.
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Thanks for the response-
I’m assuming I should capture using the straight up HDV codec in the FCP Audio/Video settings.
Do you recommend re-capturing to the ProRes codec after I’m all finished or just leave it? Thanks so much for helping me work through this.
Quinn
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Edit native, don’t recapture (why?) and render to a prores timeline. What could be simpler?
Graeme
– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP
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Its funny. I’ve come across this multiple times. Some people buy a nice new shiny Kona card, only to learn that the best solution for their workflow is to capture firewire.
The Kona is for capturing and mastering SDI/HD-SDI. Digibeta, HDCam, D5, etc. With HDV, and DVCPro, you want to use firewire for capture. Furthermore, if you are mastering to those formats (which would be odd since no broadcaster will accept that as a delivery format), you should use FW for output as well. The Kona can still be useful for monitoring.
Sean
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Graeme,
is it better (after capturing, editing in hdv)
to change the codec to ProRes then render out,
or just capture to hdv THEN change the codec
of the sequence to ProRes so you NEVER render HDV? -
Borjis,
I think what Graeme was saying was that if you do all your edits and rendering in HDV and then copy and drop that into a ProRes 422 or Uncompressed sequence and render (or duplicate and then change the codec to ProRes and render), it will replace all the render files with higher quality ones. I think he would contend that it would be exactly the same as editing in ProRes but quicker for those of use with slower systems.
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Well, the new timeline allows you to set prores as the rendering codec. If your drive is up to is, and it should be, then that’s probably the most economic way to go.
Graeme
– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP
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But you could just as easily change the codec
of the HDV timeline couldn’t you?Or would that make the whole thing red and have to be rendered?
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