HDV Editing

[Stewart Mayer]

I don’t think you can use Premiere Pro 1.5.1 for HDV editing with Decklink cards for monitoring. 1.5.1 uses a licensed cineform codec. Premiere pro 2.0 changed this and uses the native Mpeg 2 stream for capture and editing and doesn’t do any transcoding.

I’ve successfully (somewhat) capured a HDV project via firewire, and then imported that project into a new Decklink HD project. The footage will then play realtime on the timeline via the Decklink card. However, HDV seems to choke up premiere pro 2.0 fairly easily, so I wouldn’t use it on a large project if I were you. Since they now have the great looking Mjpeg codec available with the new drivers for PC, i’ve been capturing my HDV via HD-SDI to Mjpeg and find it much more reliable to edit. But I still bring in a few HDV clips in a pinch if I only need a couple.

Stewart

[Brainwave]

Thanks for the reply Stewart!

Im thinking of upgrading my system to accommodate my new Decklink HD Extreme card.

I have a few more questions. i digitized all my clips in PP 1.5.1 using the cineform compressor. will it run smoothly with the new Deck link card or do i have to re-digitize everything? and will PP 2 work better with the HD extreme card?

thank you very much!

[Stewart Mayer]

Unfortunately, I don’t really know the answers to your questions. The Decklink card cards don’t do much processing, they are mostly input/output cards, except for the realtime downconvert on some. Most of the image processing (compression / decompression) is done by your CPU. If you can currently start a decklink project and play the cineform clips on your timeline without it choking, then the new card and new version of premiere will probably behave the same way.

If it doesn’t work, you might download a batch conversion utility (there are dozens of them on the internet) and convert all your cineform encoded files into decklink’s new Mjpeg codec that does play back in real time. I love the quality of this codec, and it brings the data rate down to about 15 megs a second for HD.

I’d recommend the upgrade to Premiere Pro 2.0. It has some issues, but seems more stable than 1.5. Then again, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. It’s good advice, but I have to admit to usually not following it.

stewart

[Stewart Mayer]

One more thing, if you like the “batch convert to mjpeg” workflow, don’t count on it to work with HDV footage captured with premiere pro 2.0. The HDV captured is very sloppy, and there are sometimes errors in the Mpeg stream probably intruduced by the cameras starting and stopping. Premiere Pro 2.0 ignores the problems so it is seemless, but third party file batch converters are not very forgiving and will just stop on a problem clip, or loose audio sync, making bath conversion a major pain. I just went through this. However, decoding the Cineform codec shouldn’t be a problem for the encoders.

Good luck.

stewart

[Brainwave]

Thank you very much for all your help sir!

We are ready to upgrade the computer so that we could
start the project…

Thanks!

[Igor Babic]

What is your destination format, SD or HD, DVD, HDV or HDcam?
All coversions from HDV in PPro2 are slow (time consuming) if you have lots of footage. ( From After Eff takes forever ) As far I have seen you can’t do preview thru decklink with cineform. With HDextreme you can preview HDV natively in PPro2 to external monitor but only on HD capable monitor or TV. Real time downconvert is no good.

[Brainwave]

Thanks Necemon!

I havent cleared that my director yet, but im guessing we’re gonna go for dvd. is blueray different from hddvd (is there such a thing?)
So are you saying that i should just stick with PP1.5.1? Man so im gonna do a lot of converting!
I digitized 7 tapes using cineform.
We’re setting up the new machine with the HD Extreme card now…i really hope it runs smoothly.
do you think i have to raid my 2 400 gig sata drives? or should i leave them as it is?

sorry if im bombarding you with all these questions…

thank you very much for your help!

[Igor Babic]

PPro 151 has lots of problems and also you can’t use him for cineform preview from DL hardware. Use PPro 2 as everybody on this forum suggested and as is recomended by BMD (and with their latest drivers) but update him with new cineform version for PPro2 (you will have preview only on your PPro interface). For HD uncompressed, 2 drives in RAID0 is not enough anyway. For HDV you dont have to stripe them, but if you want security, stripe them in RAID1 ( prefered, but this gives you “only” 400GB ) Cineform is better codec then HDV so stick with it if you have all sorts of recompression ( CC, titles, keys …) When you finish your project export to BMD Mjpeg for final check on HD monitor thru BMD hardware. It will run smoothly if you have hardware that is in the line of recommended hardwer from BMD.
PS
Capture all your tapes HDV native with BMD HDV setup from PPro2 (or analog component HD to BMD MJPEG! it is also recomended by BMD). With HD extreme you will have real time HD preview on HDTV(analog component). And no need to buy cineform. Export your final to BMD MJPEG for archiveing, its great in quality. Test and see if this is good for you.

[Brainwave]

Wow, thanks for your inputs sir. this will help a lot.

the machine is now running, the only problem is we still cant output to broadcast monitor. the big problem is, our monitor is just the standard sd monitor. we are trying to find workarounds to output…
we tried to pass it thruogh the beta cam and connect it to the sdi monitor, but it didn’t work. thats the only problem we’re facing now.

again, thank you very much for all your help!

[Igor Babic]

You can’t watch HD signal on an SD monitor in real time without downconverting, and thats not working well with HD extreme (right click on your desktop, enable and choose Black Magic DeckLink Display/Advanced/Adapter/List all modes..here you can choose what is your output resolution. Go also to windows Control Panel/Decklink/ here you will choose your hardware input and output, analog composite i/o is on Y wires)Hope this helps.