HDV to HD/SD-SDI

[Steve Connor]

OK – this is a much debated topic over at the HDV forum and there is a running thread over there at the moment if you want to take a look including some insight from Graeme Nattress.

If your rushes are all in HDV then it makes most sense to capture them native via firewire.

Do your edit in native HDV, despite all the hype editing in HDV on a reasonably fast Mac has no problems at all, you get lots of real time including scaling and colour correction and the long GOP structure doesn’t affect the edit process.

When you are finished, simply drop your finished timeline into a new ProRes one and render it out. This means all you CC and FX will be rendered out in high quality. At this point if you have a Kona or a BMD card then you can master to any HD SDI deck.

We don’t bother doing the conversion on ingest as the HDV codec is actually very space efficient and easy to edit with.

[Steve Mitchell]

that’s just the kind of info I was looking for, so thanks! One final question: how to drop the HDV timeline into a ProRes timeline. (If I was sitting in front of the screen i could probably figure it out)

[Chris Poisson]

Just make a new sequence in the project and drag the HDV sequence into it like a clip.

[Dave Mac]

Steve,

I concur with your advice completely. It’s also what Graeme suggested.

I just installed FCS 2 on a dual 2.5 GHz G5 and have been editing some HDV footage. No problems, good performance, etc.

When I’m finished, I will change my sequence render settings to ProRes and output that (or send it to Color first)…

In the end, you will get HDV transcoded to ProRes (or another codec) for the final render, which is only one more generation of loss. Transcoding HDV to something else on ingest will add one more generation of loss to the footage.

Best regards,

Dave

[John Schell]

There are a number of viable workflows here that give similar results, but a couple considerations need to be taken.
The advantage of capturing directly into uncompressed or prores is time and integration of other HD-SDI sources (among other reasons): assume 1 hour tape
uncompressed/prores capture (via analog or HD-SDI through a converter): 1 hour for capture (encodes to prores on the fly), editing in prores is realtime and no output render time needed (for most effects) if going back to HD-SDI output
Native HDV capture with drop into prores timeline when editing is finished:
1 hour capture + time for render to prores (not done during capture, at least 1 hour) + time for rendering effects (variable).

Workflow 1: Analog component out to HD-SDI using a converter or capture card conversion.
Advantage: This is a great, inexpensive way to get to uncompressed video or prores on the fly, especially if your capture card already has component input.
Issues: Analog conversion losses (take a look at this video that shows the difference between all digital capture (via HDMI in this case, but via firewire is the same result) and analog capture: https://convergent-design.fileburst.com/AvD.wmv
Another issue is handling the audio and timecode/deck control.

Workflow 2: HDV to HD-SDI converter (HD-Connect SI or HD-Connect MI)
Advantage: no analog conversion losses, easy connections enable audio conversion along with deck control (through RS-422) and timecode. Realtime scaling to 720p/1080i, standard def.
Issues: Additional Cost (we’re working on that, the HD-Connect MI is down to $595)

Workflow 3: native HDV with drop into prores timeline once editing is finished.
Advantage: Most inexpensive solution.
Disadvantage: additional time is required for render to pro res

Each workflow would only have 1 transcode to prores. Analog capture would give the worst results with native HDV and HDV to HD-SDI conversion giving the same results (quality wise).

Hopefully this is helpful. Let me know if I goofed up anything.

Regards,

John Schell
Convergent Design Inc.

[Keith Koby]

We have 3 convergent designs boxes now and I swear by them… It is the way to go. I do not agree with some comments above that editing HDV timelines and converting is the way to go. If you are going back to HDV for final output, then maybe. Otherwise, the time it takes to capture, edit, render, and re-render to another format is just not worth it.

In post, time is everything. If you are under deadlines, do the right thing to get the job done fast and at the highest quality. Messing around with a to d or re-rendering will cost you quality or meeting a deadline and ultimately could cost you more than that – your customer etc.