HDV to ProRes- Trying to Cut Through the Information Overload

[Shane Ross]

[Bill Doyle] “It’s my understanding that option A means a whole tape capture, no logging”

Well…not as one big clip. It brings it in as several clips. Every start and stop of the camera will be a separate clip…so you might have a LOT. Now, another drawback to this method, you cannot BATCH CAPTURE. You cannot batch capture HDV as PRORES without a capture card.

[Bill Doyle] “. Is it a big deal to simply make subclips from the capture?”

Nope, you can subclip all you want. But again, the tape will be broken up into one clip per shot, so…

[Bill Doyle] ” If I use B or C, will any bins remain?”

Yes….and those bins will have the original footage in it. Your other clips will be on the hard drive you exported them to…not even in the project. You will now need to bring those into the project and organize them. Any MASTER COMMENTS or other field information you had on the original files WILL NOT transfer to these files, you will have to redo those. Since I know the Intelligent Assistance software thrives on those.

[Bill Doyle] “Do the ProRes files appear in the browser? Are they organized?”

Nope…and nope. You will have to import and organize.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Bill Doyle]

Shane,

Thanks for the quick reply. I do recall about the separate clips for start/stop, but a lot of my tapes are one per interview, so there are no stops.

If I won’t be exporting to HDV later should I just use the ProRes capture through FireWire method and then create my bins, make the subclips, add the Master Comments and proceed to edit as normal? Are there any caveats to using subclips?

I also saw one post that recommended turning off the “abort on dropped frames” option. I’ve always left this checked– your thoughts?

Thanks,

Bill

17″ MBP (1st gen Intel 2.16 GHz) w/ 2 GB RAM running OS 10.5.6, FCP 6.0.5, QT 7.5.5, 23″ ACD, Matrox MXO, Canon XH-A1

[Chris Poisson]

For what it’s worth…

https://library.creativecow.net/articles/poisson_chris/hdv-prores.php

Have a wonderful day.

[Shane Ross]

[Bill Doyle] “If I won’t be exporting to HDV later should I just use the ProRes capture through FireWire method and then create my bins, make the subclips, add the Master Comments and proceed to edit as normal?”

Sure…should be fine.

[Bill Doyle] “Are there any caveats to using subclips? “

Hmmm…not that I can think of offhand.

[Bill Doyle] “I also saw one post that recommended turning off the “abort on dropped frames” option. I’ve always left this checked– your thoughts? “

ALWAYS leave that on. If you drop frames you don’t want that clip as your timecode might be messed up there making a Batch Capture of the footage later impossible, or the image will skip and jump and not look good.

Now…the BIG danger of capturing HDV as ProRes via firewire. If you lost your drive or your media by some catastrophie or another…you CANNOT RECAPTURE it exactly the same way and have it reconnect to the sequence. The start or stop time might differ by a few frames. So if you lose the footage, then it is gone and you’ll have to reimport and redo the cut. Also, if you try to recapture the footage with a Capture card (that you might have gotten later), you can’t. There is no PreRoll on that footage that will allow for this (this is a danger of CAPTURE NOW). So capture the footage, and back it all up on a separate drive or drives.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Bill Doyle]

Shane and Chris,

Thanks for the input. I guess it’s about time I gave this all a try. Shane– excellent caution regarding the re-capture dangers. I have a Drobo I use for backups so I’ll put a copy of the video files there after capture.

Bill

17″ MBP (1st gen Intel 2.16 GHz) w/ 2 GB RAM running OS 10.5.6, FCP 6.0.5, QT 7.5.5, 23″ ACD, Matrox MXO, Canon XH-A1