HDV vs Pro Res render times and size

[Neil Sadwelkar]

You can set your HDV timeline to render using ProRes that should speed up rendering of effects. Else your approach of exporting the HDV timeline to ProRes and then working in a ProRes timeline is the better approach, albeit at the cost of larger file sizes. But then, as you say, disk space is getting cheaper all the time.

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Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Walter Biscardi]

[J. Tad Newberry] “In a nutshell, i found that if I render/convert all my HDV footage to Pro Res (non HQ) first, then put it on a Pro Res timeline, the resulting render off that timeline is about 6 times faster compared to leaving it all as native HDV on a ProRes timeline.”

Of course because in your first scenario, FCP was rendering your effects in the timeline AND converting all the footage to ProRes in one shot. In your second scenario, you’ve already converted the footage.

This is why we own AJA Kona boards here. We convert all HDV footage to ProRes during ingest so it’s already in that format before we start the edit. It’s all done in realtime so there’s no time wasted in rendering / converting footage to ProRes.

I always recommend that if you get HDV originated footage, you get out of that format before you start the edit. Either ProRes or Uncompressed.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media

“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” featuring Sigourney Weaver coming soon.

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[J. Tad newberry]

I did the conversion of all clips to ProRes (overnight, and then some), put them in folders of the same name as the originals, though all in a main folder labeled “HDV conv to ProRes”. I open my timeline and attempt to reconnect all the clips to the media*, and it constantly only reconnects the first clip in the list…even though “Reconnect all files in relative path” is checked…

Hmmm…

*NOTE: I already had a rough cut going with the original HDV clips on a timeline. I copied all clips in the timeline and pasted them into a new ProRes timeline, hoping to reconnect the clips to the newly converted puppies (starting to sound like church for dogs, eh?), but just getting the fist clip in the list to actually reconnect)

Thanks again!

J. Tad Newberry
Big Ya Productions
Mac Pro 2.66 GHz Quad-Core
3 GB RAM
http://www.bigya.tv

[J. Tad newberry]

My painstaking workaround is this: select all the clips from a single folder/reel, keep “Reconnect all files in relative path” UNchecked, it will find the first clip in the list, i click “open”, then “locate” the next clip, scroll to it, “open”, and so on to the end of the list then “connect”…and they are all there.

Thanks again!

J. Tad Newberry
Big Ya Productions
Mac Pro 2.66 GHz Quad-Core
3 GB RAM
http://www.bigya.tv