HDV Workflow

[John Fishback]

There are many threads about this. So do a search to find more complete info. I’ve not edited with HDV, but my sense of it is most folks recommend capturing HDV as ProRes and editing in that format. HDV is a long-GOP format that’s a bear to work with. ProRes is a terrific editing format with high quality.

John

MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.5 QT7.5.5 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870
ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE Enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
24″ TV-Logic Monitor
Final Cut Studio 2 (up to date)

Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN

[Ron Craig]

I’ve done a bit of this. As John suggested, importing as ProRes is highly recommended. And, as he alsop suggested, there are a lot of threads on this.

I’ve had some audio synch issues when ingesting HDV as ProRes so keep an eye on synch if you go that route.

I think a better workflow — if you have the hardware — is to import from an HDV deck that sends a component signal to some kind of AJA card. In my case, I have an AJA box that converts the component signal to SDI and I then route that to my Kona 3.

Bottom line: Get away from HDV as an editing format. Don’t get me wrong, FCP can edit HDV. It’s just not the optimal way to go — mainly because the long GOP format puts some heavy demands on your processor.

[Steve Oakley]

I keep hearing this “HDV is hard to edit”, “its processor intensive”, ect.

would you please be specific. does HDV limit you to editing on 15 frame intervals ? no. does it some how not edit to the frame ? no. so tell me!

my short answer is, not HDV is not a problem at all…really. yes it does want more CPU time then **some** other codecs, but not all.

My G4 1.5ghz laptop captures and edits 720p24 and 720p30 HDV JUST FINE ! it’ll play without dropping frames, it’ll do dissolves, it’ll finally drop down once you put a 3 way color corrector on it. still very serviceable for basic editing.

my long gone G5 2.5ghz ate thru HDV for years

my 8 core 2.8 doesn’t even notice its HDV.

FCP stinks is with HDV capture. its just not reliable when doing native captures. using something like a MXO2 with HDMI / component / HD SDI ins and outs can make capture a lot easier. it also helps with monitoring too.