-
lost in “HD” land…
okay, the more i read about all the mutations of “high definition”, the more confused me gets. the Sony Z1U looks good (i mean, “sounds good”, as i haven’t seen the footage yet, but i hear rave reviews about it), and yet some networks arent’ accepting anything that isn’t shot on 1080i HDCam. then there is the JVC DVCPro HD100U, shooting 720p (though there is some talk of some convoluted way of “converting” it to 1080i) and also the Panasonic AG-HVX200 DVCPRO HD P2.
so to those of you doing HD broadcast shows, what are all you guys doing? maybe we could take a poll here. who is shooting on what, and what are you mastering to? i know these are basic but broad questions, but i’m at a loss as to which way to go…
thanks for letting me air this!
thanks for helping out a bonehead,
jtn
-
2 Replies
-
You’re going to have to read up on this stuff and learn about the subject. Onerivermedia.com is a great place to check out. The basic concepts are not all that complicated and they apply to SD as well as HD.
The Sony and the JVC are both HDV (the JVC is not DVCPro). HDV is prosumer quality and is the worst HD format available because it uses very heavy compression and will not withstand even a low amount of generational loss. That said, it’s probably better than shooting on any SD format. HD is that much better. Just don’t recompress to that format during any part of your workflow. Capture it at uncompressed during the finishing process.
The Panasonic uses DVCPro HD format which is definatetly a professional quality format – although barely. For any broadcast production, shooting on this format is absolutely fine, although like HDV, I’d avoid recompression and/or mastering back to this format after post.
Sean
-
There are many ways you can go but the one you ultimately choose will depend a lot on who you are shooting for and your media’s final destination. If you are doing stuff for broadcast, as you mentioned some networks not accepting certain footage, then you should perhaps talk to the network and find out what their minimum requirements are. HDV is really a prosumer format, so I dont think it was ever intended for a broadcast environment, however some of the new HDV cameras do have the capability of providing an output of the HD images via SDI or component before going to the DSP, which compresses it, to fit on the mini dv tape format. This would mean carting around a deck or NLE that could capture the footage directly from the camera. The best thing to do would be rent a couple of different cameras and try some different work flows and see what works best for your situation.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up