Mixing HDV & MiniDV on same timeline without rendering? Possible?

[Steve Eisen]

Choose one or the other. Sorry, FCP does not mix formats.

G5 Dual 2.5 160GB System 400GB Media Drive ATI 9800 256MB 6 GB RAM
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[David Bogie]

[Zeeton] “I’m trying to edit HDV together with DigiBeta that’s been transferred to MiniDV for offline purposes. I need to mix them both on the same timeline, ideally without rendering. I tried HDV and DV NTSC timelines, and keep getting the orange bar, and it won’t let me play through without stopping.”

The CPU is set to handle the sequence settings, in your case, HDV, which is no picnic. HDV is a compressed format that requires interframes to be created by the CPU on the fly. Intense stuff. Anything other than HDV will require the CPU to run different processing routines, can’t do both at the same time, not yet.

But, (my own soapbox), I’m confused by the statement that you “must” use both formats in the same timeline. How would that help you in the end? If you are printing out to HDV, the other formats will all have to be converted sometime. What you want to do is convert your others to HDV before you bring them into the project. Time-consuming? Perhaps, but that’s the workaround. You wouldn’t try to intercut 16mm film with a DV project unless you had converted the film to tape and brought the tape into your DV editor. As far as I know, there is no glue yet on the market that will allow you to splice 16mm into DV tape.

bogiesan

This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[Paul Huppe]

I hear you, and totally agree. However, I don’t have control of this issue.

What I figured we can do is work the offlines using both formats as best as possible. When we’re ready for online, we’ll be mixing DigiBeta and HDV. We’ll still have the render issue, but it won’t be a big deal, as 99% of the work will have been done as fare as editing goes. We’ll do the render, and make whatever minor changes or tweaks necessary.

Ever hear of a Miranda box? I hear that may do the trick…

Thanks!
Paul

[Steve Eisen]

The only NLE that I know you can mix formats, is Pinnacle’s (AVID) Liquid Edition; Windows based. If you NEED to get this project done, this is your alternative.

You can also buy the AJA IO and convert your footage to the format you want to work in.

G5 Dual 2.5 160GB System 400GB Media Drive ATI 9800 256MB 6 GB RAM
Dual Gig Quicksilver 1GB RAM 80 GB System drive (3) 250 GB internal media storage
15″ Al Powerbook 1.25 1GB RAM
OS 10.4.2 FCP 5, DVDSP 4, QT 7.02, Boris Red 3GL 2.45 TB External Stor

[Mark Maness]

To answer your original question, just downconvert the footage using your deck or camera to DV. They both can do it very well. Then you can offline in DV. As for mixing them – nope, no way possible.

The Miranda box would be the best idea to have in this situation. It will properly downconvert your footage so that you can digitize in any format that you need. You can then redigitize everything to match your DigiBeta, and HDV that’s been downconverted still looks awesome. Much much better than standard DV footage. I can attest to the quality. I just had to digitize something that we shot with the Canon XL1 cameras and there is no comparison in the quality of the HDV. Much sharper and better detail.

_______________________________

Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions

[Gary Adcock]

[Steve Eisen] “The only NLE that I know you can mix formats, is Pinnacle’s (AVID) Liquid Edition; Windows based. If you NEED to get this project done, this is your alternative.”

Hey steve
the current version of Avid Express HD will do this also.

Gary Adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation
Chicago, IL USA

[Paul Huppe]

Thanks Wayne, we’ll take a look at it.

Paul

[Paul Harb]

I heard even Premiere does this now…..this is by far my most wanted upgrade to FCP, mixing formats in the same timeline, with RT animation codec and alpha channel intact…in RT….tell me Apple will give us this soon….please….pretty please/…

Paul

[Yoyodyne]

Sony Vegas does this as well –