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more on mixing HDV and HDCam, and HDV and XDCam
the saga continues. you guys have been a great source of info thus far as i try to finagle my through these first few shoots, and as we change formats for the next shoot. i thought i had most of this answered (and decided upon) before, but some new thoughts hit me this weekend.
first shoot: we shot HDCam and HDV. i’m doing the “offline” post and will take the media to a post house to output to HDCam master. i only have a BM Decklink SP card, so i had the same house capture all the HDCam footage in the DVCPro HD codec to my external drive. i captured all the HDV via firewire into my system. i couldn’t capture the HDV in the DVCPro HD codec on my system apparently due to the limitation on my capture card, but since i wanted to edit in DVCPro HD (so as not to “dumb down” my HDCam material too much) i did a Media Manager “up-rez” of the HDV footage to DVCPro HD and it all has performed very well on the timeline (though the uprez doesn’t look all that great). now for some more “mastering questions –
before going to my online session, should i:
1) recapture all the HDV footage (NOT going through Media Manager, but just a full re- batch capture) in the DVCPro HD codec on another system, thus yielding the “best” version of the HDV material? or
2) once my final offline edit is done, just reconnect all the HDV clips in my timeline back to their original HDV sources (bypassing the uprezzed stuff), render it all along with my HDCam footage in the DVCPro HD timeline, then take that final single QT file to the post house to dump to HDCam master? (this causes Compressor to do the “uprezzing”, doesn’t it?) or
3) just use the current MM-uprezzed HDV to DVCPro HD clips as they are in my timeline now, render, and go to the post house?
i know it probably sounds like i’m asking some of the same questions as before, but i’ve heard conflicting things about final image quality via doing the HDV uprez. some say that MM is the worst uprez method (though it worked great at least for making all my clips DVCPro HD for my timeline – using FCP 5.0.4), others say that having FCP do the uprezzing (via Compressor) is the worst, and that the best way is just to capture the HDV the first time around in the DVCPro HD codec, but to do this, i am told by some that i would need to get a new capture card (the BM Intensity is said to work) even though the capture would be taking place via firewire – so i don’t really see why a new card is needed)
second shoot, next week:
we are dumping the HDCam for XDCam, and keeping HDV as the second cam. i will have the same questions on capturing the HDV footage again, but this time around wonder if the HDV can be captured to the “XDCam codec”, if such a thing exists. i’ve downloaded the XDCam Transfer package, but now to confound things, i can’t run XDCam Transfer unless i have at least FCP 5.1.2.it SEEMS life would be great if i just bought FCP Studio 2, and the BM Intensity…but i haven’t been assured that would solve all of my problems (no need to comment on my intelligence here). FCP 6 has problems, and i can’t get a straight answer from BM (nor their local dealer) as to whether i REALLY need the Intensity to capture HDV in the DVCPro HD codec on my current system via firewire….
still a bit foggy, but i do see some light at the end of the tunnel.
(i’m just praying it is not a train!)
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6 Replies
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i just read that subject heading here and it probably should be “moron mixing HDV…”
: )
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If you don’t want to purchase the HD-SDI capture card then you should have looked into having the post house convert the HDV digitally to both HD cam tapes for finishing and DVC Pro HD for your off line.
If you’re working with Sony HDV, I believe the very best way to convert HDV to HD cam is with hardware and a good solution is to use the Sony 1500 HDV professional deck that can decompress this 1440x1080i 4:2:0 signal into a 1920x1080i 4:2:2 uncompressed signal.
I however found another all digital solution for about half this price using the HDMI port on the M25U deck and using the Convergent Design HD-Connect MI box converting to HD-SDI.
I believe you need to go buy the HD-SDI capture card with all the conversions you need to make. It is easy for me to recommend the AJA LHe as it has been wonderful and so are the tech support people. The BM Intensity is only supported with Intel machines.
BTW….I would not say that converting HDV to DVC Pro HD is an up rez. Converting one highly compressed codec into another highly compressed codec that is smaller is not an up rez in my book. I don’t want to get into a big debate about it as I use this codec too, to get out of the Long GOP editing.
Good Luck
Michael Palmer -
in your opinion, would the best solution be to just go ahead and upgrade to FCP 6, so then i can mix the native HDV with the XDCam on the same timeline, and not worry about trying to fiddle around with a new card to “uprez” the HDV?
are you using FCP 6? having any problems??
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Yes
If you are looking for someone to tell you that you need FCS2 then here I am. If you are using firewire for capturing then perhaps you don’t need the capture card, just the MXO for quality monitoring.MP
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…i am installing Studio 2 as we speak…along with a fresh install of the OS. have you experienced any problems with playback of HD footage that had been captured under Studio 1 and played back in Studio 2?
thanks for helping out a bonehead!
__________________________dual 2 GHz PowerPC Mac G5
2GB MB DDR SDRAM
GeForce FX 5200 graphics card -
No Problems, however I finished up and was between projects when I reloaded. I can move the media from FCS1 on to the mounted drive and work with it without issue in FCS2. Some people believe this wiping and reloading is a by annual necessity.
Good LuckMichael Palmer
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