Options for XLH1a

[John Rofrano]

Im currently using Vegas 9 and am wondering what the best way to capture video for editing – firewire or BNC – I’ve gotten different opinions.

I’m not sure what “opinions” you have seen but if you already shot the footage there is no “opinion”. Firewire is the only lossless way to capture. I’m not familiar with that particular camera but if the BNC takes the video off of the CCD before it is compressed, than that would yield higher quality BUT you must do this while shooting. Once the image goes onto tape, it’s already converted to HDV and firewire is the best way to copy it to your hard drive.

Also being new to HD I’m curious about the best quality rendering options for both broadcast and the web.

I guess it depends on how you are capturing it but if you capture HDV it’s best to deliver HDV. For the web you could use the Sony AVC format at 720p.

I’ve been using Vegas for years but am considering switching to FCP if I can get better quality.

How would using FCP give you better quality? In fact, using FCP will force an additional render because FCP can’t edit the native footage so it has to convert your footage into a proprietary Apple format before it can work with it (which is also a waste of more time) and each render looses quality so I don’t see how FCP can give better quality when it requires more rendering. Vegas can edit and output your footage natively. There is no better quality.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Christopher Key]

Thanks John,

I’m just starting to shoot the first interviews today so I might want to invest in a laptop and use the BNC with Adobe’s On Location and capture to a hard drive in the future. I may even reschedule this interview for a week so I can find a laptop that will work.

Thats interesting about FCP – I shot some footage at a recent event and the guys who want to edit it were confusing me by talking about the different codecs I could use for their FCP set up – so now this makes sense. Im thinking I should edit the footage in Vegas and save them some time and I’ll stick with it for this project. Thanks for your input. Now the challenge will be where to find a kick ass laptop that can be used to capture footage, run CS5 and my Cubase/Nuendo software with all its plug-ins – Ill need a 64 bit system with as much memory as possible. – I do music as well as video

Thanks again

Christopher Key

[Bob Peterson]

You might also want to check on how big the file coming via BNC is going to be. If it is uncompressed, you may be in for a rude surprise even with a “kick ass” laptop. I recall DSE saying a few years back that uncompressed HD would require a very large, fast raid array to capture the output.

[John Rofrano]

I’m just starting to shoot the first interviews today so I might want to invest in a laptop and use the BNC with Adobe’s On Location and capture to a hard drive in the future.

I don’t think OnLocation works with BNC. It’s firewire capture and no different quality than what’s on tape or other camera media.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[John Rofrano]

I recall DSE saying a few years back that uncompressed HD would require a very large, fast raid array to capture the output.

Not only that… capturing via BNC requires and capture card like AJA or BlackMagic Designs and that rules out using a laptop because these cards need PCI slots. Also, as you pointed out, capturing uncompressed HD requires a RAID 0 with at least five (5) hard drives for sustained throughput. You’re not going to get that on a laptop either. That is strictly a studio situation. So you point is well taken.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Christopher Key]

Thanks for your input – Now Im really not sure what to do so I have 2 more questions – #1) do you know of a reliable company I can go to who can put together such a computer system? – When I go to shoot interviews I already have to haul a truck load of gear so I guess a computer wouldn’t add that much to the load – it be really cool if I could have a rack-mountable computer system that I could put in a nice shock-proof case and…# 2) We are hoping that when this doc is finished we can show it at festivals and broadcast it on TV and we want it to hold up as well as possible against our competitors as far as visual quality – will the difference between using the firewire and the BNC actually make a substanial difference in the end product?

Christopher Key

[John Rofrano]

#1) do you know of a reliable company I can go to who can put together such a computer system? – When I go to shoot interviews I already have to haul a truck load of gear so I guess a computer wouldn’t add that much to the load – it be really cool if I could have a rack-mountable computer system that I could put in a nice shock-proof case and…

BOXX Technologies builds some really nice turnkey video systems. They can put a nice system together for you.

# 2) We are hoping that when this doc is finished we can show it at festivals and broadcast it on TV and we want it to hold up as well as possible against our competitors as far as visual quality – will the difference between using the firewire and the BNC actually make a substanial difference in the end product?

I have never capture uncompressed HD so I really can’t say. I know the reason for capturing uncompressed is if you are doing heavy post production work and need the highest quality possible for keying and grading. I’m sure there will be a difference but I couldn’t say if it would be substantial and warrent the cost since very few people are bothering to do this (especially independent film makers). It’s really all about “the story”.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Christopher Key]

Whew – I was thinking that system would be costing me more than I was planning – although if this project is successful maye I’ll be able to afford it for the next one. We have a great story so I’ll count on that – thanks for all your help!

Christopher Key