P2 HD and Avid MC Adrenaline

[Craig Hirshberg]

We have the same problem and I have yet to find the perfect answer out there. As far as being “slow” do you mean on import or actually editing with the footage? As far as getting it into our system (and by the way, we never just import straight to the system off the P2’s like the folks at Panasonic like to show you because it makes it look so fast and easy, we copy from firewire drives we had in the field), we’ve opted out of using the “Import P2, Import P2 media) because, even without a transcode, we found it took about 3 times longer than simply copying the MXF files straight to the editing drives into the AvidMediaFiles folders (folders 1,2, etc), then just opening up the media tool and dragging the clips into a bin. I would suggest making a new numbered folder for the project, or per card if you want to keep things straight.

There is another great option if you plan on purchasing the HPX3000 or 2000 for future use – PROXIES. We don’t do it here because our HPX500 doesn’t have this option, but the 2000 and 3000 have it. If you look into the Contents folder of the P2, then the Proxies folder, you will find low res mpegs of what you shot that have matching timecode (I think) You can import the low res, edit, then later online it with the full-res HD.

I’ve heard that producers can even email or upload the proxies to a server from the field via blackberry, then editor downloads and begins cutting almost instantly. Pretty cool. You should look into it to see if it fits your workflow.

Good luck!

Craig

[Paul Brubacher]

Thanks Craig, Just a few questions. When do you do the transcode if you don’t do it when you import, is it when printing to tape? Hows the speed and are you able to edit in full rez? Are your numbered folder one per card? The “proxies” does sound interesting.

Paul

[Craig Hirshberg]

Paul,

First I want to preface that I am by no means an Avid workflow expert yet, and this new HD P2 thing is still a big learning curve for our shop. That said, we do what works for us.

1. If we were to print to tape, we’d transcode our final sequence at the end. Our line of work doesn’t require us to do so, mostly compressing mpeg2’s for DVD, H.264’s etc for web-based delivery, so in that case we export Quicktime References and go from there. Therefore we ususally don’t need to transcode.

2. The speed of transcoding is extremely slow in my opinion. I haven’t timed it out, maybe someone with more experience with that could chime in.

3. We are able to edit DVCPro HD full-rez without transcoding, but to monitor out in HD with native DVCPro HD, we have to set our quality in timeline to draft-quality (this is with the DNxcel board). We’re not very happy about that. You can monitor out full quality if you transcode it first.

4. Depending on the project, sometimes we do one numbered folder per card, sometimes on per project. We had a multi-camera project that lastest about 6 months, so we were very anal about it, naming the bins with card #’s and dates of shoot just to keep it organized, so we also used one numbered folder per card.

Hopefully this helps. We’re still in the process of figuring things out. P2 adds a lot of unforeseen twists and turns to the workflow (storage, archiving, mastering, etc). Overall we’re still pretty happy with it.