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Switching to HD considerations
I have been thinking that it might be time for me to get a new camcorder so naturally HD is a major consideration. I’ve had a few ideas as to possible advantages & disadvantages in this regard & the input side of my considerations appear to be more firm when it comes to acquiring HD video than outputting HD video. I would appreciate any input anyone might have in this regard & any corrections to my assumptions would be appreciated, as I won’t think that I have enough firm information with which to make an informed decision.
One of the major advantages of a camera would be getting one with optical stabilization since much of what I take in hand held. As I understand it you could continue to use DV tapes even though I’m sure the manufactures will try to entice you to get some more expensive tape that might have under gone more quality control checks but other than that is essentially the same as any existing DV tape. Correct??
To capture your input the camera will either have a USB port or fire wire connections, either of which I already have so this should not be a problem. What should one allow for storage? One minute of HD footage is 400-500% more than one minute of SD??? If this assumption is correct then this is no problem either.
Vegas has been able to handle HD input since what version 4 or 5?? Are there any other problems editing it? Does footage still get converted to an avi file when on the time line? I have always had many stills incorporated into my projects & have used the pan & crop tool to great effect since these still have much greater resolution than the 720×576 video. In fact is assuming that even if I outputted HD projects only in standard MPEG2 I should have been able to at least sustain the best SD definition even when I zoomed in on HD footage. Correct or not??
As for outputting I can’t see myself purchasing any HD burner at this stage due to very high cost of both the burner & its media. What I think might be an acceptable short term solution would to output any HD project using a codec that can handle HD like DIVX or WMV. I don’t even know if Vegas comes with a HD codec? Does it?
I guessing that any DVD burning program like Nero would accept the HD file created using the 2 codecs mentioned & be able to burn a standard DVD as a data disk? I should be able to get about 20 minutes onto a single layer disk???
How do I play this data disk on my large LCD screen which has a wide variety of inputs including HDMI. I know that there are already several DVD players here in the shops that claim to be able to an even upscale SD DVD input to full 1080P. What the web sites of the manufacturers of these DVD players doesn’t say is if they can also play DVD files that exceed the standard 720×576 files. You wouldn’t want the player to accept the HD input. then down sample it to SD before upscaling again. Does anyone know if these players do this or not?
Any other comments about errors in my assumption or extra things that I should know will be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance
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1 Reply
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the answers to this question are predominantly determined by which HD format you’re referring to.
HDCAM SR?
HDCAM?
XDCAM?
Varicam?
HDV?
AVCHD?your computer can output either DVI (Which may be best, depending on how your HDMI card is set up, it may auto-scale or reduce resolution) or component, which is also full frame.
As far as DVD players…some SD DVD players can output an MPEG4 with HD information depending on the MP4 codec used. For example, some SD DVD players can output a NERO Showtime file over component or HDMI, that is a full frame HD image.
Frame size for PAL and NTSC (if there were such a designation in the HD world/there isn’t) are the same frame sizes. Only difference is frame rate.
Overall, the experience is the same. Storage can be much the same, 1080 HDV is 13GB per hour, just like DV, as one example. CPU speed is critical, as the more highly compressed HDV stream or XDCAM stream, and especially the AVCHD stream, requires a lot of cycles to decode.Douglas Spotted Eagle
VASST
Aerial Camera/Instructor
Certified Sony Vegas Trainer
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