-
Timeline HDCam, XDCam mix and match
I’m currently working on a project that will result in a 1/2 hour program. There are two end destinations for the program: one, it’ll be exported to HDCam tape for air on a PBS affiliate, and secondly it’ll be exported to dvd for use as a teaching tool in the classroom.
I’m capturing all video for the project at 1080i, 30p (or 29.97) on both a Sony F900/3 HDCam and a Sony EX-3. The F900 is being used for all the interviews and some b-roll, the EX-3 was used to capture material at a day long workshop as well as for some additional b-roll. There will also be a significant amount of file footage, and who knows what form it’ll take…I don’t know at the moment.
The Sony HDCam material is being imported into FCP7 through an AJA io/hd as 1080i 29.97 ProRes422. I’ve moved the EX-3 video files directly into my HDOne, bypassing FCP for the moment. There’s a lot of material and we dumped it onto G Raid drives on site. I then moved the files directly onto the HDOne.
I’ve done a lot of research but am wondering about the settings for the project timeline. It seems like prores 422 is the way to go, but is there trouble lurking in converting the 4-2-0 XDCam files into a 4-2-2 timeline? And what’s the best way to bring the XDCam files into the project?
It seems like a lot of folks are using the EX-3 as a second camera to a Sony F900 or F800, so I’m just wondering about the ideal workflow. Also, I’m editing on a loaded quad core MacPro, so speed shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
Thanks in advance!
Carl Filoreto
Golden, CO.
Elk Run Productions, Inc.
http://www.elkruntv.com -
5 Replies
-
[Carl Filoreto] “It seems like prores 422 is the way to go, but is there trouble lurking in converting the 4-2-0 XDCam files into a 4-2-2 timeline? “
No. It’ll be fine. Did you know that HDCAM is 3:1:1? You just captured it as ProRes…that’s what’s 4:2:2. And it’s just a color space, not a frame rate. Color spaces work fine together.
[Carl Filoreto] “And what’s the best way to bring the XDCam files into the project? “
Two ways. Either using the XDCAM EX Transfer tool and bring it in as XDCAM, and just edit on a ProRes timeline, or convert that to ProRes so that everything matches. But, I see no issue with keeping it native and editing on a ProRes timeline. I’ve done it a few times without issue.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Thanks Shane. And you didn’t run into any heavy render times when moving the XDCam files into pro res?
Carl Filoreto
Golden, CO.
Elk Run Productions, Inc.
http://www.elkruntv.com -
No, I don’t. I get the green render bar, but I don’t render until I am done, or I get the ORANGE bar. And it renders faster than in a native XDCAM timeline.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
I second Shane’s response.
We do this kind of work all of the time and it works very well.
As a matter of fact, if you look in your render prefs, you’ll see that you have an option to render XDCAM HD footage into the ProRes422 codec. These two codecs marry very well and its preferred to render XDCAM HD into ProRes422 for quality’s sake.
_______________________________
Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
https://web.mac.com/schazamproductions
schazamproductions@mac.com -
That’s excellent, thanks for the advice. I haven’t been working with XDCam material that much so with a project of this size I wanted to have some clarity before jumping off the dock.
And regarding Shane’s previous post, no I didn’t realize HDCam was actually 3-1-1.
And sorry about that weird pic of a lens on duvateen as my profile pic, I think my kids are hacking me.
Carl Filoreto
Golden, CO.
Elk Run Productions, Inc.
http://www.elkruntv.com
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up