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Total HDV Newbie Seeks Advice
Hello All,
Videographer/Editor at government agency (Old Dog) seeks help digitizing and editing first HD footage project (new Tricks).
For years I’ve shot and edited SD 4:3 (Dvcam) due to budget constraints. Life was simple. Sony HVR-1500 SD-SDI out to Kona LH (with rack mounted KL box), digitized un-compressed 8-bit into FCP and edited as such in the sequence. Output was analog to BeatcamSP (component Betacam).
Finally acquired a HDV camera and here we go. I’ve done a lot of experimenting but I’m still lost.
Should I use the HD-SDI out on the VTR? Firewire? Firewire how? What settings in FCP?
I monitor the program thru the Betacam deck to a 4:3 CRT monitor (ol’ school). How do I get THAT to match what I see in the Canvas viewer?How would you, Masters-Of-Experience, configure this system?
Any advice would be welcomed. (I also posted this on the AJA forum)Mac g5 2.0 Dual / Sonnet D400 RAID eSATA / AJA Kona LH
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4 Replies
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[Mark Erickson] “Should I use the HD-SDI out on the VTR? Firewire? Firewire how? What settings in FCP?”
Some questions first. How are you planning to deliver a finished project? What kind of monitor do you have?
Alan Smith
Media317Check out my blog – https://media317.com
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I should have mentioned that.
Usual targets: SD DVD, BetaSP, various media formats (WMV, MOV, etc..) for internal streaming. We have no Blu-Ray players, HDTV monitors, but we will be getting them someday. “Be ready,” say the higher-ups. Hence this project.Almost everything we have is pre-digital. The monitor is standad Sony CRT talking SD video from the the BetaSP PVW-2800. The BetaSP deck is taking beta component fro the AJA Kona LH (525/29.97).
Thanks!
“Cognito Ergo Es”
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Since the majority of your output work is going to be an SD format, I would digitize via firewire using the FCP Easy Setup for firewire basic. With a firewire deck connected to your machine you can log and capture with deck control. You will digitize your footage with standard HDV codec.
For editing projects that are going to be delivered SD, I would change the Easy Setup to an Uncompressed 10-bit SD setting and import and edit your HDV footage in an SD timeline. This gives you the option to pan and scan your HD footage without loosing quality. You will have to render before you are able to do final output. But you will have a good looking image.
If you are going to be doing a project with a HD delivery format, such as HDCAM or something similar, I would use a different workflow. I would use the HD SDI connection from the VTR and digitize using a Pro Res 422 (HQ) codec (with the latest version of FCP you can digitize to Pro Res over firewire, but that is another story). By digitizing over SDI you get the best quality and Pro Res is 1920 x 1080 rather than HDV’s 1440 x 1080. You get maximum image size as well.
Then you edit using a Pro Res Easy Setup making sure your sequences match your footage. You will have “true” HD sequences with HDV footage (it is not TRUE HD, but it will look pretty awesome). Edit your sequence and export. As long as the sequence and the clips have the same codec settings, you should not have render issues. You then would output to HD tape and be finished.
You would NEVER want to output a finished HD project to HDV format. It is not a desired delivery format and therefore you should rarely lock picture in that format for HD output. If you are outputting to SD, HDV works fine.
Alan Smith
Media317Check out my blog – https://media317.com
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Thanks- I’ve printed your advice and the trying different workflows.
I have a non-intel G5, will ProRes still work?
“Cognito Ergo Es”
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