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Understanding DVCPRO HD
I’m new to editing HD and FCP (4.5) but have been working with video for a while and I’m quite familiar with Avid, AE and so on. My latest project has been shot in DVCPRO HD with Varicam at 23.98 fps. Due to budget limitations we’ve decided to rent Panasonic AJ-HD1200A and capture the footage through Fire Wire. Aside from (more than) occasional hiccups with time code errors (which, I understand, is as much a FW problem as it is a glitch with 1200) everything went quite smoothly except for a surprising discrepancy between estimated and used drive space when it came to capturing. For example: a 5 or so min clip would require 6.9GB space prior to capturing (according to FCP estimate) but would take just 3.8GB when captured. I’ve checked and rechecked my settings and clip info, opened them in Quick Time and checked the info again and everything seems kosher but it’s still mind boggling. Perhaps it’s because all my footage is a static camera shoot of a talking head?
I do have questions concerning the “compression” issue.
1) Is what’s captured on the drive the same as what is on the tape? I don’t quite think so.
2) Is what’s going to FCP via FW the same as what would’ve gone there had I used SDI HD? And if not, what’s the difference?
3) What is going to happen when I’m ready to utput my sequence to a tape – will the quality match the quality of the original tapes if keep on using FW?
4) Should I recompress my sequence to another format – as some of the websites suggest (how could it get any better that way?) and output using SDI?
5) Should I recapture the sequece with something like Kona 2 (at what settings?) and then output to HD CAM?
6) How should I deal with the graphics if the final output will be different than DVCPRO HD and I’m editing in that format?
7) Is there a way of creating a DVD out of the sequence – I won’t have access to the deck until the project is finished and I’m ready to master.
8) What would be the best way of incorporating SD footage (VHS and DVD) into the sequence?
9) 1200 downconverts to DV quite nicely and plays DV tapes but will it upconvert (through FW of course; I don’t have external board?
and finally,
10) I’ll have some Varicam B-Roll shot at 60fps (59.94) – outdoor stuff with pans and such – that will have to go into the sequence, right now at 23.98. Any gotchas I should anticipate?I’m not quite sure whether this post belongs here, on HD board or FCP board (there isn’t one for 1200 yet 🙂 so boot me out if you think I’m in the wrong place.
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4 Replies
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The foundation of what you are doing is sometimes called DVCPRO 100 or DVCPRO HD or DVCPRO HD Native. The beauty of this is that when you shot on the Varicam, it flagged each of the 24 frames. You actually were recording at 60 frames per second, but only need the 24 frames per second to edit and lay back to tape. The 36 extra frames are just plain not needed when getting the 24p “film” look. As a result when you capture using the 1200A deck via firewire, Final Cut Pro only captures the 24 frames. Since you are looking for a “film” look, which is 24 frames per second, Final Cut Pro will only capture those 24 flagged frames. The next great thing about this is that you are actually just shifting the 1’s and 0’s (digital information) over to the hard drive on your computer. Final Cut Pro is then editing the actual digital information from the tape. Thus there is no loss at all in quality. What you see is actually what you recorded. Thus at 24 frames per second, it will only take around 20 gigs per hour of footage. Yes the footage was compressed in the camera when it was put on tape, and the compressed digital information was transferred to your hard drive. What Final Cut Pro does is uncompress it in real time.
The 60 frame per second stuff will have to be rendered to 24p when you put it in the timeline. You could convert it to 24p so that it plays real time.
I have have done two major PBS High Def shows. One I captured using a KONA card. It was Uncompressed in the deck and captured in 8 bit HD Uncompressed. One hour was around 480 or so gigs of space. The second show was done with the 1200A. I never used my HD board other than monitoring purposes. Both shows were stunning.
Hope this helps.
Dennis Lisonbee
If you want to see the 24p camera original compressed to H264 (You will need Quicktime 7) here is a link: https://homepage.mac.com/denbee/Menu7.html
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[Dennis Lisonbee] “One I captured using a KONA card. It was Uncompressed in the deck and captured in 8 bit HD Uncompressed. One hour was around 480 or so gigs of space.”
You worked it on a 1080p23.98, 720p59.94 or 720p23.98 FCP secuence ?
Regards
Rodrigo Lizana
PIXINE
http://www.pixine.cl
rlizana@pixine.cl -
[Rodrigo Lizana] “You worked it on a 1080p23.98, 720p59.94 or 720p23.98 FCP secuence ?”
The first show was offlined with Offline Photo JPEG at 29.97 and onlined for the first color correction pass using 720 by 480 SDI at 29.97. That version was sent to tape for the SDI broadcast and MPEG compression. The SDI color correction version was then onlined in HD at 1080i 29.97 with the KONA HD card. That version was laid to DVCPRO HD. The DVCPRO Master was then transferred to HDCAM for PBS. The surround was not added because in 2003 surround sound and HD was a black art. However the DVD version of the show had Surround Sound.
The second show was offlined @ 23.97 fps and then onlined using DVCPRO HD 720 24p Native Codec with the Panasonic 1200A deck. It was then sent back to the 1200A deck. The master tape was then upconverted to D5 1080i. The Surround Tracks were then laid to the D5 and the tape sent to PBS.
Hope this answers your questions.
Dennis Lisonbee
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Something to think about if you are color correcting DVCPRO HD native footage with FCP 4.5! The Final Cut Pro team took the flesh tone target off the vectorscope with FCP 4.5 HD! They waited a year to fix it. (Guess no one but me cared.) FCP 5.0 has the target back. Thanks Apple!
Dennis Lisonb ee
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