Very best TImeline settings for HDV footage?

[David Bogie]

Search here for everything that’s wrong with using HDV and you’ll find some helpful suggestioins. Mostly, convert the HDV to something useful on import or afterwards.

Red? No. Why?
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bogiesan

This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”

[Chris Poisson]

NO, do not convert your HDV to ANYTHING else before editing. (sorry David) Especially another highly compressed format. Set up a D1 8 bit timeline and edit your HDV Firewire captured footage in there. DON’T let FCP change the sequence settings to match your first clip. If your footage is 1080i FCP will put a shift fields filter on each clip. If you shot 30p, all the better.

You will need some kind of card to do the downconvert to your monitor and Beta deck on the fly, Blackmagic and Kona are excellent for this. You will have to render but it will be normal render times, not the lengthy conform times in an HDV edit. I use this workflow daily and it looks as good or better than any Betacam footage I’ve ever used.

Have a wonderful day.

[Walter Biscardi]

[Chris Poisson] “NO, do not convert your HDV to ANYTHING else before editing. (sorry David) Especially another highly compressed format.”

Actually we do this all the time. We convert HDV to DVCPro HD for broadcast HD projects all the time. This retains the original quality of the HDV but affords us a much better editing workflow.

HDV to DVCPro HD or even ProRes is a perfectly acceptable broadcast HD workflow. We’ve been doing this for over a year and Quality Control loves the end product.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Broadcast and independent productions.

All Things Apple Podcast! https://cowcast.creativecow.net/all_things_apple/index.html

Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi

[Walter Biscardi]

[hdfilmmaker] “Importing HDV footage, edit then export to BetaSP for Broadcast.”

The very best HDV settings are the HDV Easy Setups. If you want to lay this off to BetaSP, you can simply capture / edit HDV and then use something like an AJA Kona 3 to play that timeline out to BetaSP in realtime.

Or just render that HDV timeline out in an 8bt SD timeline.

HDV is what it is. A decent acquisition format, but lousy editing format. Heck if you have a Kona board, you can simply capture to 8bit SD in realtime during the edit so you can just edit in SD.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Broadcast and independent productions.

All Things Apple Podcast! https://cowcast.creativecow.net/all_things_apple/index.html

Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi

[Delano Bryant]

Thanks Chris. I have the new Kona Card and I am capturing from the xlh1 cause the New Sony M25 deck won’t play the canon 1080i 30p tapes.

Is that the color red you want to use?

[Delano Bryant]

I agree with you on the SD as opposed to HD. I think since our client is broadcasting in SD this next two years. This next summer we’ll upgrade to the new RED cameras and be ready for their HD needs.

Is that the color red you want to use?

[Delano Bryant]

Walter, when I capture 8 bit sd. then play back out my timeline through the KONA card through the Sony M25 tape deck to my SD monitor. My fonts are zigzagged.

Is that the color red you want to use?

[Chris Poisson]

That’s fair I guess Dave, except that when a good shooter and lighting person are on it, it’s pretty darn okay. I don’t really use it for HD delivery tho.

I stick by my method of using native HDV, which is the method recommended by Graeme Nattress BTW, in spite of the fact that other codecs may be easier to handle, why take an extra render hit? HDV works perfectly well in an 8 bit timeline. Do it all the time.

Have a wonderful day.