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What would I need to online an HDCAM film…
Against my wishes, an indie film I edited (actually re-edited) is begging me to help them online their film since they’ve already blown their budget the first time around doing it the proper post house route. They want to use my Mac and get any extra equipment that would be required (I have a good source for cheap HDCAM deck rentals). The film was shot on 35mm and transferred to HDCAM and was edited in SD (I believe captured off of DVCAM tapes but I wasn’t involved with the project when they were capturing tapes) – they want to online back to 1080p HD HDCAM tape (to whatever the highest quality my machine could capture reliably). So what would they need to add to my system (what’s a solid capture card that only needs to work for this purpose – what sort of storage would be fast enough)? They seem to think it’s as simple as taking the clips offline and recapturing from the HDCAM deck through the capture card which look simple on paper but I have a feeling it’s going to be a nightmare:
Mac G5 dual core 2.3
4 gigs of ram
FCP 6.0.5I also have a Sonnet Tempo E4P card and an external 5 bay eSata enclosure with PM but it doesn’t do hardware raid.
Any insight is greatly appreciated. Again, this is not my choice in path, they are literally out of money and are desperate. Thanks guys…
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22 Replies
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They are probably in for a world of pain, but you already knew that.
AJA Kona 3X (not the newer PCIe model)
Your machine will not do ProRes…need a MacPro for that. That leaves Uncompressed HD (not with your RAID…need something more serious for a feature film) or DVCPRO HD. DVCPRO HD will work fine even with cheap storage. Not as good a quality as ProRes (not bad though), but if you are poor and desperate…..
Scopes? Audio? Monitoring?? Are they just going to wing it with levels and color grading??
They are better off selling their blood and spare organs to get into a real post house for a few days with this. But you knew that already.
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They could save a bit by getting a less expensive card than the Kona 3, but your raid won’t work unless they are willing to capture as ProRes and then output to HDCAM, which is a perfectly decent workflow. But, if they want you go uncompressed HD, as John says, you’re gonna need a much bigger raid than what you have now.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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They are on a PowerMac Dual G5. They can’t do Pro Res, David. It’s Uncompressed or DVCPRO HD with that machine.
You are right though…they can get one of the cheaper AJA cards, if they still can be gotten for PCI-X.
Or buy a used Kona 2 on ebay or something.
[David Roth Weiss] “They could save a bit by getting a less expensive card than the Kona 3, but your raid won’t work unless they are willing to capture as ProRes and then output to HDCAM, which is a perfectly decent workflow. “
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[John Pale] “hey can get one of the cheaper AJA cards, if they still can be gotten for PCI-X.”
There were some late model G5s that got pci-e (all 4 of mine are) so be sure
and check before you buy. -
[John Pale] “They can’t do Pro Res, David. It’s Uncompressed or DVCPRO HD with that machine. “
You’re absolutely right John. I’ve been capturing to ProRes for so long via Firewire that I forgot the non-Intel machines can’t do the same via capture cards. So, indeed, the only compressed HD format left for them is DVCProHD, or that 3rd party codec Rafael is always touting.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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Yes. You are right Chris….I just did a quick search, and it seems the Dual Core 2.3 was PCIe and not PCI-X. If this is true, then it should make getting a capture card a whole lot easier (and you wont have to throw it out to upgrade to a MacPro).
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First and foremost, what’s their end goal? That will determine a lot of other variables.
If their goal is to make a SD DVD, that’s a fairly low hurdle to clear, and may not require any further investment.
Blu-Ray will be a bit higher, they might be better off bringing an EDL to a post house, or having you online and deliver a QT or an image sequence to an authoring house.
If they want to cut negative and make a print, that doesn’t require an online, it requires a cutlist, delivered to a negative cutter who sends it to a lab.
If they want to do a DI and go back out to film, they would be waaaaay better off (and would actually save a lot of money) by going to someone who is a specialist in making film-outs.
Arnie
Post production is not an afterthought!
https://www.arniepix.com/ -
[John Pale] “I just did a quick search, and it seems the Dual Core 2.3 was PCIe and not PCI-X.”
Negatory on that John, the dual 2.3ghz machine were/are PCIx, I have one right here that I’m typing into now. I believe only the first quad core G5s were PCIe machines.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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[David Roth Weiss] “You’re absolutely right John. I’ve been capturing to ProRes for so long via Firewire that I forgot the non-Intel machines can’t do the same via capture cards. “
A cautionary note David…
You do know that prores software encoded on a non intel machine does not have the same level of quality as the same file processed in the same way on an intel machine.
Right?
gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production WorkflowsInside look at the IoHD
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/adcock_gary/AJAIOHD.php -
[gary adcock] “You do know that prores software encoded on a non intel machine does not have the same level of quality as the same file processed in the same way on an intel machine.
Right? “
I did not know this. How does it work then?
Curious as I routinely cut HDV at home on a 2.3 g5 with renders set to pro-res. Where as at work I have an octo.
So if I understand you, what I do at home is not the same quality as what I do at work?
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