work w/ HPX170 HD in MC 3.1.3 SD proj?

[Michael Hancock]

[Paul Dougherty] “The HPX170 my shooter uses delivers P2 and AVCHD(yes?)”

The 170 records to P2 media and shoots in the DV, DV50, or DVCProHD codec. If they’re shooting HD, you’ll be getting DVCProHD. AVCHD comes from the HMC150.

[Paul Dougherty] “Transcoding to bring in a shot is one thing but I need to bring in an hours worth and retain original TC values to intercut with lo-rez SD in my Avid project.
“
With P2, you won’t be transcoding anything. Have the shooter deliver an exact copy of the P2 card and it’s entire structure. Open Avid and switch your Project to HD in the Format tab (the HPX170 footage will need to shot in the same framerate as your SD material for this to work on 3.1.3) and choose Import P2–>Clips to Bin. Navigate to the top level folder of the P2 footage and hit OK. It will populate your bin with MasterClips of the P2 media. If you want, watch the clips and select only the ones you want/need. Then choose Import P2–>Clips to Bin. It will consolidate the P2 media to your media drive, leaving the original P2 footage alone (this could be considered your “tape”, or backup). Switch your project back to SD and edit away. All timecode will be preserved on the P2 media.

If the SD material is a different framerate, you’ll want to upgrade to MC4.0 (which may not be possible on a G5 – I think it may be Intel Mac only). MC4.x can mix and match framerates. If you need to mix and match framerates, there is software that can add/remove pulldown to the HPX170 footage. Will you be mixing framerates?

—————-
Michael Hancock
http://www.oswaldcommunications.com

[Paul Dougherty]

Dear Michael et al,

I did a import test with a Quicktime* of DVCPRO HD material shot on a P2 camera and it seems to play nice with SD in the same timeline based on your instructions. This was not a truly native file but was a string of selects that had every appearance of being in the original DVCPRO HD spec, edited togther in Final Cut. This file was grey-out when I tried (in MC 2.7) Import P2–>Clips to Bin.

I don’t have a P2 card reader but want to do a more accurate test before asking a shooter to work in HD. I’m guessing most camerapeople take their P2 card and x-fer it to a drive by converting to Quicktime, do the resulting Qt files work withe the Import P2–>Clips to Bin feature? I’ve reiterated “exact copy of the P2 card and it’s entire structure” but I’m parroting that and don’t really understand the nuances. I know someone with a hvx200 who will run a test for me but I’m a little unsure of this work flow and want to do a valid test.

BTW the import test* isn’t viable because ever clip comes in at 1:00:00:00 and I care about TC from the field.

Thanks,

Paul

[Michael Hancock]

If you’re delivered Quicktime files then you’ll just have to do a regular Import. Avid will convert the files upon import to Avid MXF media in the resolution you choose. I’d suggest you pick DNxHD because it plays back better than DVCProHD (DNxHD will unstretch the DVCProHD footage to full raster, so your system won’t have to waste CPU cycltes unstretching the DVCProHD footage).

In addition, if you have Quicktime files from a FCP system (or any other system) and you’re not on MC3.5 or higher, Avid won’t retain the timecode. I think timecode retention was added in 3.5, maybe 4.0.

If the shooter transfers just the P2 contents off the card and doesn’t convert them to Quicktime,the file structure will look like the following. (I’m calling the first folder Card01, for the sake of this example):

[Card01]
—->LASTCLIP.txt
—->[CONTENTS]
————->[AUDIO]
————->[CLIP]
————->[ICON]
————->[PROXY]
————->[VIDEO]
————->[VOICE]

Inside the Audio folder will be MXF audio files.
Inside the Clip folder will be XML files.
Inside the Icon folder will be BMP files
Inside the Proxy folder you may or may not have anything.
Inside the Video folder will be the MXF video files.
Inside the Voice folder you may or may not have anything.

If you get this file structure, select “Import P2–>Clips to Bin” and point to the [Card01] folder. Avid will populate your bins with masterclips for the media from Card01. Repeat this with all other cards.

If you have a folder with all the Card01, Card02, Card03 folders in it (for all the different P2 cards), you can point to that folder and Avid will read down. For example:

[P2Project]
—-> [Card01]
—-> [Card02]
—-> [Card03]

Just point Avid to the P2Project folder and it will populate your bin with masterclips from Card01, Card02, Card03, etc… You can preview these files and select only the ones you want, or just select them all and choose “Import P2 –> Media” and Avid will consolidate all the Audio and Video from the P2 cards to your media drives.

Have your friend with the HVX200 shoot a test and deliver the footage on a hard drive, or bring their camera by. You can install the P2 drivers (download them from the Panasonic website) and use the camera as a deck if you don’t have a P2 card reader. I’ve been using our HPX170 as a P2 card reader and it works fine.

Hope this post makes sense. Let us know if you have more questions or run into any issues.

—————-
Michael Hancock
http://www.oswaldcommunications.com

[Paul Dougherty]

Thanks Michael,

If this P2 file structure is x-fered to a drive then if I “Import P2–>Clips to Bin” and point the Avid to the folder I should get valid field TC, yes?

I mentioned that I have the “Import P2–>Clips to Bin” function in MC 2.7 but I’m running on a PPC not an Intel Mac (so you indicated 3.5 is not an option)

Paul

Card01]
—-> LASTCLIP.txt
—-> [CONTENTS]
—>[AUDIO]
—>[CLIP]
—>[ICON]
—>[PROXY]
—>[VIDEO]
—>[VOICE]

Inside the Audio folder will be MXF audio files.
Inside the Clip folder will be XML files.
Inside the Icon folder will be BMP files
Inside the Proxy folder you may or may not have anything.
Inside the Video folder will be the MXF video files.
Inside the Voice folder you may or may not have anything.

If you get this file structure, select “Import P2–>Clips to Bin” and point to the [Card01] folder. Avid will populate your bins with masterclips for the media from Card01. Repeat this with all other cards.

If you have a folder with all the Card01, Card02, Card03 folders in it (for all the different P2 cards), you can point to that folder and Avid will read down. For example:

[P2Project]
—-> [Card01]
—-> [Card02]
—-> [Card03]

[Michael Hancock]

[Paul Dougherty] “If this P2 file structure is x-fered to a drive then if I “Import P2–>Clips to Bin” and point the Avid to the folder I should get valid field TC, yes?”

Absolutely. Avid will read the P2 media natively and bring in all metadata, timecode included.

—————-
Michael Hancock
http://www.oswaldcommunications.com

[Paul Dougherty]

Hi Michael et al,

I successfully did the P2 acquisition and the results are very promising. (MC 2.7.2) Since I didn’t have access to HPX170 camera or 1080i P2 footage I did a test 720p P2 footage from a hvx200. It worked but I got the Avid warning about mixing framerates, to be expected. Plays back tolerably well.

To re-cap, for this legacy ntsc 30i project I want to add some new HD interviews. It is an off-line project but I still want to be able to make decent screening copies. For the real deal I’ll tell the HPX170 shooter to shoot 1080i/59.94 right?

Also I ask because in MC the two other choices I have on my legacy Avid project are…

1080i/59.94
1080i/59.94 HDV

What’s the best choice or spec to tell the HPX170 shooter, 1080i/59.94 HDV?

Thanks,

Paul

[Michael Hancock]

The 1080i/59.94HDV project on the earlier versions of Avid was just for HDV footage.

Shooting 1080i/59.94 HDV isn’t an option on the 170. The 170 shoots 1080i/59.94 to the DVCPro codec, which isn’t a form of HDV, so you’ll want to use the 1080i/59.94 project setting.

You would use the 1080i/59.94HDV project setting only if you’re acquiring HDV footage (which is shot to miniDV tape, basically). If you’re using the 170, you don’t need to worry about that.

Glad to hear your preliminary tests have gone well so far.

—————-
Michael Hancock
http://www.oswaldcommunications.com

[Paul Dougherty]

Michael, you’ve been very kind to walk me through this. You’ve done a great job and I appreciate it. After populating the bin with footage from the p2 directory from the little hard drive, I selected the one I wanted and imported the p2 media. As per your instructions I set the Import tab in Media Creation to DNxHD the resulting clips were still DVCPro HD.

Paul

[Michael Hancock]

Thanks for the kind words.

I think I gave you bad info about the Import P2 –> Media. All that does it consolidate the DVCProHD footage to your media drive so Avid can track it. It doesn’t change it to DNxHD.

To change it to DNxHD, you need to transcode the footage. You can just select the P2 masterclips that pop up when you choose Import P2 –>Clip to Bin, then go to your Consolidate/Transcode tool and choose to Transcode the media to the DNxHD codec of your choice.

I’d test the DVCProHD footage first to see how it plays on your system. If it plays fine, no need to transcode to DNxHD. If it’s stuttering, try transcoding it and see if it plays better. If you can work with the DVCProHD footage it will save you time and disk space.

—————-
Michael Hancock
http://www.oswaldcommunications.com