[E Laine]

It looks like there’s no getting around a desktop.

[gary adcock] “While you can do a DV downconversion in the deck. this is best handled with a 3rd party card like the Kona’s that walter and I use, that would allow you to do a frame accurate capture of the content as SD.”

Am I right in understanding that I still use the deck to downconvert to SD, but then I can also choose PhotoJPG compression? And this has reliable TC? Would I then edit the offline in a SD 24p project?

Rather than renting/owning a DVCproHD deck, has anyone downconverted and dubbed their masters to DVCam for the offline, then conform from the original masters?

-e.

[E Laine]

Thanks guys for responding to my post and the CC magazine tip. Great issue. I definitely fall in the camp of AVID editors who are new to HD and 24p. I cut with SONY HD on avid (at a facility), but it is an entirely dift workflow. Also, the last doc I cut on FCP – aside from small side projects – was version 1.2. And finally, I have not worked within a film workflow for many years. So, I really want to research a smart work flow that – once we get to post – i can focus on my edit and not a barrage of avoidable tech issues.

As to your feedback – I’m still concerned about “offlining” online quality as my project will likely have upwards of 200 hours of footage. Will my laptop (G4 Powerbook – OSX 10.4.7; 1 gig memory; FCP 5.02) be able to handle all of this HD footage? Another issue is storage space – I’d prefer not to work off of a RAID as I may need to travel with my system. Can I really get by with firewire drives? I’m considering G-Tech drives…. any thoughts? recommendations? Should I be concerned about loading from a deck connected by Firewire and saving to an external drive simultaneously? I’ve heard, from AVID at least, that this could be a problem on a laptop with one bus. Of course, people do it all the time… And last, what is the most affordable deck to rent that can load via firewire (not record) from DVCProHD tape recorded with Varicam?

If we were to conform uncompressed, what systems would you recommend to avoid sych issues and EDL nightmares?

With your VariCam projects, do you stay in 24p the whole time? What is the best HD format/frame rate to master that will give me the best quality and flexibility when I do my European (textless) dubs and SD (textless) downconverts. We will not have a broadcaster until after post begins.

Thanks again for your insights. As you may have guesssed, we also don’t have a DP locked in.

Thanks for helping out someone who is pretty green when it comes to FCP and 24p.

Best,
-e.

[E Laine]

Hi – this thread has been very interesting as I’m gearing up to edit a doc (200 hours) that is to be shot on Varicam. We’re not yet sure about deliverables, but it will likely be 720p or 1080p and will broadcast in the US as well as Europe. I’m going to offline it on my system and take it elsewhere for the conform and cc.

Can anyone share their successful Varicam workflows with me? I had originally planned to offline it on AVID Xpress Pro and, after some research, am leaning towards my FCP station. Only, I have never worked with Varicam nor have I cut any HD projects on FCP. DVCPro HD seems like the way to go for the offline. With FCP, can we easily shoot – edit – conform all in 720p/24? Can I do this with my system (see below)? With FCP can I hook 2+ terabytes up via firewire, work in DVCProHD and still have the system run smoothly (not to mention a smooth online)? That would be a dream. As an alternative, has anyone downconverted their masters and offlined from SD submasters?

Most of the footage will be 720p/24 but I’ll also have a couple of minutes of archival and possibly some P2 media. Any insights would be super helpful.

G4 Powerbook – OSX 10.4.7
1 gig memory
1 terabyte (will likely upgrade)

thanks,
elaine