Mark Maness
Forum Replies Created
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I would suggest that you look into purchasing an AJA HD10AVA for you HDV machine, and that way you can digitize your footage at any resolution in any codec. I assume you have an HD capture card in your system. Cross-converting and changing i to p is always problematic in FCP unless you can digitze your footage in the same codec.
As for the price of the AJA unit, B&H sells it for just under $1000. That’s the price of a rental deck for one day usually.
I will never run my HDV deck in HDV in FCP. The workflow is awful and extremely slow.
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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com -
Let’s see if I can answer all of your questions…
Yes, the camera does have timecode in and out on the PDW-F350, not sure about the F330.
Transfering files from disk to FCP… Well, the machine is firewire 400 so the speeds are the same as any firewire drive.
And to answer your last question, does the Sony software allow file transfer for the HD 35 or only the lower quality 25 ?
Well, at the moment, the software only allows the lower quality 25 for transfer into FCP. But if you also remember, it took almost a year for Sony to give full support to standard XDCAM. That’s too bad, but at the moment, I capture using the DVCPRO HD codec the old conventional way until the software gives full support of XDCAM HD. Besides, I always shoot at the highest quality for the best results.
At the moment, there are some drawbacks and some work arounds but overall, I wouldn’t trade this camera and deck for anything! I love its workflow and the quality is absolutely amazing!
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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com -
If this camera is anything like the HVR M10U, then you’ll have to setup thae camera for firewire output. You’ll have to go into you Menu, go down till you see the doulbe lines with arrows on the ends (input/output), set the iLink Conv to “ON” to get the firewire to work. It defaults to off for some weird reason.
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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com -
Tom, I feel your pain!
I know what you are talking about BUT if you are having problems with your equipment dealer, you might want to try contacting a Sony rep for your area. They will do anything to get your business. Mine will get me demos of anything when I need to look at it. We had a XDCAM HD demo for about a week, and before that, our XDCAM had an issue that needed to be repaired so we got his demo for a couple of weeks until ours could be repaired. Great service only come from great sales professionals.
As for your quandry on the 1/2″ vs. 2/3″… Personally I’m not able to tell the difference. We have the XDCAM HD already and got it about a month ago. And I have to say… WOW! The picture is absolutely gorgous. As a matter of fact, we had to tune down the sharpness because it looked way too sharp for our needs. And the thought of 1/2″ chips weighed heavy on our minds, but now after getting it in our hands… Its rather impressive. The discovery Channel has cleared this camera for use in its production. That says alot for Sony and the XDCAM HD.
BTW, the only feature we really miss is the 12 second image cache that the standard XDCAM had. When your doing outdoor programming, its hard to know exactly when something is going to happen and its nice to have that insurance policy. Sie La Vie!
If you’re still having problems getting a camera, contact me and I will call my rep and see if he can’t work something out for you. You can call me at 901-853-1455 ext. 244 if you have any questions relating to the XDCAM HD.
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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com -
If you have Tech Tool Pro, it will test memory. If you don’t have it, I would suggest you purchase a copy. Its an excellent program to have for just such a problem as yours.
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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com -
Also… anytime I use a PIP effect, I use a slight gaussian blur on the image to remove that sharpness. Only use a gaussian blur of about 1, you don’t want to loose detail.
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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com -
To get the best possible results, you really need a capture card or device like the AJA Kona series cards. They will do a much better job downconverting for you than the Sony machine. The machine will only downconvert to DV which crushes you black levels. Your video will look much darker than it is recorded on tape.
I do this everyday. I use an AJA Kona 2 with the AJA HD10A converter box, then I use my Kona 2 to downconvert my footage. It looks beautiful and sharp!
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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com -
Well, I don’t know about being fixed… I think it got broke in the last update. Since I have fully updated my software, Compressor doesn’t seem to work for me. Everytime I compress a program for DVD, it plays back realy jerky on most DVD players. But now, if I let DVDSP compress my video, its fine.
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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com -
I see that you are starting to see that even though XDCAM HD is similar to HDV and uses an HDV favor for one its shooting modes, its still not really HDV and that’s why you won’t see Sony comparing it to HDV.
The addtional card you spoke of… I’m not sure about the new HDV machines but in the XDCAM PDW-F70, there is an upgrade card that will allow to transfer HDV to XDCAM HD and back – its just a HDV I/O card that uses the firewire connection for transfer.
And as for any of the other issues… Its really hard to compare XDCAM HD and HDV. Its kinda like comparing BetaSX and XDCAM. Yeah, they are very similar but very different.
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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com -
Hey Sam,
The memory should be fine but every now and then even the best manufacturers can have some faulty product. And to answer your second statement, set your processor performance to Highest in Energy Saver, it will make a major difference.
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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com