[Michael Fernandes]

i didn’t realize my question would inspire such a passionate discussion. I understand the stigma behind HDV. But didn’t realize the sour taste it seems to leave with peopple. I think we are going to maintain the DVCPRO HD for edit & original air then just down convert to HDV for archiving web repackaging etc. Its a bit of a pickle as these are the cameras we have and the storage system. And we have to maintain the workflow as is but make it the most effective. I too wish for more hard drives how ever our system is running redundant so one upgrade in storage means 3x the cost. 1 raid for storage – 1 raid for mirroring – and now double the amount of LTO.

I’ve been playing with compressions and HDV runs 25mbit mpeg2 which even if we shoot, edit and master in DVCPRO HD we have to down convert to 25mbit mpeg2 for broadcast. Any suggestions as to a compression that is equal to that file size while maintaining HD resolution

Mike Fernandes
NBC Universal

[Michael Fernandes]

I dunno if it went through or not so i’m sorry if i’m repeating but i didn’t see my response on the post.

We aren’t shooting on P2’s exactly, yes we do have a few of them for our more active shoots but we are mainly using firestore drives to record on. So while that is a good idea from looking at the website it seems as thought that may not work.

We shoot 4 shows a week 42-46 weeks a year as well as a few series specials we have going with camera crews in 3 cities, it all adds up pretty quickly.

It seems like doing a media manage conversion will probably be it. We have a few xserves and alot of edits so i’ll just have to set up a large cluster and have it go

[Michael Fernandes]

We aren’t actually capturing on P2 cards we are using Focus Fire stores on HVX cameras. And the amount of those we would require to maintain our workflow given the amount we shoot then becomes a money issue.

Our original airings of the shows are in DVCPRO HD this is more of an archive system that we are attempting to organize.

And yes we do shoot that much. We have 4 full time shows running 46 weeks a year and 3 special limited run series with shooters in NY, LA, & CH

We do have 2 HDV cameras but they just don’t produce the image as well as the Leica lens on the Panasonic.

It seems like we just have to set up a larger compressor cluster and just run through all archives as you said at least that can be automated.

[Michael Fernandes]

unfortunately that isn’t going to work for us. we save everything on the san and are constantly repackaging our material converting to pro res only takes an 15gb media managed project down to 13gb. We are a tapeless production company from acquisition to broadcast so HDV seems to be the best in file compression to us thus far taking that same 15gb project down to little over 2gb. i know its not ideal but the HDV is actually closer to what our station airs anyways being 25mbs mpeg2 wrapped in a gxf for grass valley.

I am just curious as to if there is anything we can do to make this conversion faster as the transcode on a quad 3ghz still takes roughly an hour for 4min block of our shows. so roughly 5 hours just to transcode the 20 minutes that was used in the show, and who has that kind of time.

Any suggestions?