[Nigel]

Will do, in about a week after I’ve done tests with cams and fcp.

[Nigel]

Thanks for taking the time to answer this little lot Stephen, you’ve been a great help.

Thanks again.

[Nigel]

That helps a lot. Okay, the NAB update will be fine, I’m looking at shooting this over an 8 week period starting in 3 weeks time, so by the time I’m finished FCP6 should be around for me to edit it on.

Finally, I promise 😉 I know 24P is closer to the film look due to film movies being shot at 24 fps, but would I shoot on 24 or 25P if I only intend it to be distributed on DVD in the UK and Europe and possibly a few sales in the USA?

I never could totally understand the difference between 24p and 25p?

This should totaly wrap this up, and thanks gain Stephen.

[Nigel]

Somebody just told me it appears that FCP does not support 720p in 24p mode?

I’m in the UK so would I use 24P or 25P?

[Nigel]

Stephen, that is brilliant. It never occured to me to shoot in 720p from the HVX, of course, then both lots of footage will match up perfectly.

So just to confirm, I should record 720P on the HVX and the JVC, which equates to the same frame size. The only difference between the two in this case is the JVC uses the MPEG2 codec due to the HDV compression – but the transcode using QuickTime Pro will turn this into the HVX uncompressed (well, not HDV) HD codec so they match perfectly on the timeline right?

I’m assuming the P in 720P is the Progressive shooting part. Due to this flicker/judder of 720p maybe I should get a bit of training/schooling on how to shoot like a cinematographer, as opposed to a videographer as you have to do things differently when shooting in progressive right, such as following the motion, not having a moving car fly across the frame of a locked off shot etc?

Thanks again Stephen, almost there.

[Nigel]

[Steve]But iMan I’m wondering, why limit your quality to SD acquisition? Why not shoot DVCProHD on the HVX and HDV on the JVC. It sounds as though you’ve got a firewire-based system, so If you’ve got Final Cut 5 import the P2 DVCProHD as you normally would, then capture the HDV material and do a batch transcode to DVCProHD. Then cut everything in DVCProHD, which your 7200 rpm drive should handle as the maximum data rate is only 14 MB/s. If you don’t have Final Cut 5 you can use the free apps DVHSCap or VirtualDVHS to capture the HDV material and then transcode it to DVCProHD using the free Squared 5 MPEG Slipstream. When you finish the cut you can do a final convertion/output to whatever format you require. Even if the final requirement is Standard Def, the image quality you get by acquiring in Hi Def and eventually down-converting will look fantastic – more like it was originally shot on a format like DigiBeta.

Steve, your above quote sounds ideal. I think I want to go down this route. Will this definitely work? I have Final Cut Pro 5 HD suite.

You say the DVCProHD material is only 14MB/s, I thought it was 100?

Can I transcode JVC HDV720P footage to the DVCProHD codec within Final Cut Pro?

What about the frame size difference as I

[Nigel]

That helps a lot. I assume I bring in the SD DVCPRO50 footage from my P2 card, then bring in the SD footage from JVC in Mini-DV mode, then with a sequence set up to higher quality one i.e. the Panny Standard def DVCPRO50, I bring the DVCPRO50 clips to the timeline, then as I drop the JVC standard def mini-dv footage onto the timeline, it will be red-lined indicating that I will need to render it?
Then I simply render it and away I go?

If I chose to use an AJA IO card in 10 bit uncompressed and brining in via component, won’t their be a loss of quality as component is not as good as FireWire?
Also, with 10 bit uncompressed, won’t I need to upgrade my hardware i.e. raid aray etc or will my exsisting internal 7200 hard drive do the job.

[Nigel]

Thanks everyone for the great input. One more question I’ve thought of. Regarding shooting in SD mode on both cameras. If I shoot using the HVX200’s best quality SD mode, think that is DVCPRO50? and use the JVC in SD Mini-DV mode, am I right in assuming that I can mix these two lots of footage in the same Final Cut Pro sequence as they are both 720×576 right? or will the DVCPRO50 standard def codec not work as it is different from the JVC standard def mini-dv codec?

Thanks again people.

[Nigel]

Jan, you mention shooting in 1080i/25P mode. This is progressive and I have still to learn the correct (film camera) shooting techniques to eliminate jitter so I want to stick with interlace for now. I’m assuming the HVX200 does interlace?

Shane, is converting the JVC SD DV footage, or 720p HDV footage in FCP into DVCPROHD footage a straight forward conversion? Perhaps it would be easier to set HVX200 and the JVC to SD DV mode of 720×576 interlace PAL. This workflow I am used to and at least there will be no mix up in the sequence; is this right?

[Nigel]

Sorry, don’t know how double post happened. Please reply to other post, NOT this one.