Phil Balsdon
Forum Replies Created
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Just to clarify a couple of things.
The B series of the HD200U will record 1080i to optional hard disc or SxS memory cards.
The firewire does not bypass the HDV compression to an external recorder, you can do this using component outputs via an external device from AJA https://www.aja.com/products/io/io-hd.php or Matrox https://www.matrox.com/video/en/products/mxo2/.
Babies are no longer thought to come from birds and bees.
JVC HDV is short-GOP (6 frames) as opposed to Sony and others which is 15 frame long-GOP
If you liked the on shoulder operation of theSony DSR 250 you’ll love the ergonomics and simplicity of the JVC ProHD cameras.
Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/ -
You need to upgrade your FCP to at least version 5 FCP4.5 won’t work with HDV720p. Chances of finding that version are remote though so you may have to go all the way to FCP6 which only comes with the full FCS2 suite.
Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/ -
Hi Jason,
If you’ve followed the process to letter as detailed on my blog
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/vlog/12/04/2009/jvc-hdv-video-into-final-cut-pro-6
the chances are you do have blown firewire port (I assume you’ve tried a different firewire cable or checked the cable you are using on another device).However normally the firewire port only fails on the HDV side or the DV side and you can still use it for the other format. Try downloading a trial version of Veescope live at https://www.dvdxdv.com/NewFolderLookSite/VeeScope/Products/VeescopeLive.overview.htm and connecting the camera to your computer with the firewire, if it doesn’t recognise it you (RMIT) have a camera problem.
Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/ -
Jeremy is correct. You need to remove the green or blue background and export a video with an Alpha channel using something like AE. Since Flash 8 this could be a Quicktime Animation codec or flv. This is all the Flash programmer needs as Flash will recognize the alpha channel. The rest of the animation is done in Flash.
For web only use this creates a smaller and cleaner end result and the reason the background animation is so clean in Greg’s original example.
Now try explaining to a client if they want the kind of quality they have seen on the internet for their web site and then want a video for use elsewhere they need to go through two different post production processes.
Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/ -
If you mean doing a “film out” this has been done quite successfully with a number features shot with JVC HD Pro cameras. One that comes to mind is the Australian produced “Gabriel”.
https://news.creativecow.net/story/858596
The progressive scan format of the camera makes it particularly suitable for film transfers. It is a much more complex process to transfer interlaced scanned footage to film. However this process is very expensive, I’ve worked on a couple of features that hoped to go this way but the budget to go to film for cinema release never evolved and final release was limited to DVD.
More important than the technical specifications of the camera though are good lighting and quality audio and most important of all a very good script. The audience will forgive all the technical deficiencies so long as they can clearly hear the dialogue, see a well framed and lit picture and are entertained by a good story.
Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/ -
I managed to do this quite successfully by running the composite video and audio through a Sony DSR-11 and importing via “capture now” in FCP. The quality didn’t really seem to deteriorate from the VHS quality in the process. The certainly weren’t any lip sink problems as there were a lot of interviews.
This was purely to get some editable footage for a sample showreel for my partner who is a producer, and having some footage on her showreel of some very famous people seems to psychologically enhance the poor technical quality of the video.
Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/ -
By the look of the sample it has all been done , including the video c/k, using Flash.
The background is too clean to have been done in an NLE and then exported as FLV.Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/ -
Beautiful images, I bet the video looks great before the compression for the internet.
Part of the problem you have though is that there is too much camera movement for a compressor to do an ideal job for the internet. What happens in compression is it looks at your video and it changes only the pixels it needs change from one frame to the next. If you have a static panorama with a large area of blue sky it only needs to change a few pixels of slow moving clouds or the pixels of a few tree branches blowing in the wind between one frame and the next frame. Pan across the scene though and it has a lot more pixels to adjust, although some of pixels in the blue sky will remain the same and only change every few frames (depending on the speed of the pan). Or a static frame with a car driving through it when only needs to change the pixels relevant to the car moving.
The worst scenario though is a slow dissolve, every single pixel in every single frame needs to be changed and until the dissolve is complete and the compressor has to make compromises to achieve this. (A bit like if you were a chef in a restaurant and all the other staff called in sick but everything was okay….. until the lunchtime rush arrived).
If you are shooting primarily for the internet you need to adopt a style of cinematography that uses less camera movement, static frames that allow the subject to move within the frame. I always tell my students it’s called a movie camera because it shoots moving pictures, not because you can move the camera. The irony is I’m specialist steadicam operator and always moving the camera!
My experiments with getting video onto my website also found that sometimes Flash Video Encoder produced better results than exporting H264 from FCP and Compressor. Generally however I found H264 to be a slightly better result, it’s a bit of a black art though.
Unfortunately until broadband speeds become much faster this is the way of video online.
Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/ -
You may need to look at your FCP configuration before spending money on a repair that may not fix the problem.
You don’t mention your Mac specs or set up etc. could you post these?
Do you have anything other than your media drive and the camera plugged in to the firewire ports?
Come to that have you tried another firewire cable?
Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/ -
Have you tried capturing as ProRes instead of HDV? Doing this seems to present less problems.
How to do this;
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/vlog/12/04/2009/jvc-hdv-video-into-final-cut-pro-6Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/