Best practices for the HVX200

[Pear Ubu]

Well, what's obvious is that this camera is different.

A lot of you folks are breaking new ground with how one works with the HVX200, and this forum has been invaluable for harvesting cool new ideas about fulfilling the potential of the camera and our potential for filmmaking.

Could we, as a community of sorts, create a "best practices" consensus around workflow? And distill that consensus into a sticky that continually improves, as new technology arrives on the scene, or new techniques are invented?

The forum has amazing depth and breadth, which is great, but also makes it somewhat unwieldy.

Some of the intriguing questions revolve around start-to-finish workflow and archiving for:

- the 4GB P2 card
- the 8GB P2 card
- the FS-100
- direct to laptop (i.e. PC or Mac, and with the PC, which models allow DV Rack to suffice for focusing in lieu of a Marshall)
- archiving on hard drive? tape? DVD? Blu-Ray?

[David Saraceno]

What is "best practices" is determined by what type of shoot and environment you have.

For some I take a single 8 gb card.

For others, all the cards.

And for long form, it's the FS-100

Hard to say what works the best for every situation.

[Pear Ubu]

Okay, what about that 8G card?

If shooting with one card, after you shoot for awhile, and fill it up, if you wanted to reuse it in the field, you'd need to transfer footage. What's your recommendation for that? You may have tried several options, but found one method that works best: most efficient transfer rate, with the least down time, and the safest, most convenient storage in the field (P2 Store? Laptop? PC vs Mac? Two hard drives? Burn dual-layer DVDs?)

And then, after you've brought it into your NLE, how do you archive your footage? I know that a 4G card's footage will fit onto a DVD, but what about the 8G?

The thing is, I've read dozens of posts about this topic, and once I get my rebate 8G card, I'm sure I'll read them all again.

It would be most excellent if some of the heavy hitters on this forum could weigh in on an 8G "best practices" thread to distill that collective knowledge into a consensus.

No rush, of course.

[Erik Olson]

We're currently writing 4GB cards to double-layer DVDs.

For 8GB and larger P2 cards, my Blu-Ray experience tells me that the $20 25GB single-layer R/RW disks (down from $30 just six months ago) will be a great choice for budget-minded archiving.

They match up nicely with three 8GB or six 4GB P2 cards. 16GB cards don't fit so nicely, but you could archive a 16 and an 8 on one disk.

25GB Blu-Ray = 3 8GB P2 downloads (60 mins without DI / proxy)
25GB Blu-Ray = 6 4GB P2 downloads (60 mins without DI / proxy)

50GB Blu-Ray = 6 8GB P2 downloads (120 mins without DI / proxy)

Blu-Ray Panasonic internal writer SW-5582 runs about $850, supporting both single and double-layer recording.

e

[vfranke]

I have been told that you could burn dual layer DVD's to archive your 8GB cards. Isn't this right? Have people had problems with that big of a burn?

[Arson]

i swap 2 4gig cards out to a laptop. I have a nice backpack camera/laptop bag. I've offloaded footage while standing in 3 inches of water with the laptop on a uneven concrete ledge in a subway tunnel as the trains whipped past us 2 feet behind some chain link. Anyone who says that P2 cards are a hassle to offload has never used them. I've offloaded footage to a laptop in caves. tunnels. on a ski slope. in abandoned buildings, on a cliff with rock climber, on a mountain while hiking as well as on a soundstage, backstage at a bar, etc etc etc.

When my friends bring over MiniDV tape for me to capture I make them do it. I would love to never waste time capturing ever again.

[James Jones]

I have been told that you could burn dual layer DVD's to archive your 8GB cards. Isn't this right? Have people had problems with that big of a burn?

I have burned several 8GB to DL DVD....worked just fine.

JJ

[c3kings]

i swap 2 4gig cards out to a laptop. I have a nice backpack camera/laptop bag. I've offloaded footage while standing in 3 inches of water with the laptop on a uneven concrete ledge in a subway tunnel as the trains whipped past us 2 feet behind some chain link. Anyone who says that P2 cards are a hassle to offload has never used them. I've offloaded footage to a laptop in caves. tunnels. on a ski slope. in abandoned buildings, on a cliff with rock climber, on a mountain while hiking as well as on a soundstage, backstage at a bar, etc etc etc.

When my friends bring over MiniDV tape for me to capture I make them do it. I would love to never waste time capturing ever again.

Arson, it sounds great! Actually, I am going to have a similar workflow.

By the way, would you tell me how long it takes to offload a 4 gig card?

My situation is going to use 2 8G cards, and I will get a new Core2 Duo PC laptop. I worry it takes more than 8 minutes to offload to the computer. Then I just cannot have a continuos shooting, for example, like during a long interview.
Thanks.
King

[psts]

What I've found the best for me so far is to offload on to the p2 store. When i get back to my mac later i connect the p2 store and just burn 4.7 DVD's straight from the p2 store as an archive. then i import the contents of the p2 store. When the final product is done, if it's a bigger budget production I back up the whole thing onto a hard drive (minus the actual p2's which I archived onto DVD already). It's definitely time consuming but it works.

[JimmyTheSaint]

....

[psts]

which ipod is this? The usb or firewire?

[Arson]

4 gig card takes about 4-6 minutes to transfer via pcmcia and holds about 12 minutes worth of 720 30p footage

[Barry_Green]

On my laptop a 4GB card transfers in 2:45.


and holds about 12 minutes worth of 720 30p footage
Not quite; a 4GB card holds 8 minutes of 720/30pN; 10 minutes of 720/24pN.

[alpi69]

At events I do, like Jimmy, dump to a USB device whenever I have time. That USB-OTG device needs two minutes per GB though :(

[ProgressiveScanner]

Jimmy,

P2 --> iPod is a fantastic idea, making the HVX a heck of a lot more attractive. How exactly is this done? How many P2 cards do you use? I'm trying to figure out if this could work for live event/wedding videography.

[digitalinnovations]

*bump* I would love info on the P2 --> iPod transfer!

[David Saraceno]

You can wait or do a simple search:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=74778&highlight=iStore