Is Shooting on HVX200 Tape Useless?

John J.

John J.

Active member
About 98% of everything I've read here and online about shooting with the HVX has to do with it's impressive P2 capabilities - but what are the best settings available when shooting to DV tape? Is it nothing more than just high-quality DV look @ 30fps?

I'd be interested to know what the highest quality settings would be for shooting to tape, and what quality might be expected. Comparing DV tape specs versus HD are significant...could you still shoot to tape for weddings, internet, any type of broadcast? Anyone have any footage shot with their HVX200 to tape? Thanks guys.

- John
 
John J. said:
About 98% of everything I've read here and online about shooting with the HVX has to do with it's impressive P2 capabilities - but what are the best settings available when shooting to DV tape? Is it nothing more than just high-quality DV look @ 30fps?
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Well, it's high-quality DV look at 24p or 30p, or it also does 60i but I don't really recommend it for that.

Comparing DV tape specs versus HD are significant...could you still shoot to tape for weddings, internet, any type of broadcast?
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Of course you could. DV is still probably the most widely-used format being used professionally right now.
 
The advantage that the HVX200 still has over other MiniDV cameras is that it has true progressive CCDs, and you get Scene Files and gamma curves that get you very organic-looking results.
 
Yes, tape is still fine for SD projects and still looks better than the DVX100 or an XL2 would. That said, let me give you a bit of warning. ONCE YOU GET USED TO P2, IT'S HARD TO GO BACK TO TAPE.

Something about the convenience of P2 really is just hard to give up. I'm shooting a promo video for a school right now and while I initially intended to use both P2 and tape, I'm actually going out of my way just to use P2, even though I only have one card. Honestly, it's worth it to me to have to dump my footage to a laptop and burn to DVDs as long as I don't have to worry about digitizing. I also can't give up instant clip access.
 
I think the HVX looks better in DV 16:9 mode than the DVX but in 4:3 it is more of a wash. The XL2 looks every bit as good as the HVX in DV mode, needs a little less light and will destroy the HVX in 60i mode. Again, it all depends on your needs.


ash =o)
 
In DV mode the HVX @ 6db is cleaner than a DVX100A at 0db. In 16:9 the difference is more impressive. It seems to have better highlight handling. But it is at least a stop slower. I shoot tape with it often.

As Barry said, only use it for progressive. It has serious aliasing issues @ 60i, though you won't neccessarily see them on every shot, its a crap shoot .
 
Do I have mis-information or can the HVX simultaneously record to tape (as a back up kind of thing) and also to P2 at the same time?
 
jonnyh1968 said:
Do I have mis-information or can the HVX simultaneously record to tape (as a back up kind of thing) and also to P2 at the same time?
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That is mis-information. You can downconvert later, but not simultaneously.
 
How much subjective quality advantage do you get with in-camera downconverted P2 HD-to-SD tape compared to native SD?

Ted Spencer, NYC
 
Lenilenapi said:
In DV mode the HVX @ 6db is cleaner than a DVX100A at 0db. In 16:9 the difference is more impressive. It seems to have better highlight handling. But it is at least a stop slower. I shoot tape with it often.
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So there is no workaround to make the HVX in SD (not even DV) a bit faster? Can't you just shoot in 720p pushing the gain, then denoise it and resize it to SD and get a sharp and bright and clean image? I´m almost sure this doesn't work but I'm just too curious about it.
 
so if you guys are filming with the P2 card and you run out of space or memory then what do you do? will it allow you to just dump the information into a laptop or something? if thas the case then you wont get much mileage outta just one 4GB P2 card will you?

it'd be cool if you could dump it str8 into an iPod as backup data or smething somehow without using a laptop.
 
FilmBoy77 said:
so if you guys are filming with the P2 card and you run out of space or memory then what do you do? will it allow you to just dump the information into a laptop or something? if thas the case then you wont get much mileage outta just one 4GB P2 card will you?

it'd be cool if you could dump it str8 into an iPod as backup data or smething somehow without using a laptop.
Click to expand...

17" Powerbook will last all day for dumping P2 cards....
I get 3 hours of battery time, and usually have an hour left at
the end of shoots. I started using these little 80 gig external hard drives that do not need external power.
So every about every 40 min I have the laptop on for 10-15 min.
We hook up to power when possible.
 
FilmBoy77 said:
so if you guys are filming with the P2 card and you run out of space or memory then what do you do?
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Same thing you would do if you were shooting on a digital still camera and ran out of space on its card. Empty it onto a hard drive and format it and keep going.

will it allow you to just dump the information into a laptop or something?
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Yes you can plug the card straight into a laptop's PCMCIA slot and copy the contents over.
if thas the case then you wont get much mileage outta just one 4GB P2 card will you?
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Having just one card is unnecessarily restrictive, but two 4GB cards can accomplish a tremendous amount.

it'd be cool if you could dump it str8 into an iPod as backup data or smething somehow without using a laptop.
Click to expand...
You can.
 
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