Shoot DVCpro HD on HVX and output to HDV

ripupthehwy

ripupthehwy

Well-known member
Hi,
I plan on buying the HVX soon. I'm shooting a local drama series for tv. (not making any money at it ...yet, still looking for sponsors/investors).
Anyway, the question is:
I can shoot on the HVX in 720/24p (probably to a Citidisk or firestore recorder for now) and dump it into my NLE.
Although final output for now is DVCpro (I have a DVCpro 25 deck available for my use), I want to also output some kind of HD master as well for the future. Sinice I cannot afford a DVCpro HD deck, I'm thinking of buying the cheapest Sony HDV deck, convert the footage in my NLE with Canopus EDIUS (it will do that right??) and output to HDV..for now. Any thoughts on this? WIll it look crappy?? Or should I just purchase an HDV camera to begin with?

ripupthehwy
 
It'll take out the advantage of recording in 4:2:2 in the first place- since HDV is 4:2:0. Maybe it wouldn't be too bad if you edited everything in DVCPRO HD, and then did a master file in dvcpro HD of your project and exported an HDV stream to the deck. You would have the 4:2:2 native backup file, and a 4:2:0 final master clip, that was entirely edited in a 4:2:2 intrafame codec (DVCPRO HD). Theoretically, that would be better than going native HDV (4:2:0) for editing and output.

BLU-Ray and HD-DVD's are 4:2:0, supposeddly, so, in a distribution sense (non film out), the loss wouldn't be that noticeable.
 
SPZ said:
BLU-Ray and HD-DVD's are 4:2:0, supposeddly, so, in a distribution sense (non film out), the loss wouldn't be that noticeable.
Click to expand...

First off I wouldnt OUTPUT anything on an HDV codec, no one wants it. That said you can output any aquisition codec to a DVCPRO master. Luckily I have access to that option.

SPZ you wont see any difference on a film blow up either. Where you will feel it is if there is heavy compositing or bluescreen/greenscreen.

HDV as an aquisition is totally acceptable - unless your planning on discovery channel but meh to them.

Most broadcast in the US is SD 4:3 (per Barry Green). Shooting with an XLH1 on greenscreen at HD and downrezing to SD then keying will be as good as you would need.
 
Well obviously I WOULD output to DVCpro HD IF i had access/funds for that. That will come later..but for now, just trying to find a backup way to make an HD copy.

I just wondered if I could output to HDV for the time being.

As far as the blueray, I've thought of that too. I see you can get blueray dvd burners for your computer through B&H for less than $1000. However what kind of codec is that? Software needed to convert DVCpro HD to a blueray compatible format? OR can you just write the DVCPRO HD as a data file to the blueray for now until I could get a DVCpro HD deck? make any sense???

Greenscreen? don't plan any of that so I couldn't care less.
 
You can fit about one hour of DVCPROHD on a 50GB bluray as data. That's the same as a HDV tape with the advantage of 100Mbps 4:2:2 quality vs 25Mbps and 4:2:0. Definitely worth the $1000 for the drive.
 
ripupthehwy said:
Well obviously

As far as the blueray, I've thought of that too. I see you can get blueray dvd burners for your computer through B&H for less than $1000. However what kind of codec is that? Software needed to convert DVCpro HD to a blueray compatible format? OR can you just write the DVCPRO HD as a data file to the blueray for now until I could get a DVCpro HD deck? make any sense???

Greenscreen? don't plan any of that so I couldn't care less.
Click to expand...

I would say burn a master blu-ray DATA disk with the master DVCPRO HD file (quicktime or mxf or whatever). Then burn another disc using an authoring software that will convert your dvcprohd to a playable blu-ray format (either H264 or Mpeg 2 HD, if i'm not wrong). I believe in the Mac side of things, there still isn't any available option to burn to blu-ray- however, I've seen contradictory reports that say Toast will recognize Lacie's Bluray drive and do an automatic conversion to playable video. What codec? Don't know.

NCJE, I was talking delivery to a consumer, not to Broadcast channels. The only deliverable ways nowadays are either PC files, HD-DVD's and BLU-Rays. Notice that I said to the original poster to keep a DVCPRO HD master file, and then do a conversion to HDV tape if he wanted to keep an HDV tape for archive.

Having done High End color correction on a 2k Da Vinci System, I can assure you there is a world of difference between manipulating 4:2:2 dvcpro HD footage and HDV.
 
Thanks guys, this helps alot! I think i'll invest into a BlueRay burner first and write the DVCprod HD as DATA files. That beats tying up my hard drives with the completed episodes just sitting there for months and months, waiting on a DVCpro HD deck to dump them to.

Good points about he 4:2:0 color space also.

ripupthehwy
 
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