Capturing footage at full resolution

C

crydercohen

Active member
hey all-

i've heard conflicting info about this and wanted to get something a bit more definitive. when i capture footage using the fcp dv ntsc setting, amd i capturing compressed or uncompressed footage? if it is compressed, is it possible to capture standard def footage uncompressed into fcp?

many thanks

sb
 
Once you shoot DV you have compressed it 5:1. You can never uncompress it, only recompress it less. Firewire capture to FCP is a 1:1 digital clone of the original DV NTSC 5:1 compression.

Noah
 
even if you re-captured the footage for an on-line edit?

are you saying that once you shoot on dv, what you have on the tape is the highest resolution footage that you can get.

what does that 5:1 ratio refer to exactly?

many thanks

sb
 
that is correct. once it is on tape, it is compressed. the 5:1 compression, I believe, refers to the ratio of information in DV compared to uncompressed SD.
 
so how does one get, or capture uncompressed SD? also, how do all those tv shows that are shot on mini dv get prepped for tv?
 
crydercohen said:
so how does one get, or capture uncompressed SD? also, how do all those tv shows that are shot on mini dv get prepped for tv?
Click to expand...

With the use of a Capture Card, like the AJA I/O, or Kona and Decklink series. But the image will not improve...even if you capture at uncompressed 10-bit. What does improve is how the footage reacts to being color corrected. You get less recompression if you capture and color correct uncompressed 10-bit vs color correcting DV directly.
 
so if i did an on-line edit, they would use a capture card and capture at 10-bit?

so what you're saying is that FCP re-compresses the already compressed dv footage, while a capture card does not recompress?

thanks

sb
 
The process of shooting DV is irreversible. You are scrambling an egg and it cannot be unscrambled. All editing "uncompressed" does is take an already compressed DV signal at 5:1 and keep it from any further recompression which you would get if you edit on a DV timeline.

That said, there's really not a huge need to shoot uncompressed *unless* you are working with a greenscreen. For 99% of folks working with a DV camera, a DV shoot and edit are nothing to worry about. FCP does not recompress when you capture over Firewire, but any change you make to your footage such as filters, transitions, compositing, will force a recompression. That said DV recompresses quite nicely.

If you truly want an uncompressed video signal you need to dock an uncompressed capture card to a high end camera with an uncompressed output to capture the video signal before it is compressed and laid onto tape.

-Noah
 
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