Mixing HVX and Beta SP Footage

Stephen Mick

Stephen Mick

Totally Usable
I've got an edit project coming in next week that I've got a question about.

Most of the footage was shot on HVX (720p60/23.98). But because of weather, they weren't able to pick up shots in one or two locations, and for that we'll need to pick up footage from BetaSP from a previous shoot.

For a seven-minute video, maybe thirty to forty seconds will come from the BetaSP. Final delivery is on BetaSP and SD DVD. I'm working on a Mac Pro with FCS2.0, and have access to a Kona LHe card if needed.

Should I edit the SD footage in an HD timeline and upconvert, or downconvert the HVX footage to SD knowing that my final delivery is in SD anyway? Should I use Compressor to do the down-conversion ahead of time?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I just want to make sure I set things up right from the start.

Cheers!

--Steve
 
If you're on FCP 6 just drop it into the timeline. When you downcovert for the DVD all should smooth out ok.

Noah
 
I'd do DVCPROHD. When the cut is done, export to Compressor with the 16:9 24p DVD Best preset.

Noah
 
The new multiformat timeline is no joke, I had vacation footage that included DVCPRO HD, HDV, AVCHD and clips from a sony digicam... I burned it DVD best and it looks great on my 42" TV!
 
Yeah, I've played around with the open-format timeline, but only for personal projects and not for client jobs. But there's a first time for everything, and I guess this is it.
 
Well technically any timeline in FCP 6 is open format. Whatever clip you drop in first will become the master format and all clips added after that will be conformed to that clip's properties.

Noah
 
Just personal taste, but if you have access to the Kona I would use it to do the up-conversion for you. We've done both here recently (FCP 6 vs Kona 3). The Kona gave us better looking results as far as everyone here was concerned. FCP 6 wasn't bad persay, but Kona was better. Our up convert was from BetaSP as well.

cheers.
 
Exactly- that is going to be better quality. However in this case the upconvert is only while you're editing. As the final product is going to be SD DVD, you'll ultimately have the Beta at it's regular resolution and the DVCPROHD as downconverted which should look great.

Noah
 
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