HMC150 and FCP

S

shrigg

Well-known member
BobDiaz said:
For the present, it seems that transcoding is the most reasonable way to work with AVCHD video. That allows today's computers to be fast enough for editing. However, in about 3 years, the fastest computers should be about 4x faster. which will make working directly with AVCHD a lot easier. AVCHD is VERY processor intensive.

There is the other possibility of special video cards being able to take the load off the CPU, but this requires the editing company work with the video card company to take advantage of the additional processing power on the video card.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't we see the same issue with HDV when it first came out, the computers weren't fast enough to deal with MPEG-II Compression...

Bob Diaz
Click to expand...

Okay, To get things started I pasted in Bob D.'s "transcoding for now" post. I currently edit DVcam and HDV on FCP 6.02 + Macbook Pro 2.33 Ghz but would reluctanty consider a PC build if Vegas, etc. can work with AVCHD quickest. Can someone weigh in on what, if anything, can currently edit AVCHD _natively_ without transcoding? I was planning to buy the current 2.8 Ghz 8 core Mac Pro with 16Gb RAM but all the fearful AVCHD chatter has me thinking that this is not enough computer. Think it might be wisest to buy nothing and just wait for the FCP updates?

I've pre-ordered an HMC150, now I need to get the editing/archiving planned. Any thoughts on sensible archiving workflow would be welcomed too. Current plan is to buy hard drives as needed, use them in this dock and then back on the shelf in labeled static bag/box for archiving. Thoughts?

Thanks,
Darren Shroeger
 
EDIUS handles AVC-HD footage natively. Vegas can handle some flavors but they have also made it incompatible with Panasonic and Canon footage, so -- roll the dice on that one.

Some consumer editors like Pinnacle Studio Plus handle AVC-HD footage natively.

Canopus has a tool that converts AVC-HD into CanopusHQ, it's very quick and the file size (in 720p) doubles; in 1080p it quadruples, but the resulting files are lightning fast to edit.
 
OK, I think I got it. It edits native OR you can transcode (quickly) to CanopusHQ for super speedy editing. Now, the long shot: Think it run decently on XP via Bootcamp, Parallels or Fusion on the Macbook Pro? I just had to ask!
 
The problem with Parallels or Fusion with respect to Edius Broadcast relates to hardware support. Broadcast is dongle protected.

I've contacted the Canopus/Thomson/Grass Valley to test this exact thing, but haven't heard back as yet.
 
What about the Pro version? Is that also Dongle protected? Correct me if I'm wrong, but looking at their site makes me believe that even Edius Neo would edit AVCHD natively. It also includes Canopus HQ conversion (I won't call it transcoding because that makes me think it's S-L-O-W) for that super speedy editing we all want...

http://desktop.thomsongrassvalley.com/products/nlesoftware.php

Have a look at the comparison chart.
 
I called Canopus today to ask all about Edius on the Macbook Pro. When I called I was surprised to get a real live person who cheerfully gave me a tech support ticket number (even though I'm not a customer yet) and they returned my call within the hour.

Brent is the tech who called me and he said while Canopus does not "officially" support the Mac platform, MANY MANY people do run Edius Neo, Pro and Broadcast through Boot Camp. The dongle is no problem.

He even logged me into the site and helped me download the full DVD image of Edius Pro (which runs for 30 days in demo mode before the dongle lockout happens)

Brent also directed me to their forums where there are many success stories of folks running Edius on their Macbook Pros under Boot Camp. There are even some people running it under Parallels. He finished by saying that while they aren't officially supported, "those Macs are stinkin fast!"

I'm definitely interested and will certainly try the demo they gave me!
 
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Best archive solution is when you are finished with your edit you take your SD card and place it on the shelf.
 
Archive question, if anyone's tried this:

If you transcode to ProRes on import, but only archive the original AVCHD card images, will FCP be able to properly reconstruct your project from the archive from the project file?
 
I would think so, but I haven't tried it. I wouldn't think it would differ in this regard than say re-capturing 24P that had had pulldown added during capture. Then again, I've never tried recapturing 24p later on either (just assuming) so I'll let someone answer who actually knows what the hell they're talking about. :)
 
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I don't know if I qualify to answer but I will say that archiving only the AVCHD source files would mean re-transcoding everything in order to bring a project back to life later. I'd be unsure whether the re-transcoded files would be frame-accurate when linked back into the FCP project. In theory, yes they would but I can imagine things getting a little "funny" say if you do an update to FCP and then they transcode just a little differently...

In a perfect world archiving the Pro Res clips would be the solution but hard drives would fill up quick. That is the one of the main reasons I am looking into Edius, Canopus HQ files are half the size of Pro Res HQ and arguably just as good if not better. I'd like to know more about Canopus HQ vs. Pro Res because twice the storage has me strongly considering Canopus HQ.
 
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