DVCPro 50 vs HDV

Huy Vu said:
How would this be possible? The camera's chip aspect ratio determines how well it handles 4:3 or 16:9, and it's either one or the other. If the camera is native 16:9, then it has to crop its sensor to get 4:3, and if it's 4:3 then it goes through an electronic squeeze mode, resulting in a lower resolution.
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The DVCPro50 codec allows you to encode at a pixel aspect ratio of .9 or 1.2. So your resolution is 720x480 even in 4:3 format. This means DVCProHD has a chroma resolution of 360x480 in 4:3 and 16:9.

I hope anyone reading this who is trying to choose between formats isn't misled. HDV is an impressive engineering feat designed for consumer cams. DVCPro codecs are designed for broadcast material, and you will have a more pleasant workflow and more consistent product if you shoot DVCPro50.
 
So to sum things up, the three things that are against HDV is that it has artifacts during fast motion, it is compressed to 25Mbps and it has a lower color sampling compared to DVCPro HD. But it has better noise ratio and it even has more lines of resolution compared to DVCPro HD. So really, in terms of quality, how big of a gap is there between DVCPro HD and HDV? Is real much there at all?
 
It depends on what you do with the codecs (what you shoot, how you use it, etc.). DVCPRO HD is more robust for fast motion and editing. HDV is cheaper and more resolute, but has issues. The quality gap is variable, depending on what you are doing.
 
DVCPRO50 is a top-level professional format, according to the EBU it's directly comparable to DigiBeta. HDV is a bottom-level consumer format. Not really sure where there's a need for a comparison.

If you want to shoot HD, DVCPRO50 won't do it. If you want standard-def, DVCPRO50 is better. If you want to take the time to downconvert in post, HDV downconverted can sometimes look really good, depending on whether you're starting with 60i footage (not so good) or 30P/24P footage (looks much better than downconverted 60i).
 
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Yeah, that was pretty conclusive.

In other words:
(1) DVCPro50 is more 'user-friendly' for SD work.
(2) Quality difference is insignificant or variable.
 
I've made numerous documentaries in HDV, using an XL H1 - I was very impressed with the quality of the image in spite of the compression issues mentioned above.. the picture is really amazing when you consider that it actually takes up less room on drives than standard DV.

For the last year I've been shooting DVCPRO HD @ 720/24pn (sorry, I haven't worked with 50). The resolution out of the camera is slightly less than 1080i HDV, really only noticeable with a side-by-side comparison on a large screen... However, as I've said numerous times, resolution isn't the only consideration. The image from the Panasonic cameras just is more pleasing looking...

Plus - Recently I've been updating a couple of client docs and intercutting DVCPRO HD shot at 1080i with the original HDV material. Out of the camera they are very close (Panasonic is "meatier", I don't speak in tech). Where the difference comes is when you start putting effects, color correction or graphics on the image in post. DVCPRO HD appears virtually unchanged, but there is noticeable degradation in the HDV footage... That is where the HDV compression rears it's ugly head...
 
Mac.. that's a great post there. Informed and savy. The other thing about HDV is that it may use up less space, but it's way way more processor intensive. It really pushes my G5 way beyond what DVCPRO does.. both in render time, timeline options, and displaying the 1080 HDV. I believe that Barry had said that's it's 7 times more processor intensive.


I'm in line to get another Mac next year, but the G5 at 4 years old, has really handled the jump to DVCPRO HD quite well.
 
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