easy way to down rez

smelni

smelni

Veteran
Currently most tv stations ask for SD masters - so if we want to shoot with the hvx in HD is there a relatively easy way to downcovert all of the footage before handing off to an editor?

that way we can keep the master HD footage in case and for HD reel material but deliver the SD footage. And since many editors are not equipped to handle HD from the HVX it would be great to have an easy way to downrez it all

thanks for any ideas on this.
 
I don't know of any sort of batch downconversion type of program. But most editors *are* equipped to handle HD from the HVX; assuming they have the current version of Avid or Canopus or FCP they're already set. I'd say it's fairly impossible to find a post house of any size that doesn't have at least one of those somewhere.

You can downconvert in the camera to DV, which is a process that runs in real time (an hour to convert an hour's worth of footage) and deliver DV tapes. Other than that I believe you'd have to just set up your NLE and bring in a clip and export it, bring in the next one and export it, etc.

Maybe there's a simple way to develop a script in Vegas or some sort of automator thing in FCP to do this automatically?
 
hey barry -

i guess you know that this is connected to the question i PMed you before.

we are working on spec but the producer is concerned about extra editing costs with HD - although she would like to see it in HD she knows an editor who can edit for free but on an older version of AVID

can all clips be imported to avid and then batch transcoded to dvcpro50 or an equivalent codec?
 
Its very easy to make sd downconversions in Final cut pro.
Simply select the masterclips or sequences you wish to convert in the browser.
2. Then choose: file>Media Manager
3. In the Media Manager select: "Recompress" from the first pop-up, and then a destination format from the second pop-up.
4. In the bottom of the Media Manager window there is a button to select a destination folder for the converted files.
5.After you have selecred a destination just click "ok"

FCP will then batch convert all the selected iles to the destination format and will include the original timecode. Fcp will create a new project with the files.
 
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Here are two solutions that I think would work in theory, I haven't tried them.

From the FCP Project I am assuming it would be easy to print to video or edit to tape. DV, DVCam, DVCPro 50 or whatever deck you have.

You could also just drag thehd sequence into a sd sequence and render all.

Just a few suggestions on solving that problem.

The media manager is a great option to deliver in what ever format desired. I believe that media manager changes the size of the image and could possible stretch wierdly. I'll try that and get back to you.
 
you can also just render out the sequence using compressor to whatever you want.

In camera downconversion is pretty cool though.. you get DV tapes with timecode so you can proxy later down the road. The results are pretty damn good as well, and you can select via thumbnail what clips you want to put down at a time.

If your shooting something dramatic, you can just leave a tape in the camera and while your shooting during a setup change or break you can just downconvert on the fly before you wipe the P2 card.. so at the end of the day you have a downconverted tape to hand off.
 
jarred - that sounds great - onlynegative is that it is not dvcpro50 - just normal dv so you lose a bit of quality there
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but you can't downconvert to DV through firewire can you? That would be nice if you could, even if it can't be done during recording.
 
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