AC160 External recorders?

F

firehawk

Veteran
Hi everyone,
I've got some questions regarding using ext recorders to try to get higher quality- something better than AVCHD, larger file is expected, but doesnt necessarily have to be as good as AVCI-100 - and how to work with it with my NLE.

1. Will the ac160 record on SD cards(AVCHD 4:2:0) and an external recorder (4:2:2) at the same time?

2. What formats/codecs can be recorded to the recorder and can premiere cs5 work more easily with the externally recorded video than having to process AVCHD? As in can I just copy the footage to my NLE and beginning editing without additional conversion/transcoding or processing? Or better yet, can I connect the ext recorder to the NLE and just edit directly without having to copy the footege off it to the NLE?

3. What external recorders would you recommend? It'd be nice to have one small enough to take out in the field.

I'm mostly using CS5 (windows) on a MacPro dual booting and running Final Cut Studio3 and CS4 in MacOS.
It has FireWire 400/800 and USB 2.0
 
1. Yes.
2. Depends on the recorder. NanoFlash uses MPEG-2, Samurai and PIX 240 can have both ProRes or DNxHD, Ninja is ProRes, HyperDeck shuttle is totally uncompressed.
Premiere 5.0 or later (at least on Windows) doesn't care, it works with natively-recorded AVCHD just fine. You can plug the SDHC card from the camera right in the computer and edit right from the SD card, although you will get better performance if you copy the files to your hard drive first. No conversion is necessary. And yes, you should be able to do the same with an external recorder.

3. Definitely an HD-SDI recorder, so something like a Samurai, PIX 240, or NanoFlash. The Nano's nice because it can be powered by the same battery as the camera, but it's quite a bit more expensive than the Samurai. As to which I'd recommend, I'd say don't bother with any until you've thoroughly explored the onboard native codec; you may find that you're perfectly happy with it and don't need to spend for or bother with a recorder. If after a while you find that you really do need a higher-quality recorder, that's the time to start looking. If you want a small one, the Samurai is probably the one to look at.
 
Thank you again, Barry.
You answered my last two threads so fast, I barely got through typing them. :)
I guess I'm worried about getting AVCHD cameras and the NLE not handling it too well, and also about the color sampling of in camera AVCHD not being good enough. I think you are right. Get a camera, shoot and test the camera and it all may be fine as-is. If not, then look at the recorders you mentioned more closely.

It's just tough to try to make a decision that needs to accomplish everything needed for another several years. Thanks to the helpful people here, it sure makes the decision a lot easier.
+1 again
 
In the past, I've cut AVCHD from an AF100 in Adobe Premiere 5.5 on a 2.8Ghz Macbook Pro, monitoring with a Matrox MXO2. I've rarely had problems from the NLE, and never a complaint from the client. So regarding the NLE and the codec, I don't think there is much to worry about. And Media Composer 6 is supposed to have AMA linking for AVCCAM as well.
 
I have a problem going from play forwards to play in reverse -- WITHOUT a longgggg pause or stuttering while it plays in reverse. Anyone else have this problem with HD? I never had this problem with SD footage in older version of PPro.
FYI: I'm editing with CS5 with a video card that has mercury playback engine, Quad core Intel processor with HT, 12Gig of RAM, and with RAID 0. (saying this to eliminate the 'your computer is too slow response'.)
 
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