HVX basic questions

S

Shacke

Active member
Hi,

A couple of basic questions on the HVX200 please?

1. Can the camera record HD footage onto an internal drive or is it on P2 card?
2. How many minutes footage can I get on the P2 cards?
3. I assume I will have to transfer the footage from P2 to laptop as shooting progresses. How long does that process take?
4. Can I edit the HD footage on Adobe Premiere Pro (PC)? If not, what sort of system should I be looking at?
5. How does the SD footage from the HVX compare with the DVX's? Basically I want to know whether I still need my DVX if I get an HVX.
6. I have always heard that post-production for HD is a nightmare. Is that still true?

Thanks for not telling me to go and read the other posts. I already have.::laugh:

Cheers.
 
1. The camera by default records HD footage to a P2 card, but firestore makes an external harddrive that holds up to 150gb
2. There are charts all over the place, but I think for a general rule, it's about 1gb per minute of 1080i or about 2 minutes for 720p. They come in 4,8,16 and 32gb sizes right now
3. That all depends on the processor in the computer...
4. Adobe Premiere CS3 has native support for P2 cards
5. If you are shooting SD, stick with the DVX. It has nicer SD footage than the HVX in my opinion.
6. Not neccesarily if you have a powerful enough computer. Check the system requirements for whatever NLE you'll be using for HD footage.

Hope that helps, I'm no expert or anything, but this is what I gather for the questions you're asking.
 
Just out of curiousity Btown, probably a naive question here but your signature says 4GB P2, does that mean that if you're shooting 1080i, you have to transfer after aproximately every 4 minutes of footage?!
 
Yeah exactly, I never shoot at 1080i, maybe if I had a firestore I would. But I'd rather save up for some bigger P2 cards, I just feel they are a more reliable and in some ways an easier workflow. I always shoot at 720/24pn though, unless I want slow motion, then I'd shoot at 720/60i.

For now I don't actually edit HD footage though, since I don't have a blu-ray burner yet. So I just fill up my P2 card with 720 footage and then dub it to a DV tape and format the card. It looks better than filming straight to the DV tape and this way you get all the features like variable frame rates and focus assist. Plus, on a 4gb card it doesn't take long to dub to the tape, so while I'm doing that it gives me time to set up for the next shot.
 
I think the HVX looks a little nicer than the DVX in SD to MiniDV in most settings. I would only stick with the DVX if I was still shooting dark wedding receptions (to get two extra stops in interlaced). For any commercial work, I'd rather have the HVX200, especially in widescreen.
If you shoot in 1080 in low light with 12 dB of gain, you can run a noise reduction filter and not lose any noticeable sharpness in the conversion to 480, so the HVX200 has always been the best option for me.
 
you can run a noise reduction filter and not lose any noticeable sharpness in the conversion to 480

Hey Professor - What NR filter do you use. Do you edit to a 480 timeline and add the filter there, or do you use the filter on a native timeline and then compress that to SD?

Thanks,
J
 
I use After Effects, because it's what I'm most comfortable with. I have heard some great things about Raylight MXFX and it's probably easier to integrate into my current workflow, so I'll be trying it out on my next project.

I edit on a 1080 or 720 timeline and run the noise reduction at that resolution. The best workflow usually keeps as much data as possible until the final step.
 
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