Opinions on shooting HD or SD?

Chris Johnston

Chris Johnston

Veteran
Currently shooting a 30 minute show in HD and then pumping it out to SD (16x9) for broadcast. Using CS5 suite (premiere and Encore) for edit and transcode.

Just looking for opinions on how to shoot in the future. I currently only have HD cams to shoot with but budget is OK'ed so I will be getting some new cams shortly. (possibly as late as Sept fiscal year end)

I am considering cams that will let me shoot both SD and HD as needed (AC- 160?)
but just thought I'd ask for opinions on shooting another show (studio head and shoulders/news type) If it's better to shoot HD and transcode down to SD with Encore or to shoot SD and pump it out from the SD source?

Is there any IQ difference? Workflow might be a little faster? Just haven't had time to test if the image is better shooting HD to SD or SD to SD?

opinions?
 
With technology where it is today and where it'll be tomorrow, why would you shoot SD if your camera is HD-capable? Having a HD master and downconverting it to SD if needed makes the most sense to me.
 
The delivery format is 16x9 SD, so downconverting WILL be needed.

I'm not sure but, I think you're saying that a HD downed to SD will have a better IQ than shooting SD alone???? (which is basically my question.....Is shooting HD and downconverting to SD gonna get you a Better, worse, or same quality image as shooting in SD.......using PP CS5...and the same camera)


EDIT: I would guess shooting HD and down to SD would give a better image (theoretically anyways) but wondered if there was degradation in the way PP CS5 downconverts that might overturn that small advantage?
 
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In my opinion, always best to have the highest source footage regardless... Who knows... you might be re-cutting it into something else down the road.
When I first got my AF100 in January, I had already booked a couple of TV spots... I was tempted to shoot on the DVX100 because I was more familiar with that at the time... (I had only played with the new cam for a few days, and wasn't able to test as much as I would have liked. Well, I shot 1080 and edited in SD... When I delivered the AVI files to the TV stations like I had been doing for years... the spots looked "soft"... I called the station and they said that they had only that month started only using 1080... I went back to the project and "un-shrunk" the cam orig footage up to 1080 and was sooo relieved that I had made the decision to shoot HD.
My biggest corp client has me doing a project that incorporates some SD footage, but I can tell you that anything I shoot for them will be HD even though the finished product will be SD... I'm also on another museum film with basically the same set of circumstances... but I will also be doing acquisition on HD just "because".

I seem to remember reading in Barry's book something about using 720 if you were planning on downressing to SD... you might want to check that. (if you're going to go with the AF100).

Best Regards

Dale
 
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