p2 for dummies

B

bosindy

Veteran
I am not a professional videographer like most of you. I am hoping to shoot a indy 24p and I am interested in the p2 technology. the dvx is still an option I am considering. I am trying to get my mind around the process using this equipment. these are basic questions most of you I would imagine take as givens when discussing this topic. Lets see if there is such a thing as a stupid question.

1) I don't need to know the math, but will a 40G lap top, 512 mg be enough to dump the p2 footage into on 3 scene days? (Lets say I am on the best 24 p setting the camera has, 720p, 1080i)

2) I am assuming you just stick the card in a USB port?

3) is there a special software needed to capture the video.

4) what would you use to back up the files? I am not crazy about storing anything for long beriods on hardware. what would you store them on? (cdrom/dvdrom)

5) when giving the footage to an editor, what medium would you use to transfer the dat to him/her?

thanks in adance for any edifying comments
 
1 - My impression is that DVCproHD takes about 25 gigs per hour - so the laptop hardrive would hold only about an hour (after the OS and programs) - so you need to purchase a lot of external harddrives.

2- yes stick it in - standard laptop card

3 - Ill be the one to answer before anyone else gets on your case - Yes - you need software but many major editing programs can do it . Also, dvrack hopefully will support DVCproHD by then

4 - I am researching backup options - best is to backup to data tapes but a backup unit is upwards of 1000 dollars and each 30 gig tape is about 50 dollars - another option is to back up to another external hard drive - if you have redundant data its less likely to lose it. Just dont store a drive and its pair next to each other

5- I would think you just send them a hard drive (or a data tape if you went that route)

anyone else have any opinions?
 
thank you smelni, I probably won't buy an editing software so that's why I had the question about that.

in addition to the others:

does cpu speed make a difference?

no backup to dvd or cdrom?
 
You need no special software to “capture” the files – they are ALREADY files like any other file on your computer. You’re just transferring them from the card to your hard drive.

Your processor speed doesn’t really matter when it comes to transferring data, which is all you’re doing. More memory will help make the transfer faster, but 128MB RAM would still work. What you want is the fastest hard drive with the most cache.

However, I’m not sure what you mean by “best 24p setting” – 720p and 1080i are two very different things; 720p is progressive; 1080i is interlaced. There are two HD modes on the HVX; the 1080p (not 1080i) mode will be the “best” 24p setting. That will take up about a gigabyte per minute of file space. 720p will get you roughly two minutes per gigabyte. Remember, though, that you won’t have all 40 gigs available on your hard drive, so think 25-30 minutes of 1080/24p HD, max.

For backup, right now, there’s no great solution except keeping them on a hard drive. Hard drives don’t cost that much anymore. Certainly, much more than a mini-DV tape, but less than a DVCPRO-HD tape, to say nothing of how much a deck would cost.

Perhaps Blu-Ray or HD-DVD will provide practical long-term archiving solutions.
 
Well the card isn't USB, it is PCMCIA, so an iBook wouldn't do it, but a powerbook has a PCMCIA slot, otherwise you would need to use firewire. I am sure the faster the CPU the better because this is going to be a big stream, especially if you are editing with a laptop, or capturing over firewire.
 
While we are at it what sort of processing speed/power & memory is needed to edit DVCPRO HD in realtime? Would an Apple G5 dual 2.7 GHZ with 2GB of RAM do a decent job?
 
dvcpro hd realtime

dvcpro hd realtime

razamalik said:
While we are at it what sort of processing speed/power & memory is needed to edit DVCPRO HD in realtime? Would an Apple G5 dual 2.7 GHZ with 2GB of RAM do a decent job?
Click to expand...

i suspect you'll need a full 8gb of ram (especially when running fcp in tiger on a g5) but it's not clear if hardware acceleration is required to get realtime dvcpro hd. here is a quote from an article from one year ago on fcp 4.5:

"Final Cut Pro HD can play back up to four streams of native DVCPRO HD video or, when you add an Xserve RAID, up to 10 streams of preview quality HD video."
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top