Kenneth Fisher
Active member
I am a fairly new HMC150 owner (Under a month). I am also fairly new to the AVCHD/AVCCAM format.
I shot a project using the HMC150, and I am pretty happy with the footage I got from it shooting 1080i.
Now I am at the editing stage, using a machine running Windows 7, Vegas 9.0e, Quad Core q9550, 8 GB of Ram.
Questions:
1) How does the stream folder and default clip names help me?
Back in the old days of capturing clips via tape, I would name the tape before capture, giving each set of clips from that tape a unique name to go with the sequence of clips, so I could identify a camera and what/where/when was being shot. For example: "camera1-interior-kmart-afternoon-09-18-2010-001"
The advice I have read here and in other places is to keep the "stream folder intact". The thing that worries me about that is that the clips themselves don't have unique names. So I am concerned with:
A) Accidentally overwriting clips that have the exact same names, and
B) Working with clips with the same names on 1 timeline. For example, if I shoot 2 cards worth of footage, and I haven't given each capture a unique name, I have clips that have the same name.
****
2) And What About Metadata, Time Code, and Syncing?:
The reason I have read in regard to keeping the stream folder intact had to do with metadata and time code.
When on the Vegas timeline, it appears to me that each clip has timecode that begins and ends with that specific clip.
Additionally, I copied a clip from the stream folder, and let it hang loose. I could not find any difference in the information available to me when a clip is within or outside of the stream folder.
Am I missing something here? Because I think that if I could get an absolute time and date of when the camera was rolling on my clips, it would be very helpful to syncing footage on multi-camera shoots.
What is the metadata that is available to me by keeping the stream folder intact? Because I sure like unique file names.
***
3) Editing:
I found that I could playback and do simple cuts using the AVCCAM raw files. It appears that the conventional wisdom is that transcoding to another format, like Cineform, Prores, or the Avid dnxhd codec is the right way to go for serious editing with color correction, effects etc.
I figure that is true - unless there is something new that allows us to extensively edit the native AVCCAM files without transcoding - please let me know about it, that would be great!
But how does that affect clip data, etc.?
Ken
P.S. I have done extensive reading and searching on this topic. It looks to me like transcoding is the way to go, but I wonder about what I gain or lose by using or not using the stream folder structure, and I can't seem to find the definitive answer to that.
I shot a project using the HMC150, and I am pretty happy with the footage I got from it shooting 1080i.
Now I am at the editing stage, using a machine running Windows 7, Vegas 9.0e, Quad Core q9550, 8 GB of Ram.
Questions:
1) How does the stream folder and default clip names help me?
Back in the old days of capturing clips via tape, I would name the tape before capture, giving each set of clips from that tape a unique name to go with the sequence of clips, so I could identify a camera and what/where/when was being shot. For example: "camera1-interior-kmart-afternoon-09-18-2010-001"
The advice I have read here and in other places is to keep the "stream folder intact". The thing that worries me about that is that the clips themselves don't have unique names. So I am concerned with:
A) Accidentally overwriting clips that have the exact same names, and
B) Working with clips with the same names on 1 timeline. For example, if I shoot 2 cards worth of footage, and I haven't given each capture a unique name, I have clips that have the same name.
****
2) And What About Metadata, Time Code, and Syncing?:
The reason I have read in regard to keeping the stream folder intact had to do with metadata and time code.
When on the Vegas timeline, it appears to me that each clip has timecode that begins and ends with that specific clip.
Additionally, I copied a clip from the stream folder, and let it hang loose. I could not find any difference in the information available to me when a clip is within or outside of the stream folder.
Am I missing something here? Because I think that if I could get an absolute time and date of when the camera was rolling on my clips, it would be very helpful to syncing footage on multi-camera shoots.
What is the metadata that is available to me by keeping the stream folder intact? Because I sure like unique file names.
***
3) Editing:
I found that I could playback and do simple cuts using the AVCCAM raw files. It appears that the conventional wisdom is that transcoding to another format, like Cineform, Prores, or the Avid dnxhd codec is the right way to go for serious editing with color correction, effects etc.
I figure that is true - unless there is something new that allows us to extensively edit the native AVCCAM files without transcoding - please let me know about it, that would be great!
But how does that affect clip data, etc.?
Ken
P.S. I have done extensive reading and searching on this topic. It looks to me like transcoding is the way to go, but I wonder about what I gain or lose by using or not using the stream folder structure, and I can't seem to find the definitive answer to that.