Using the HVX to shoot SD?

P

Pear Ubu

Member
Just wondering how many of y'all ever use your HVX camera to shoot on good old mini-DV tape?

How often do you shoot to tape, and under what circumstances?

Are you pleased with the results?

(I'm asking this as I'm waiting for my rebated P2 card to arrive, and wondering whether to invest in the FS-100 or a PC laptop (or both).)
 
I shot one project with DV tape and was not pleased. When the footage came out it was fine but I have to say that I had tapes dropping out, messed up timecodes and the most headaches ever shooting with this camera. Not sure if i have a tape head defect, but it was very nerve racking.

I have shot over 1000 hours on P2 with not one problem, but I don't know what the problem is with my HVX but it sucks with DV tapes. I was also using the reccomended panasonic DV tape stock. All I can say is this camera was meant to shoot in P2 HD and it rocks for that....
 
I also am waiting for the free card and shooting SD in the meantime. It looks about the same as my previous VX-1000. A little disappointing and heavily artifacted when blown up on my Toshiba 32" monitor , while downloaded HD movie trailers look spectacular. I'm sure HD will look better. Probably not much difference in SD and HD when viewed on the 'net or a small screen. I have found that SD from the HVX has smoother slo mo in FCP that the old VX footage.
 
actually, i use the HVX for good old mini dv for weddings all the time, in fact , the HVX produces a better picture in SD than the dvx.

I shoot about 5 hours of mini dv weekly, maybe its the tape thats being used, or the camera is not in rec-run, but once in a very blue moon (rarely) i will get one dropout depending on the brand of tape used, the maxell pro's work well for me.
 
We have always shot on Beta SP and purchased the HVX ONLY as a stepping stone into HD. Never wanted to go "down to DV". :tongue:
But guess what, since getting the HVX we have opened the door to many Mini-DV shoots. In fact we're doing another big one tomorrow.

Just another example of how this Swiss Army tool for Video Aquisition has brought more income from various directions. More then I imagined! :thumbsup:

As for quality, about what I would expect from DV.
 
I shoot to Mini - DV quite a bit using shitty TDK tapes and hardly ever get drop outs. I think it's capable of great SD
 
I shot some stuff for fun one weekend on DV and it looked amazing. I didn't do anything special for the lighting, color correction, or anything, but it looked great. Way better than any DVX footage I have seen. (That would be in image quality, of course, not composition talent, of which I am somewhat lacking.)
 
I'd love to see a comparison side by side od the same shot with DVX and HVX.. but I won't hold my breath
 
I have shot a lot of SD and I am very hapy with the results, I use the shitty TDK tapes talked about before too. No dropouts either.
 
i'm shooting NEWS on dv with the hvx.
i got the hvx to use instead of the sony XD, as i'm trying to return to work after
nearley 6 months off with a slipped disc in my neck.
the station i work for are shooting dv, on XD discs and editing on avid in the field
and the hvx is as good.
the whole station is going P2 in about 6 months so i will get my cards then (hopefully 16gb) the broadcast camera has 5 p2 slots in the side of it.

ian
 
I have done 4 nice SD projects- clients/ our team very pleased. This is cost effective format for the client. Chuck
 
USLatinContent said:
I'd love to see a comparison side by side od the same shot with DVX and HVX.. but I won't hold my breath
Click to expand...
Just search -- I've done those shots and posted the results here somewhere.
 
the SD capability of the HVX is a goldmind.. i dont know why so many people see the HVX as a "P2" camera only.. i have not gotten my hands on a P2 card yet.. so i shoot completely in SD and i find the footage great.. iv'e never had a tape dropout and the quality is very nice.. Im looking foreward to using a P2 card of course.. but the extra feature of the tape is godsent. I dont know about the rest of you.. but before the HVX i was using a sony MiniDV with 0.8 mpixels.. so i see even the SD mode on the hvx a huge upgrade of my previous equipment. And at the end of the day.. its how you use the camera.. You can have all the quality in the world and make aweful movies..
 
Also shooting DVCPRO50 SD is a wonderful feature of the HVX that you just don't get with other camera's in this price range. You have to shoot to P2, of course, and you won't get quite as much record time as you would shooting 720 24pn. But, for SD having the 4:2:2 color space of the dv50 codec is a great thing to have.

Jason
 
I have a shoot coming up and we were going to use the DVX coupled with a 35mm adapter. We'd prefer the HVX, but we just can't afford the HD post pipepline at this point. This thread has reminded me that the HVX shoots SD to tape, but I have a question for some experienced users.

Does anyone know if it's possible to shoot HD with the 4:2:2 color space and down convert to SD, in camera, and record the down convert to tape? And can you utilize the variable frame rates using the same method?

Before you ask "why would you do that". Basically, starting with 4:2:2 color gives you a more sophisticated color pallet as a base point. Think of it as if you shot 16mm film, but your post pipeline was straight to DVD and your editing on a home computer using telecine footage as the final product. You have no intention of going back to film. Even though you're effectively working with 4:1:1, your source footage started with the 16mm film color pallet, as opposed to starting in 4:1:1. Does that make sense to anyone? lol....
 
You can downconvert in camera, and record it to tape. The problem with that is (I have heard, never tried) that it is that the downconvert is not of very high quality. The better way to do it would just be to downconvert with your NLE. Depending on your NLE it can be very easy. Mine, for example: I just put the hd footage on an sd timeline. That's it. Then edit. Or you can edit in HD and output to sd DVD.

An FYI, the DVCPRO HD codec is not all that demanding on your system. It is quite friendly in comparison to the demands that HDV can put on your system.

Jason
 
Ramjet1979 said:
You can downconvert in camera, and record it to tape. The problem with that is (I have heard, never tried) that it is that the downconvert is not of very high quality.
Click to expand...

So would you say you get better image quality shooting straight to SD using the HVX?

To answer the rest of your statement, unfortunately, we can't afford shooting HD on set let alone in post. We don't have a laptop that takes P2 cards at our disposal. I'll be editing on my G4 12 inch 1.33 ghz with only a gig of ram using FCP. Great for SD, but I don't believe it will handle HD. Or am I wrong? Out of curiosity, does anyone know if FCP can down convert HD to SD? If so, how do you do it?

Thanks-
 
Yes you can downconvert to tape, preserving the variable frame rate effect. But the tape is DV, which is 4:1:1, so you'll be getting a 4:1:1 image.

You can get better results by just shooting straight DVCPRO50, but that requires cards.
 
I have done two weddings to date with the HVX, SD material targeted for standard DVD with all auto settings, so no need for HD (don't have enough P2 product for long form anyway). The quality is as good as any I've seen from SD cameras.

I did do some short side by side: 480 SD, 720, and 1080, of the same scene, same lighting, and at the same blow up on the monitor, the pixelation is norticeable on the SD, and none on the HD (as expected).
 
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