What do I need to know about capturing HD footage?

mdslammer

mdslammer

Well-known member
Hi guys,

I'm looking to purchase an HD cam very soon. I'll make my decision after attending the NAB show in April here in Las Vegas, NV.
In any case, my NLE is Vegas Pro 8.

I want to shoot at 720/24p to get as close to film as possible. I'm in need of some guidance regarding capturing HD footage to
get the best results.

Can anyone shed some light on this subject? Will I have any problem(s) using Vegas Pro 8 or do I need a third party software to convert?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Regards.

Mark Dalzell
Las Vegas, Nv
www.markdalzell.com
 
If it's an HDV camera (which includes the JVC Pro-HD line), then you capture within Vegas using the internal HDV capture.

If it's the HVX200, then there's no capturing; you take the files from the card and drop them onto the timeline -- but you must use Raylight by DVFilm in order to do it.

If it's the Sony EX1, then you should be able to drop the files onto the timeline already, but I don't have any experience with it and haven't read about any.
 
David,

So, Vegas Pro 8 will import and edit all HD frame rates smoothly and without the need for a 3rd party program?

Thanks very much for the info. I'm still debating on which camera. I was leaning toward the JVC HD-200.
"(If it's an HDV camera (which includes the JVC Pro-HD line), then you capture within Vegas using the internal HDV capture)"
Is this a specific setting in Vegas for HD?


I'm still going to wait until the NAB to make my final decision.

Regards.

Mark
 
mdslammer said:
David,

So, Vegas Pro 8 will import and edit all HD frame rates smoothly and without the need for a 3rd party program?
Click to expand...

I didn't say that. It'll capture HDV at the rate that it's recorded on tape. If it's 24p in a 60i stream, it might be able to remove the pulldown IF sufficient pulldown flags are included in the data stream.

If it's the HVX200, Raylight is able to remove advanced pulldown from 1080 clips, but not standard (2:3) pulldown.

If it's the EX1, well, like I said, I dunno. I haven't used it and I haven't researched using it with Vegas.
 
David Jimerson said:
I didn't say that. It'll capture HDV at the rate that it's recorded on tape. If it's 24p in a 60i stream, it might be able to remove the pulldown IF sufficient pulldown flags are included in the data stream.
Click to expand...
David Jimerson said:
I guess what I should ask you David is, do you use an HD camera? If so, what kind of camera, frame rate(s) and are there any issues you have delt with using Vegas Pro 8?

Thanks.

Mark
Click to expand...
 
Well, yeah. I've experimented with most of them (but not the EX1), and have heavily used the HVX200 and the HPX500, pretty much all frame rates and resolutions.

For the most part, Vegas, Raylight, and 720p footage are seamless and smooth, just like editing DV -- except that you don't have to capture; you just drop the video MXFs into the timeline. Few issues aside from the occasional Raylight "Frame" popup, which doesn't amount to much except a mouse-click to get rid of it.

I've run across many bumps when using 1080 footage, though. Admittedly, I was pushing Vegas and my system as hard as it can be pushed, with hours of 1080/30p footage, greenscreen, compositing in many motion background elements -- but I found just about every limitation there is.

HDV footage isn't as smooth, isn't as close to real-time.

One thing I would say, though, is that if you're considering or ruling out particular cameras based on how it works with your editing software, it's the wrong approach. The only thing that matters is your image, your final output, and you should choose your camera based on that -- the camera which gives you the image you want -- and then you should conform your tools to working with it.

Which is why for HVX 1080 stuff, I've jumped over to Premiere CS3. It just works better with it. It doesn't mean that I like it as much as I do Vegas; it just means it works better with the footage.
 
you haven't mentioned how powerful your editing computer is - HD is a lot more resource hungry than SD. I'd recommend importing some HD footage (from any HD cam) into your computer and seeing how fast/slow it is to edit. Even on a 2 year old computer which copes with SD perfectly, HD can be a dog.

If you need to upgrade/replace your computer, it's better to know that now _before_ you spend big bucks on that HD cam.
 
David,

All very good advice. I agree, the end result is the most important issue here and I bear that in mind overall.
I've seen some really impressive footage of the JVC HD-110 which is one reason I'm considering the JVC HD-200.
The price reduction is the second $5,499.00.

It has two very important features as well.
1. Interchangeable lense 2. LCD screen. The second may not sound that important
but if I'm filming gurilla style or a lot of hand held, a video assist monitor may not be practical.

dang:
I had a new PC built for me by VisionDAW last month. Here are the specs:

VisionDAW 4U 8-Core Xeon Workstation
2 Intel QUAD-Core Xeon 5365-3.0GHz, 8MB, 1333MHz Processors
4GB 667MHz Fully Buffered Server Memory Modules (2x2GB)
WDC 250GB, Ultra ATA100, 7200 rpm, 8MG Buffer Main OS HD
2 WDC 750GB, SATA II, 7200 rpm, 16MG Buffer HD
Plexor PX-800A 18X Dbl. Layer DVD+/-RW Optical Drive
Front Panel USB Acess
Integrated FireWire (1394a) interface
Noise Prevention 600W PFC Power Supply
2 WD Raptor 150GB Data Drives
3xUAD1 Universal Audio Cards
Windows XP Pro
Matrox Parhelia AVPe Dual Head Graphics Card,
Dual 17" Samsung LCD Monitors

In addition, the PC is setup with removal HD so in the event I need to move up to a 64bit system, I can. This beast can hold up to 64Gb of Ram.
Crazy huh!!!

Thanks for your imput.

Mark
 
dribble dribble, mouth hanging open in envy - that monster will have no trouble editing HD ... :)
 
dang,

It's my main DAW which is interfaced with 2 V-Synth PC's that run all my orchestral libraries. It will work great with my NLE Vegas Pro 8.

Mark
 
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