XHA! and Firestor Editing

[Mahar]

Hello,

Please forgive my ignorance, but I am a complete Noob in regard to editing in HDV. I have just purchased my XHA1, should be seeing it Weds. I am very interested in getting the Firestor FS-C as a companion, but must admit that I do not completely understand all that it does aside from offer tapeless recording. Do the file just simply need to be dragged over once you attach to your computer, or do the still have to go through some sort of a conversion before you can edit them?

At this point I'll be building a new editing system and I feel pretty good that I have speced the computer itself from a hardware, drives and processor perspective properly. I am just not sure if I will be needing some type of capture board, or in/out board if I am using the Firestor or if the files that the Firestore is saving keep me from needing specialized video hardware products.

I will definitely be using the Adobe Professional Production Suite CS3 (Love After Effects), and am also willing to look at in addition having Edius or Vegas on the PC. But I have been reading a lot of threads that sound as if Aspect HD with PPCS3 would maybe be a pretty good software solution without the need for additional software? I don't know I'd love to be able to edit the HDV in realtime.

I am a bit confused as to what solutions might work best with the XHA1 and the Firestor and could really use some advice prior to building out this system.

Thank you so much for your insight

 

[Elton]

Yes, the Firestore mounts as a disk volume to the computer and gives you folders of HDV clips in either m2t or QT HDV format. QT HDV is for FCP compatibility--with PPro, Vegas or Edius you'd choose m2t recording.

The files can simply be dragged and copied to another hard drive or you can actually drag /import them into the NLE of your choice and edit from the device.

The FS-C can eliminate tape capture, but I'd recommend simultaneous tape recording as a safety backup. One thing I would also recommend is purchasing an extra battery as the one that ships with the unit seems to not last much longer than an hour of recording time.

As has been said on other threads, you might want to purchase Aspect HD for better editing performance. I believe they have a conversion utility that can accept the m2t files and convert them to CineForm intermediate files.

 

[Mahar]

The FS-C can eliminate tape capture, but I'd recommend simultaneous tape recording as a safety backup. One thing I would also recommend is purchasing an extra battery as the one that ships with the unit seems to not last much longer than an hour of recording time.

Thanks for the extra advice Elton. I will go ahead and try and do tape backup as well. Better safe than sorry. I did pick up the 8000mAh battery and I think they said that is supposed to achieve almost 8 hours.

So there is really no need for a special video editing based video card then? The software seems to handle it all? Pretty nice. I am not used to working that free of a capture environment. That should be great.

 

[dcrin3]

after effects-
you will need to have a good video card for those pesky filters/effects renders.

As has been said on other threads, you might want to purchase Aspect HD for better editing performance. I believe they have a conversion utility that can accept the m2t files and convert them to CineForm intermediate files.

will having a better performing computer eliminate the lag and offer realtime editing?

 

[Mahar]

after effects-
you will need to have a good video card for those pesky filters/effects renders.

Yes, thank you. I am all too familiar with that. I am using dual Nvidia 8800 GTXs at work with a quad core. I can't believe the difference between that and my current p4 3.2 here at home for After Effects. I can't wait to get a new system at home. Iam going to keep this one for all non essential video or audio stuff and try to keep the new system relatively clean and set up as my workhorse only.