Will I lose my mind with this workflow?
 

Mixing HDV, AVHCD and uprezed DV files in the same project?

Here's why. Shooting racing from multiple angles and locations. Main action cameras are HDV. In-car cameras are SD DV. I'm thinking of mounting a camera on the flag stand for a speed shot. To do this I have to go tapeless since I won't be near the flag stand all night. I really tried to work an OnLocation solution out but it ain't happening.

All my cams are Canon (XH A1, HV10, HV30, ZR900) so I'm thinking of the HG 10. It'll be locked off and left alone for as much as 6 hours.

Last year I shot 60i with everything produced in SD. This year will be HD & SD for BD and DVD respectively so 30p should simplify the workflow. (Still need to check if the HG 10 will even do that.)

BTW: Here's a link one heat race I shot last year if you want it all in context. Mini Stock Heat. Yeah, I know the PAR is wrong but I had to do it in a hurry.

So, does my reach exceed my grasp? Should I make reservations at the happy hotel now? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Bump? Anyone successfully using these formats in a workflow? If so, any tips or tricks you can share?

Somewhere I have read, and I have not personally done this, to make separate sequences for each format and then nest them into one overall sequence....what little playing I have done with mixed hdv/sd on PPCS4, the clips seem to work ok when mixed on the same timeline but whatever clips don't match the sequence setup need rendering....

I must admit the nesting seems cumbersome if you're cutting from one source to the other frequently, but I pass it on for whatever value it might be to experiment with ....//Battle Vaughan/miamiherald.com video team

Personally, I'd convert everything to one common format that's more friendly to the editing process, for example: Cineform, DNxHD, DVCProHD etc.

Thanks for your insights.

Battle... Interesting approach that I expect might have value. I've long since given up trying to understand PP's idiosyncrasies. I just go with what works. As I nest timelines as part of the multi-cam editing process anyway, your approach integrates into my existing workflow.

Michael... My mind was already running in that direction and it seems to make a lot of sense to me. Transcoding AVCHD to DNxHD will reduce the load on the system. I'll do this in an HDV project since three of the cams are in this format and I could end up with four hours of footage from each cam per event. Transcoding that much footage to DNxHD just wouldn't be practical. The in-car SD footage is used sparsely enough that dropping it into the timeline shouldn't be a big deal.

Thanks again for your ideas. I think I can get this to work.

Tripp, one of the many selling points of CS4 is that projects are format agnostic; you're supposed to be able to mix and match any supported format. AVCHD definitely runs well on it for me. If you're willing to put your oft stated reservations aside and upgrade to CS4, you could do it.

You can also just convert everything to Cineform at capture in CS3 if you don't want to upgrade, as Michael mentioned.

BTW, if you do 30p, not 100% sure but I think your output will have to be sent out to BluRay as PsF (60i), as I seem to recall that 30p isn't part of the BR spec?

It's that obvious, eh? Sorry.

The truth is that there's no compelling reason for me to part with the cash for the upgrade. Also, I've only had the CS3 system dialed in and wicked stable for the last few months. For now I'm leaving well enough alone.

I'm already planning to transcode to DNxHD. Not to sound like a pikey, but I could either take or leave Cineform.

I'll have to look into the "legality" of 30p for BD. I wasn't aware that there might be an issue with that. Another monkey for my box of wrenches.

Thanks for the heads-up.