Using HV30 as a deck??
 

I own a Sony PMW-EX1r as well as a Canon HV30, and tomorrow I'm doing a shoot where the client wants HDV tapes as the end product. Is there anyway I can shoot with the EX1r... and then have it record onto the HV30? I figured there must be some way to do it, especially since the EX1r can do 1440x1080 video... and that's why I accepted the job. I've never tried anything like this before though, and now that I'm thinking about it, the only possible solution seems like dumping the EX1r feed onto the HV30 via the firewire connection or something. Worst case scenario I thought I could find someone with a true HDV deck to do the transfer next week, but am hoping I can figure something out with my rig.

Anyone have any ideas if this is possible or not?

HDV cameras have no input capability other than 1394, same for most, if not ALL, HDV decks.

My best guess would be that you'll need to import the XDCAM EX footage into an HDV project in your NLE, then do a Print to Tape out to the HV30. The NLE will convert timeline to Long-GOP MPEG-2 for HDV export.

I'd shoot in 1080i to maintain compatibility to the HV30, looking for trouble if shooting progressive, then you'd need to convert in the NLE.

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers

Can't see why not................
 

Just plug a Firewire cable into the Sony, the other end into the Canon, hit play on the first and record (in VCR mode) on the second, should just run and run and run.....................

Might have to do some fidling with formats and stuff but can't see why it won't work, that's what Firewire is there for.

Just don't shoot progressive, as Jeff has said.

Interested to hear how it goes.


CS

After further research, it may work as CS states. I knew the EX1 was an XDCAM EX camera, so assumed it did not have Firewire, but is seems that the "SP" mode is basically HDV, so the direct 1394 connect may just work fine

Jeff

Interesting to know if it works from cam to cam,when i had a SR12 i edted the files with pinnacle 12 and exported the films to my HDV cam as hdv video.

Let it be known that this direct transfer via firewire method works pretty much flawlessly. The only caveat is that there is a 2 second delay between the cameras, so you have to make sure you're not monitoring the HV30's screen while shooting. The one thing that impressed me for some reason was that the iLink functionality does in fact begin recording on the HV30 when you hit record on the EX1r.

Since I had to do this on the fly and then hand off the tapes right after the shoot though, I didn't get a chance to monitor the recorded footage of the HDV tapes. From what I was seeing on the HV30's LCD screen was much less impressive than that of the EX1r, but I'm going to chalk that up to the fact that the Sony LCD is much better quality. Of course I had to record in the 1440x1080 SP mode, so I don't have the luxury of having a higher quality backup of the footage.