Firewire or HDMI capture ?
 

I´m getting the Decklink HD extreme card, and I was wondering if I could get better quality video from my XHA1 by capturing via HDMI instead of firewire. Any toughts about this ? Any advantage ?

Thanks.

Leo.

There is no HDMI output from the A1, that's only on the G1. so it has to be firewire

Yes, sorry, I mean from the G1.

HDMI is for video transfer, firewire is for data transfer. So, if you want to throw away all data embedded in your shots, like time code and all meta data, like date/time stamp, exposure settings etc. go ahead and use HDMI. There is no advantage quality wise if you have your shots on tape from using HDMI, only disadvantages.

Sorry, but the G1 lacks HDMI as well. It has HD-SDI.

There's no HDMI from the G1 either. Are you thinking of HD/SDI? In any case, once the footage is encoded as HDV (25 Mbps MPEG2) onto tape, there's no advantage in capturing it over HD/SDI. Best just to send it over the Firewire. However, if you can connect the HD/SDI to some other capture device as you are shooting, then you have the option of recording in more-or-less any HD format you like because you are receiving the full-resolution, uncompressed signal as fed to the MPEG compressor in the cam.

To capture over HDMI, you need an HV30 or similar. Some of the Sonys send uncompressed signal to HDMI during shooting, too. I think the VI/FX7 does and probably the Z7. Again, this is only an advantage if you are capturing as you are shooting. Once the signal is recorded as HDV, you are best to stick to Firewire.

Sorry - all I knew was that the G1 has something for outputting HDV that the A1 doesn't. Oh yes, it's my laptop that has an HDMI socket!!