Cineform output to DVCPRO HD
 

Hi all

I have been asked to deliver footage to another facility that I shot on my HD110 and captured using Aspect HD. They want the footage delivered on DVCPRO HD tape, despite my attempts to persuade them that .AVI or .MOV files on an eternal HDD would be a lot easier (and cheaper)!

Two questions:

(1) If I hire a DVCPRO HD deck, will I be able to output the footage over Firewire. Most of these decks seem to have IEEE1394 ports, but I can't see anything to tell me whether these accept the 100mb/s HD signal, or if they are just there for when the deck is used in SD (ie DVCPRO50/25) mode. I know that Firewire should easily take the data rate, but the question is whether the deck is designed with this in mind. I don't have an HD-SDI card, before you ask - and would like to avoid buying one at the moment.

(2) If the above is possible, how do I prepare the footage so that it can be output? That is, can I just use my usual Aspect HD 25p project settings, or will I need to use a DVCPRO HD project and conform the footage within that (or render them out through After Effects)?

I'm a little confused by P2 files. I mean, are these what I would need to have ready to export to the deck?

Any help much appreciated; having already said to my client that this is no problem, and as they have been sweet enough to offer payment in advance, I will look a bit daft if I can't pull it off! I do, I suppose have the option to take the CFHD .AVI files on a disk somewhere to get them to do the transfer...

Cheers

You are going to need to find someone with an HDSDI card and playout to the deck. That is the easiest solution.

Is that the only solution, though? I mean, do the Panasonic decks just not accept HD input over firewire - or is there some difficulty within the software (Aspect/PrPro)?

It is not a DV deck, and Aspect HD and or Premiere doesn't support it. I think you will need to move your data to a Mac or possible an AVID. I think HDSDI playback is the easiest.

OK, thanks for this, David. You would appreciate the irony of all this if I could tell you who my client is.

Thanks for clearing this up, anyway!

An afterthought:
You mentioned transfering to a Mac; would this mean FCP (i'm guessing iMovie is not up to it...)? Why is it that PrPro doesn't recognise the decks but FCP does? I know this isn't a Cineform specific query now, but would appreciate anyone being able to clarify this.
Cheers