HDV workflow
 

Hey guys, i have sort of a long and jumbled question about the HDV workflow. We have found the f unding for a network series and are planning to use HDV as an acquisition option because of the stunning footage as well as the formfactors, from the xlh1 to the z1 to the hv10 (POV). This allows the shooting style to be run and gun as well as switch around to whatever camera for whatever shooting purposes. No problems here...

My main question is in the post workflow. We have 3 options as far as I see it

1) Go with Premiere 2.0's native HDV capabilities
2) Go with Cineform Aspect HD
3) Go wtih a Matrox HD package with hardware capabilities

The post prod workstation is a top of the line rig with dual processors at 2.6ghz, 2 gigs of fast ram, 1.34 tb of HD space in raid 0, etc.

We would obviously edit on a HDV 60i timeline (as we're shooting in 60i) but heres where I am confused.

When we are finalized with the project, we would obviously want to dub to the highest quality possible, but how woudl we go about doing that. Since HDV was the compression, is there a point to rendering the project out to a YUV 4:2:2 uncompressed file?

Or should we import the finished project sequence into a new HD-SDI timeline and dub out to HDCAM ? Also, would we want to opt for 8 or 10 bit..?

Also, from reading around in the forum, is it possible to capture HDV tapes thru SDI ports instead of firewire?

Any help in this area would help out tremendously..Thanks!

Spike,

As to doing post in HD (generally speaking), HDV (m2t files in particular) is really problematic in post. This is due to long GOPs. In short any minor glitch our dropouts causes the NLE to go haywire. For now the best workaround without costing so much money investing in hardware is through an intermediate solution. Examples;

For the the following NLEs;

Premier Pro 1.5.1 or 2.0---Cineform Aspect HD

Vegas 7--------Cineform Connect HD

Edius Pro 4---Canopus HQ.

Your M2t files get blown up approx 3x in size into an AVI file. But your NLEs can handle them so well like a hot knife through butter.

We tested the 3 set ups I mentioned and they are all great.

I just finished an HD project on the edius 4 and i just posted a thread here,

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=78670

titled "edius 4 passes our post test with flying colors" under the category of HD/HDV editing solutions.

Hope this helps.

Ted.

Hi Ted, thanks for your response. We are about to shoot a network series in HDV and are trying to figure out our workflow. We are at the point where we are testing out various methods, and cineform does seem to be the simplest solution (and cheapest), although here are a few things i am curious about:


-color shifting or a black screen pause (for less than a second) when I hit the space bar to pause/play video
-will adobe's native effects filters work with cineform footage?
-worried about how it will hold up for 60 min of footage, better than native HDV capabilities in Premiere ( i hope!)
-painful capturing process

We are dubbing out to HDCAM when the project is finished, I'm just wondering how Cineform will perform with that much content.