editing HD vs SD footage
 

I have finally gotten comfortable editing in Vegas, and love it. May thanks to those who have helped me over the past year. Now am considering a move to HD, and wanted to ask how difficult the transition to editing in HD would be? I am in the midst of a long running commercial contract which may last another 6-12 mos, and when the client calls for a shoot, he is accustomed to getting the finished product within a week. If the learning curve is too steep, I may be better off to sideline it until the contract is complete. Looking for any thoughts or guidance, thank you.

Hi Bill

I actually shoot in HD but transcode back to SD purely for the time reason!!!

To give you a rough idea on just render times on a DuoCore 'puter... Rendering a 10 minute clip in SD (or HD transcoded to SD) takes roughly 5 minutes on my machine (but it obviously also will depend on what transitions/titles/overlays you have)

The same clip on the time line in AVCHD or HDV 1440x1080 takes a least 80 minutes or more to render so for me the main advantage is being able to edit and render out quickly. I do weddings so a full wedding would seriously cramp my time management if I edited and rendered in HD!! The bottom line is that you can future-proof yourself with a new HD camera but still continue supplying and editing in SD!!

Chris

Great input Chris, thank you. I was hoping to provide better quality, but if the times are that different, I am probably going to need to stick with what I have. Can't afford the time slippage. When the client is ready to shoot (usually on short notice, of course) I usually have 10-15 clips at 3-5 minutes each which I need to edit and deliver within a week.