"Low-Rez Proxy" to edit HDV then Render Real
 

I have an... older PC but will be shooting a movie soon with the Sony Z1. Now... when I start to edit this monster... is it a viable solution to just capure a "Low Rez Proxy" version (say... even just DV quality), play around with it, color it, cuts, sound, ect. and then when it is complete just use the captured/saved In/Out points to re-capture the Z1s full on Hi Rez quality and replace the proxy DV files with the real Hi Rez files? (Then take a vacation to Hawaii for a week while it renders).

I use to do this years ago... with Premeire and it worked fine... although just added a little time.

Is this a good solution? Please tell me the disadvantages?

Capture HD and use Gearshift (available from VASST) to generate the lower res proxies. When done editing, Gearshift can then switch you back to the original files for final rendering. Just do a search here for Gearshift for more details.

There are potentially some serious problems with this workflow, due to no timecode capture from HDV over firewire. Every individually captured HDV clip begins at 0:00. DV is just fine, go figure.

You could work around this by keeping the camcorder on record-run during shooting, then only capturing whole tapes. Some people would like this just fine, others would go nuts when they log and edit hour-long clips.

With the software Edward suggested you can capture HDV in whatever fashion makes the most sense for you and later do an automagic replace of DV with HDV footage on the timeline before rendering. The final color correction pass (if any) should be done with the HDV footage.

I See...
 

"due to no timecode capture from HDV over firewire." Thats a bummer! why such a basic thing is non-functional... This of course makes capture/re-capture a major pain. I will check into Gearshift, Thank you both for your replies. P.S. Is there any disadvantages with Gearshift? (except for the extra steps of course) or is it a pretty solid plug-in and method of editing?

Unless you've done the upgrade to V7, that is :-)
Notable Fixes/Changes in Version 7.0a
* Added support for scene detection when capturing HDV video. Use the Enable HDV scene detection check box on the General tab of the Capture Preferences dialog to toggle scene detection.
* Added the ability to read timecode from most HDV files (some 720p formats do not contain useful timecode).

OK, I gotta' find time to check this out. I would most happily eat my words if Sony has solved this problem, and be jumping for joy if my existing firewire transfers from Z1 suddenly sprout timecode!

Mike, have you seen it work? Anyone?

Seth, it works, but bear in mind that not all camcorders send useful timecode down the Firewire connect.

I don't have an HDV camcorder but I don't think it works on existing footage either, right Douglas?
Sorry Seth :-)

Au contraire! Yes, I am jumping for joy!!!

After server issues yesterday that prevented successful download of 7.0a trial, life is beautiful this morning!

Smooth download & install (upgrade to dotnet 2.0), and YES!!! Clips from camera tapes shot last December on a Z1 with time-of-day timecode and captured 9 months ago via firewire from the sony HVR-M10U hdv deck ------ suddenly sprouted camera timecode!!!

The combination of this and the better native M2T playback improves the usability of Vegas on a long-form HDV project (with multiple cameras and double system sound) dramatically, at least the way I think about workflow.

Or, put another way, about 90% of the "why did thay do that, why haven't they fixed that, this project is going to take forever" pain is gone. Thanks Sony, I feel so much better now :)

For those cutting native HDV on the timeline on slower machines with v7, check out ram render performance - I think I could cut on a laptop with some use of ram render, it does very well for full frame rate playback on high-motion stuff.

Tests on JVC HD100 to come...

For me, these workflow improvments for HDV make the upgrade well worth the price.