Decklink or AJA card with HDv
 

Is there any benifit to having a Decklink or Aja card with an JVC HD100 HDV camera? I will actually be using the JVC HDV Deck not the camera but I could be shooting 24p. Should I just stick with Cineform Aspect HD. If someone can give me the Pro's and Con's of having a Hardware card.
I shoot in the field not in a studio so going right into the computer for uncompressed capture is not really any issue in the near future maybe an issue but for now not a issue. Thoughts or comments please thank you

These are HD-SDI cards so you won't really see much of a benefit unless you need HD-SDI for some reason. I'm not sure but I think that very little is processed on the card in a NLE so it won't accelerate effects much.

I don't see you needing it unless you plan to do uncompressed I/O over HD-SDI. If your capturing from HDV over firewire then the only real use is if you have a HD-SDI based monitor or a high res DVI monitor like the dell 24" along with a HD-SDI to DVI converter.

With some of the Aja and Blackmagic cards you get a spin-cable which provides you component HD inputs. Since the JVS has that out you may use this to import 24p files from your camera, since FCP doesn't support this natively.

Hi, I just found this thread. Yeah, there are HUGE reasons for using the cards:

1) proper monitoring of your footage. You HAVE to use an HDTV to see your footage correctly.

2) Capture to a much more friendly codec, like DVCPRO-HD, on the fly, over component inputs. A big HDV timeline is a big hassle!

-CJ

Actually, with the AJA Kona card, big HDV timelines aren't really much of a problem. They do offer some accelerations that help with a number of effects and transitions. And you can live scrub the HDV timeline to an HDTV monitor via component analog out. A MUST for a professional edit suite.

All the more reason for this guy to get a card. I wonder how he is getting by without one?

-CJ

I get by
 

I have been a indpendent Doc guy working in a mini dv relam. I am now working with the XDCAM 350 and going to be putting a new HD system together. Now I need to make a choice of trying to get a system that does FAM or do the old school capture but I do get some footage that uses the HDV format so does that answer your question on how I have been getting by :)

I see, you are STARTING to use HD. I thought you had been doing HD without monitoring your timeline on a video monitor, and I wondered how you got around that without a card.

-CJ

Cool
 

Alright, I understand where you are coming from. Moven' On

For starters he is using PC not Mac people. Second the ability of capturing HDV to DVCproHD offers no advantage over the Cineform codec he is already using. In fact it would be quite a step backwards. Lower resolution and poor multi render. Stay with ApsectHD. As far as monitoring out, a proper video card with component out will allow timeline output.
The single advantage is if the shooter wants to capture live uncompressed. Of couse this has a very steep price tag when you add it all up. But if your starting with HDV (from tape of HDD) stick with AspectHD.

Codec
 

Interesting codec. Is their a QuickTime version? Will it play out to a DVCPRO-HD deck over SDI? The most common DVCPRO-HD record deck doesnt have analog inputs, unfortunately. And the rental of an HDCAM deck is twice the costs.

-Christopher

while we're on the topic, what do you guys think of the HD-SDI /SD-SDI solutions provided by the Matrox Axio HD /LE suite ? That provides you all the hardware rendering you need for HD timelines (with the addition of a hardware PCI-X card) and a breakout box with HD/SD-SDI's.