Here's my situation...

I'm nearly finished shooting a documentary using a canon XL2 . The settings are 24p 2:2 in 4:3 mode. I'm on a budget, but I also need to have this thing look as good as possible. I've heard color correcting on miniDV tends to break the video quality down if you do too much, so I am considering mastering in DigiBeta. Would I have to up convert all my raw footage to do this? I'm shooting at about 30 to 1, and picking one or two minutes from about 35 tapes.

It seems like I may have to pay out the nose if I convert all of them, and still pay a lot if I'm only converting the footage I need because I just didn't have the time/knowledge/resources to keep track of timecode.

Is it possible to edit from the miniDV and then output a premaster to digibeta, do the color correction, then make the mastor on digibeta....or will that sort of approach give me something that looks exactly like a miniDV master? Thanks,

Rick

Most NLEs nowadays have excellent DV codecs, which makes it impossible to tell the difference between 1st and 2nd generation DV on nearly all real footage.

If you master on digibeta, then you can edit uncompressed and gain a little extra quality that way (your footage will stay 1st gen DV instead of being 2nd generation DV). You do not need to dub to digibeta, you need to go to an online suite with a DV deck with SDI.

You'll only lose quality introducing digibeta to the mix. There is no need to do that. Keep it as a clone. I've never seen problems color correcting DV stuff. Shouldn't have a problem there.

simpy capture all of your clips via fire wire into your non linear sding software. You should be able to do all of the colour correction etc in real time. Is very easy in edius. It is very difficult if you are using a normal tv but with a good monitor you fill find very easy. when finished you simply edit it and band it out as an avi file, straight back onto a tape for lossless storage, or onto a hard drive.

Yes, color correcting DV can introduce problems if you push it too
much. But you will clearly see this so you know it when it happens.

However, as others have said, going up to digibeta (or ANY other
format) will not help you since the source is DV. Nothing in the
world can change that.

Just stick with the digital/firewire/DV approach and together with
a good color corrector that is the best you can do with this kind
of technology.

Thanks guys,

And thank you for another post you answered recently rob...I'm really more of a producer, but budget is low so I'm doing this documentary from begginging to end. I have a very short technical fuse, so these boards are a godsend. If I end up making alot of money, I'll certainly donate (if you guys accept donations). If I don't make any money, I'll probably be washing you guys' cars when you stop at a stoplight in hopes for a buck...got it all on the line.

Rick