New to this forum, so please be gentle ...

So the JVC HD-100 camera arrived on Friday and it's very lovely. But what to do with it?

I am currently using a fairly elderly Mac G4 to edit DV in Final Cut Pro 4.0.1. Obviously I can continue with this, shooting SD with the new camera.

However, I would like, if possible to shoot HDV (since I now can), even if I then drop down to SD to edit, on the basis that I can always go back to the original tapes at a later date.

How to do this? The obvious solution is to invest in JVC's companion deck (BR-HD50E). But I'm thinking that the money (which I don't have anyway) might be better spent on upgrading my editing package to cope with HDV.

Clearly, to use FCP 5 I will need to upgrade my Mac. Alternatively, I also have a PC, but again I assume that this will not be anything like fast enough (Athlon 1250 MHz with 511 MB memory). However, I suspect I could upgrade the PC's processor and mother board, add a capture card and editing software, and get HD editing capability for less than the JVC deck.

For that matter, I could probably even buy a second whole PC, and keep the editing separate from day-to-day computing, which would be desirable.

If I do shift platform, what would people's editing software recommendation be?

Alternatively, as an interim solution, does anyone know of a low-cost way to downconvert HDV to DV in software, that would work in an ageing Mac or PC?

Finally, I'm looking for a low-cost way to convert the 1349 camera output to SDI so I can monitor HD on an LCD screen. Ideally this would be robust unit that I could use on location ...

Incidentally, I am in the UK, so 50/25, PAL, etc.

All advice welcome. Thanks.

www.hdvxdv.com

$80

This Canopus site provides info about HDV and using Edius and other canopus products.
http://www.canopushdv.com/
May be worth a read even if you do not go the pc route.

Murray,

I'd hoped you would have received a little more than the perfunctory responses that have appeared so far...

I'm a PC HDV/HD user, and it's from that perspective that I profer my two pennies worth.

In the PC world, Dual core processors are the ants pants for HDV editing speed. Some folks will swear that Intel is the leader, while others tout AMD... Me; I have Intel processor machines, but I'm sorely tempted to upgrade to an AMD dual core 64bit processored machine!!

SATA RAID arrays of at least 360Gig (3x120Gig) 7,200rpm drives are 'essential' or you'll run-out of Hard Disk space as well as performance.

1Gig of the fastest RAM for the system you can manage is fine, 2Gig if you want to do fancy 3D integration of 3DS, or LW CGI with your HDV clips...

If you do get a whole new system, look for a Motherboard that has expandability - like plenty of PCI slots and the fastest AGP or PCI-e without all that extraneous crap like "integrated graphics" or "integrated modem", etc.
Goes without saying to make sure it's got IEEE-1394 (Firewire/i-Link) connection, USB2 ports aplenty, DVD ROM and DVD dual layer writer, as well as 10/100Mbit or Gigabit LAN connection.

Lots of graphics cards these days give multi monitor support - just know how you want to utilise a multi-monitor set-up.

Get as nice a monitor as you can afford. Not much point editing the best video quality available to the masses, and not seeing how truly amazing it can be!!

Software wise: I have used a number of the HDV solutions, and have settled on Vegas with Cineform's ConnectHD, with other utilities like VLC, TMPGEnc and Womble MPEG to extend the video processing arsenal. WinXP PRO running Service Pack 2 is almost essential... Use of media players other than Windows own Media Player is advised - Media Player Classic is free and very good and VLC is a great media player of HD/HDV material.

Vegas bundle with DVD Architect is pretty reasonable value - but many of the newer HDV capable appz, are trying to make up lost ground by being equally competitive, so keep your eyes peeled!!

Coming from Mac and FCP, you may find the Adobe Video Suite an appealing option as it bundles Premiere Pro (very similar to FCP in operation and appearance) with Encore for DVD authoring and Audition (the ole Cool Edit) for audio editing manipulation...

I'd be certain that the most important thing to have clear in your mind, is what you want to achieve from your hardware/software combination. Then the choice of the exact items that can achieve that, will become much easier for you.

Hope it all comes together for you the way you want... Enjoy!!!

If I do shift platform, what would people's editing software recommendation be?

I'm using Canopus Edius Pro 3, which offers both "native" and "intermediate" HDV editing and has some handy features for mixing HDV with other kinds of footage, plus generating both 4:3 and widescreen output. Other options to consider on the PC platform would include Adobe Premiere or Sony Vegas with the Cineform HDV plugin, Pinnacle Liquid Edition, Ulead Media Studio Pro 8, and so on. Any day now Avid should ship HDV support for their editing programs, but I haven't heard whether that's actually happened yet.