Avid and JVC HD
 

Hi,

I was wondering if anybody had any information on this, is the JVC ProHD 251E Camcorder and the JVC VTR BR-HD50 compatible with the editing suite I own Avid Adrenaline HD?

I don’t think that there should be any problems, but if there is any is there like any upgrading software?

Thanks

Hamad

Yes, there are huge problems with Avid support for HDV1/ProHD at 24fps or 25fps on Xpress Pro, Media Composer (soft or Adrenaline) and Symphony Nitris: there is no support whatsoever!!! 30fps support is weak. So this probably affects you. Run a search and you'll see all the horrific details. The short version to this sorry story is that Avid have been promising since September last year and keep failing to deliver.

Avid Liquid is the exception and it supports HDV1 just fine. You also have some options with DS.

As things stand, the HD250 is not a good companion to your edit kit.

My workaround for Avid Xpress Pro is to shoot with the DR-HD100 and take the native .m2t files into MPEG STREAMCLIP and convert them to DNxHD. Once in that format, Avid works great.

I've also used the DR-HD100 HDD recorder to shoot footage on a GY-HD100, and then imported the .m2t files directly into Xpress Pro HD, and it worked fine. I imported using both the DNxHD and the DVCPro HD CODECS. I did not have to use MPEG Streamclip in my case.

I am referring to 720/24P. Avid has no direct import support to my knowledge.

Yes, it's the 24 and 25fps support that's the problem and that covers a big chunck of the world outside North America by default and anyone in North America and the rest of the NTSC world who want/need to work in 24p. Since 720p/30 and 720p/25 are very rare standards for broadcast, 720p/24 would seem to be the most useful feature of the 100/110. When the worlds' most established NLE doesn't support it after 18 months of promises one wonders what is going on.

Carl, how is the relationship between JVC and Avid - particularly in Europe?

Thanks for everyone who got back...

So, there's no solution to the problem? But it doesn't make sense our Avid HD system is one of the latest and most up-to-date HD editing suites and when we purchased it, the resellers promised that it supports anything and everything HD or HDV. So, there must be a way around this problem right?

C'mon guys...give Avid some credit.
 

What About Avid Xpress Pro HD version 5.1.2? I think they got that all patched up in that version.

Doesn't make sense... I've got what's higher than the Avid Xpress Pro!

Well..
 

Thats all well and good...but do you have ...Pro HD? It's a pretty big difference.

Is there any out? Any possible converters?

No, Xpress Pro HD does NOT offer anything extra over MC. It certainly does not support all HD formats including some DVCPro HD variants. No Avid product except the recently acquired Liquid offers native support for HDV1 at 24 or 25fps. Don't believe the Avid hype, guys.

If you have Adrenaline, the best solution is to buy a HDV-HDSDI converter and capture a baseband HD-SDI signal as DNx as cross-converted 1080i, which would effectively be 1080PsF, of course. You can capture into 1080p or i Avid projects. I would suggest the Convergent Design HD Connect LE. Check out the Convergent homepage. If you have the HD 250 then you already have baseband HDSDI but Avid still cannot work at 720p/25 or 50 in any codec. Native HDV1 support from Avid will come at some point across the range - all the way from Xpress Pro to Symphony Nitris. We were promised it last autumn, then it was 'wait for NAB2006' then the official line became 'Q4 2006' and now I have been told by Avid themselves that it may drift into next year. I'm not making that up, it's not speculation - I was told that by Avid officially.

If you're dependent on Avid systems and you need to start shooting now, JVC's camera gear is not the ideal solution. If you can wait, fine, but otherwise I'd go for XDCAM HD.

If you are going with the HD-250 you can use Liquid Chrome HD which is designed to work with it's m2t datastream and HD-SDI input without issue.

They (JVC) are bundling Liquid with ProHD for a good reason, it supports the format completely. Another user is using Liquid to capture the video and then batch to a format that Composer can understand. If you need to work in Composer exclusively, it may be a good idea to pick up the Liquid (software only) system to get your footage in and processed.

S.Noe

Just to clarify - Xpress Pro HD does not exist any more. They dropped the HD a couple of versions back, it's just Xpress Pro 5.6 now.
Nope. Unless you capture outside XPro, convert to 1080p, then import & edit at that res.

Current word is December for 720p25/24, but if that gets pushed to next year, I will be one unsurprised customer.

So, I should purchase the Avid Liquid 7.0 software and install it onto my Avid MC HD system and everything will be OK?

Thanks a lot for everybody's advice by the way!

Yes, you probably should purchase Liquid because it's fantastic value for money and will give you some sort of work-around and a great second NLE with quite a few features you don't have in MCA. This is what I use as the basis for my work-around, btw. However, it certainly is not satisfactory as a work-around for high volume and fast turnaround work.

No, everything will not be okay if you buy Liquid unless you cut and finish in Liquid exclusively. Liquid just gives you the ability to ingest native HDV1 over at 24 and 25 fps via firewire and then batch export Avid QT files for fast import into MCA. However, you will not retain TC so it's not much use for offline/online work unless you go through some seriously painful fiddling. The export/transcode is also time-consuming and only tolerable if you do not have to do it frequently. If you have the HD250 then you have HDSDI out already so, if you shoot 720p/50, you should be able to do an acceptable cross-convert to 1080PsF which you can capture WILD into MCA in a 1080i or 1080p project. If you want TC then you'll need a converter like the Convergent device to give you RS422 for capture/control. For this workflow, Liquid offers you no help whatsoever.

However, nothing gets around the problem that there simply is not any 720p/25 project set-up in AXPro, MCA or Symphony. If you want to work at the native frame size at 25 or 50fps, you cannot.

I repeat, the traditional Avid apps are a very poor companion to the ProHD camera gear and if you have the opportunity to choose another camera when you have already invested heavily in MCA, I would do so. We have had Avid gear for years for general use and we bought our HD100 for a specific purpose, so we are victims of misfortune/Avid's slow development for this format. If you have the chance to avoid the rabbit hole, I recommend that you do. You could be entering a world of pain!!!!

Yes to what Antony writes but I offer more. You could get the Liquid workflow to accomodate your ProHD camera(s) completely and not use MCA with ProHD until/unless Avid comes to the table with an upgrade for Media Composer and ProHD.

Your Liquid station will run everything your MCA will run (with the exception of the Adrenalin). You would not be missing much of anything by using the Liquid station to edit and and deliver (compared to MCA).

Good luck.