Macintosh + HV20 = Highly Compatible???
 

Hello All,

I'm wondering if any of you have any recommendations/caveats about Mac and HV20 compatibility, preferred software, etc.
* What system / config are you using?
* Which editors work well with this camera?
* What is working / not working for you?

Thank you,
-Hans.

I've used a Mac and HV20 - it's always worked, no problems. I've imported both via FCP (Final Cut Studio) and iMovie - shooting both normal HDV 60i and HDV 24P (in a 60i) stream - no problems.

No problems = works great.

Apple already considered 2005 to be the "year of HD", so, Macs are pretty HD compliant. ;)

I use a Mac Pro with a HD "Blackmagic Design" card and X1900XT, but *any* Mac will do, really. It depends what you're intending to do with the final footage - how much work you want to put in, what the final viewing medium will be - but most modern Macs (aside from the Mac Mini) will do the trick for most regular jobs. I'd have no problems using a regular Macbook to edit HDV video with in Final Cut Pro.

I've never tried exporting HDV footage back to an HDV camera, so perhaps someone else here can chime in on that. Also, if you ever intend to burn Blu-Ray or HD-DVD discs with your HD footage, a Mac Pro would be the best choice as it has a second drive bay. That said, you would be able to buy external enclosures as well to connect to any modern Mac.

Hans,

I've thrown together a little video outlining workflow and some useful Mac software here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN0Nw5chIS4

Same video in high quality (42MB) here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Q0KGUVEU

Mark

Just to be clear, the extra steps of using DVHSCap and MPEGStreamClip demonstrated in Mark's video are generally not necessary outside of a few specialized circumstances. iMovie, FCE and FCP all now work with HDV (ie. the HV20) naitively.

Great video Mark. This is almost my exact workflow.

Wes,
What advantage does capturing the HDV as a transport stream versus capturing it in a Quicktime wrapper offer for grading or any other post-work? None that I'm aware of, the actual MPEG-2 data is EXACTLY the same.

Besides, if you're going to be doing significant post, you probably want to transcode to a better codec, which again, you can do during capture, or by mixing-up the timeline (in FCP 6.)

- MPEGStreamclip is a very slick, handy tool with many, many uses.
- Everyone just getting into this needs to understand that DVHSCapture is a crude tech demo. It gives you nothing like the capture/logging abilities of FCP. You really don't need to mess with it unless you need to mess with it.
- The other piece of software that should be mentioned in the same breath as Streamclip is JES Deinterlacer, which is a great tool for getting your 24P footage out of HDV's 60i stream. But again, Apple's Compressor does this as well without leaving the DCP workflow.

Robert, thank you for your detailed reply. I can't get my current Powerbook !.5GHz to even *display* HDV clips smoothly (like the samples on the Canon website), so I'm guessing that a major upgrade will be necessary to work with HDV.

Which 'Blackmagic Design' card do you use and how does that help?

Many thanks,
-Hans.

Mark,

That was fantastic, thank you! What kind of system are you running that on?

Many thanks,
-Hans.

Hans,
Is that a G4 Powerbook, not a Macbook or Macbook Pro? If so, yeah, you will have to get current.

Yes, I have a G4 Powerbook. It's a fine computer, but apparently not up to this task. :-(

-Hans.

Indeed - I use DVHSCapture specifically relating to the Playstation3 handling of MPEG2 transport streams - I want to avoid the additional step of re-encoding my raw clips as I view all of my raw footage via the PS3 & HDMI to a large 1080P HD display.

(I paid a lot for my Sony Bravia so I want to see the prestine footage untouched by Apple's Compressor while saving the cam's heads!)

For those interested, the video was recorded on a MacPro Quad core 2.66 Ghz 3GB RAM.

Mark, maybe a dumb question, but why not just play through via HDMI straight from the cam?

Hans,

To answer your original question, I'm using FCP6 on either a Mac Pro or a Mac Book Pro and I capture with the HDV presets straight into FCP. I've only played with 60i so far, but darn it, it's good enough, pretty enough, and people really like it. :-)

The HV-20 is a fantastic little camera.

Hmm.. time to upgrade the computer most likely.

On my Mac Pro, I use the Decklink HD Extreme card, but for the HV20, a Intensity card is a better match - they both do the same thing more or less. It doesn't speed up HD playback at all, but rather, allows you to inport/export HD through the camera, bypassing the compression of HDV. It's only if you're up for taking your computer around with your camera to do uncompressed shoots/or wish to view video directly from your editing program on an HDTV. I use my card for both.

Robert,
Do you do anthing to make your MacPro more luggable? Use a cart? Any tips? I sorely want to bypass HDV, and I don't mind working around the camera being cabled, but the MacPro is a heavy beast so I'm looking for ideas. I'll probably monitor with a 20" CinemaDisplay.