24f/30f: do you need a special deck to play this?
 

What kind of deck do you use to feed an NLE if you shoot in 30f/24f? The interlaced Sony HDV decks or the progressive JVC HDV deck?

Neither. Use the Canon HV10 consumer HV10 camcorder as a playback deck. It's the only thing other than an XL H1 or XH A1 / G1 that can play back 24F or 30F video. There's about a dozen threads about this already, so look to those discussions for the specific details. Hope this helps,

Capturing A1 footage with HV10?
 

I am planning to capture my A1 footage using the HV10 as playback "deck". Are there any objections against this?

It seems to be the standard workflow. Just got my hv10, it's a great little cam and pretty robust as a feeder deck (tested sd dv material ingested into FCP). My A1 is on its way, so I haven't done it first hand, but I did my homework and many people use it as a feeder deck for the A1, which seems to be Canon's intent, as it does play out Canon's 24f format, though it will not shoot in it.

It plays Frame mode and supports 4-channel audio playback as well. As has been stated on this forum numerous times already, it's the closest thing to a feeder deck that you can get.

WOW!!! It plays it but doesn't shoot in 24f... now that is brilliant of them imo. For significantely less then the cost of an HDV deck, you have a 24F deck that doubles as a killer b-roll/b-cam/vacation cam. *Slowly releasing the grip of my beloved HC1*... :)

I'm still wondering about how mastering an entire short/feature back to tape and playing the content via Component out would fair. I mean, you'd literally be playing back the project via a Hi-Def signal, right?

^^

Yes and imo it looks killer in 1080i. One of the first things EVERYONE says when wathcing one of my finshsed products in 1080i is 'LOOK @ THE QUALITY'!

Of cousre I keep my workflow simple and NEVER go beyond 1 generation of degradation.

Works fine as a deck for my G1. I just shot some stuff today, and was happy not having to break down the cam to capture. Just grabbed the tape and headed to the edit bay. The HV10's small footprint on my crowded desk was a blessing as well. Taking up no more space than and empty big mac container... maybe I should clean up around here... nah.

So most of you are having good luck with this little guy? I know the theoretical abililities of it, but in my short experience the unit was unstable for capturing. What I mean is it would stop playing a lot. I had 2 one hour long tapes to capture and I would leave the room 10 minutes into a capture and come back and it would have mysteriously stopped completely. The capture app (Cineform HDlink) was still running and waiting for a bitstream but the camera was stopped. I couldn't get more than 10-12 monites to capture without it stopping.This happened repeatedly for 3-4 hours until I finally decided to capture with the A1, which worked flawlessly.

I ended up going back to an XL-H1 so I had to return the A1 and HV10.

I am still on the fence about getting another HV-10 because of this. But it sounds promising that you are all having success. Maybe I just had a bad one.

Peace!

yeah Marty, mine did this too yesterday whilst playing out to a DVD burner - just stopped for no reason every so often. and it didn't do it every time either, what could this be? has anyone else had this?

I'm gonna wait for the HV20. It will be able to shoot 24p.

Any HDV decks work with A1?
 

We're looking to buy an A1, but are there any HDV decks that work with it completely right now (in both 60i, 24f, 30f)? I haven't found any yet. I see four potential options right now...

1. Just use the A1 as a deck. Disadvantage: wears out heads.

2. Buy a HV20 and use it as a deck instead. Not an ideal work environment, but I'd have a small, compact B-camera. $1099.

3. Buy the FireStore FS-C. Recognizes and records 60i, 30f, 24f video, correct? At least it will with the 2.1 firmware upgrade. Advantage: Tape-less work-flow. No capturing. $1249 for 60GB (4.5 hours of HDV).

4. Buy Sony's HVR-M15U deck for $1799. It will capture 60i, not 24f or 30f. Buy some other deck that's out there that works with 24f and 30f, and I just don't know about it? Or are there none?

Does this all sound correct? Are there any other options?

Frequently asked, Bryan. Please refer to several other existing threads which already discuss this exact topic, and post any replies to those specific threads. Many people choose option #2.

Best Cheap HDV cam to use as A1 VCR?
 

I plan to shoot about 50 hours of tape, is it okay to use my A1 as a VCR for video capture, or should I invest in a seperate cam? I can't afford a tape deck, but I was wondering if the Canon HV20 is a good VCR cam for the A1? Will it be able to handle the stream without dropping frames?

Thanks