AspectHD and other HD-formats?
 

Hi,

I currently have a "simple" HDV-camera, the HC1. I am considering buying a better camera next year. Probably the HVX-200. I am editing in Premiere. The question is that will AspectHD be "useless" if I get the HVX-200 and use it's DVCPRO-HD format? From what I can figure out from the specs that it's intended at HDV and nothing else. I am aware that ProspectHD is there and will probably be the next step but I am thinking of getting AspectHD then new camera, then a card that gives me realtime HD-performance. I don't want to buy all at once...

Regards, Fredrik.

Aspect is designed to run HD at resolutions up to 1440x1080, and as the HVX-200 is lower than that it is has the potential to be supported. The digital intermediate approach of Aspect HD makes is very likely that we will had DVCPRO HD support. Once a DirectShow DVCPRO-HD codec is available for Windows, Aspect HD can be simply upgraded. Even today's Aspect HD will support any foreign codec format that is registered as a windows codec.

Note: Aspect HD give you real-time performance without any hardware cards. In fact the hardware based solutions are generally a thing of the past. Even the Canapus HDV card doesn't accelerate the editing (it is a nice product in that it provides analog I/O), but all real-time functions a CPU/GPU based. Today's modern computers are fast enough so that is not necessary or that viable to build custom hardware for something that is considered now a software problem.

David,

I have a question for you. I am planning on getting a Decklink and Multibridge to capture uncompressed HD with component or SDI depending on if I get the new CANON HDV camera. I will build a small cheap raid to use as a capture drive for uncompressed HD. What I would like to do at that point is convert the captured video to the Cineform codec and send to my edit drive. I know there will be a slight hit in resolution going from 1920 to 1440 but in terms of Chroma and overall quality I should get pretty good results when compared to HDV or DVCPRO HD?

Just to note I am talking about live capturing uncompressed HD in my studio without going to HDV compression.

Hopefully if this would work I could then edit multiple streams of HD. I guess my second question which you may or may not be able to answer is then if editing the Cineform video in Pemiere would still work for realtime output from the Decklink card? Decklink isn't locked to any specific codec.

I would love to get your Prospect setup but it is a little out of my price range at this point. I only plan on capturing short effects segemnts so I do not really mind converting after capturing so I don't need the realtime conversion to Cineform during capture.

Thomas,

You should look it Prospect HD as is saves you the cost of an uncompressed disk array that need to sustain 150MBytes/s (not small or cheap), plus the cost of the Decklink + Multibridge (nothing wrong with those units other than we don't support them, although one day hope to.) Even though DeckLink can work with range of codecs, the CineForm solution is a lot more than a codec, as result there maybe some compatibility but the performance will be poor using Decklink. Prospect HD with a AJA Xena on the other hand offers a large amount real-time editing performance.

If your do setup the necessary RAID and you don't need/want real-time compression, Prospect HD Edit is significantly less expensive at $2499. Give us a call you as I believe you will find we are the best fit for you needs, as we have a large range of configuration and purchase options on Prospect HD.

One solution could also be, as I saw in an earlier post here (I think), the DVFilm software. They will be able to conform Panasonic MXF files into Cineform AVI's. But of course, if Aspect could do it "alone" it would be even better...

David, wouldn't it be possible to use the QT-codec?

/Max