technical ? for editing HDV on dinosaur G4
 

I have come on board as editor for a project very late in the game, just as they wrapped up their shooting. It is a low budget (read: no budget) short that was shot in HDV 1060/60i on a Sony Z1U. I'm taking it on because payed gigs are very slim at the moment, and the director is a nice guy with an interesting concept. So, I'm doing it for free.

Problem I am facing is that it is HDV. I have never touched anything outside of SD video, so I am venturing into new space. I am working with a dinosaur suite by today's standards: a dual-867 PowerMac G4 MDD. I'm running OS X 10.4.11 with FCP 5.1.4.

My current thinking is to capture HDV to an SD offline formate for the offline editing. Now, this project isn't going anywhere other than DVD... and I mean DVD (not HD-DVD or Blu-Ray). So, the full benefits of shooting in HDV are lost anyway. What I think I can get, if I am not mistaken, is very nice widescreen SD footage after down-converting from HDV. Would that not be the wisest approach for this situation? My machine will likely be sluggish to the point of frustration if i try to do the project in HDV, but it sings just fine for SD.

Does this sound like a good approach? If so, what would the recommended workflow be?

I've cut HDV on a powerbook so you should be okay...ish on a dual core!

If it's coughing and spluttering trying to do math in HDV, I'd have a go in a frame based codec; DVCPROHD or AIC. There's no piont chucking away all those pixels until you really need to.

Liam.

I know it can be done, but how sluggish did it get? Keep in mind, there's also the online editing (colour grading, effects, etc) that needs to be done. If I have to wait 10 minutes to render a simple transition with CC, I will go mad after an hour!

The PowerMac G4s were not core anything . . . I have an 867 G4 and I think you are going to find that the G4 chokes on HDV

Take a look at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301599

That's exactly what I thought. And IIRC, processor speed is only one factor. RAM and bus speeds are also important for the bandwidth needed for HDV and even more so with HD.

But I digress...

What about the approach I outlined in my initial post? I think that is the best, if not only way to go. If so, how should i go about executing it?

If your computer is that slow, I'd just downconvert in the camera as you're capturing. You can always recapture that project later on down the road to HDV easily and painlessly.

I agree with that--do the downconvert when capturing.

I assume this would be done via my capture settings in FCP? If I want to get the best SD footage, what would you suggest for my settings? It was shot as 1080/60i.