Archiving HDV Fully edited footage
 

I am editing in HDV format on the timeline with FCP but it does not give me the print to video option like on my SD projects.

I know there is not really a full proof way to make fully chaptered Blu-Ray DVD's with menus yet and I am anxious about buying a Blu-Ray burner yet as I would like an internal Super drive one for my mac pro so I wanted to ask how every-one else here backs up their finished edit.

A QuickTime movie to an external hard drive is the best way to go. You can also use Compressor to make a version of your edit to a better codec like Pro-Res or DVCProHD.

You should be able to print to HDV tape in FCP. The one drawback to this is that FCP has to re-compress the video to a HDV tape friendly format. Depending on how much image adjustment you have done to the video, there will be some additional MPEG artifacts introduced. Never done it myself. I always make files for back up.

How does the Pro-Res Codec make a better file, I still know nothing about it to be honest?

If I'm not mistaking, ProRes uses 4:2:2, but I can't see the point of taking 4:2:0 HDV to 4:2:2? Maybe I'm missing something... If you originally captured in 4:2:2 I could see the benefit

I archive my complete edited project, captured media, and everything to external hard drives after I complete a project. I know I don't have to archive the original captures... etc but with FCP I've had problems before when I re-captured the footage. It would always complain about the timecode and things would sometimes get a frame or two off. Now this was a long time ago, and could very well be fixed in version 6, but I like to play it safe.

I have a line in my contract that re-edits/changes can be made up to 2 years after event, for a charge of course :) This allows me to go back and make any changes to my edit within two years and come out with the same video I had before, plus hard drives are cheap. I just bought a $50 SATA enclosure and an $80 320GB HD. No complaints

I've also used the print to tape feature with great results, but this isn't my primary archiving method.

Print to Tape works exactly the same with HDV as it does with DV. It takes a little longer as FCP must conform your footage. It works great. Edit to Tape will not work.

Will the print to video work with my Z1?

Why wouldn't it- have you tried?

It doesn't always make a better file but it shouldn't make a worse one. Let's say you edited an HDV sequence with some color correction and number of titles and some transition effects. Regardless of how your computer can play them back without any rendering, all of those changes have to be rendered at some point to get onto a digital file. Rendering in HDV introduces some MPEG2 artifacts. Some you see on a decent HD monitor. The average viewer might not notice but it can be frustrating to see your work get a tiny, blocky grain in places where there wasn't any before. This because HDV is a highly compressed MPEG2 codec whereas most other HD codecs are not as compressed so there's more information to work with.

If you take Compressor and set it to Pro-Res or another HD codec, it will render those changes in that codec not HDV. If in the future you need to make an HDCam version of your edit, you can bring this Pro-Res file to a facility and get a really good master. One thing to note is that these files are much larger than a HDV file.

HDV is great and a real achievement in quality but as long as we understand it's limitations, we can use it to make excellent video.

Yes I have, and it only gives me the print to video option on a SD timeline, I will double check all of my settings and give it another try.

Agree with William on all these points. HDV print to tape is a PITA in my experience; best use of HDV is for acquisition and taking care of it in post with a better codec can get really good results.

Short of mastering to tape on a higher-grade format like HDCAM or DVCPROHD, exporting a QuickTime movie on either HD disk or optical disc may be your best bet.

The HDV codec is really ripped to shreds by the time it is compressed down to SD, its fine if I do no color correcting etc but with the wedding I am working on at the moment it has slow motion, B/W, sepia and stills in it and it is a juddery mess to be honest, If it doesn't improve I am going to have to recapture the whole thing in SD by using the camera to down convert as I would never hand this to a Bride the shape it is in.

I am using compressor at the moment to convert the timeline edit into a SD Widescreen and an XDCAM 50i to see if it does the same thing.

When I export it out as a Quicktime movie the audio and video don't match up, the audio comes in 4 seconds before the video but it is perfectly fine on the timeline, its a real headache.

I export HDV timelines to Compressor all the time, using various quality presets as well as customized settings, and have had great results.

There a whole bunch of variables between acquisition and delivery and personally I would try to identify/control/eliminate as many of those as possible before going the hassle of re-capturing everything.

Something is wrong here. None of this should be happening. Is your sequence set right? This might explain why you can't print to tape as well.

If you use a hard drive to archive, how long is it safe to leave the drive tucked away for?

Can you really print HDV to tape, the same as SD? Don't you need a kona card or something?!

That's the question for the ages.

If we assume that the drives have retained their magnetic information properly and the circuits don't go bad, hard drives should last until the mechanical parts fail. Usually that's when the drive lubricant turns bad and start to stick. I have 15 year old drives that still work and I have had a couple of 5 year old drives go bad. This is why tape is considered a better bet for long term storage. Formats like HDV make it difficult to archive edited masters on tape with optimum quality so it's good to backup the digital file in several places. At least two hard drives and if possible DVD-R.

And tape isn't foolproof. I'm the annoyed owner of several 3/4 in. cassettes that the tape has started to emulsify and stick together.

How many people have to say it here before you believe it?!

Yes. FCP HDV > HDV tape works with the above caveats about re-compression quality problems. You do NOT have live display to a monitor in FCP HDV without a dedicated card however. Once on tape, you can play back to your monitor. This option is so cheap and real-time easy, that it is a no-brainer as additional backup. If the footage has not been processed (eg color correction, overlays etc), I'd consider it quite good. If the footage is marginal and/or has been changed in the timeline, issues will be visible - remember - this will almost definitely need to be re-compressed again before it gets to your audience.

I make only one copy of most of my edited masters to hard drive currently. This comes down to your comfort level. Many hard drive issues are recoverable with utilities, and hardware issues usually give you some warnings, but with swappable 500gb bare drives for $100, you decide how obsessive you will be. I'd run them for at least a few days testing copy back to another drive. If the drives get put on the shelf, I'd be comfortable with them for several years, hoping that better archival technology arrives. It's probably a good idea to spin them up and run them for a while every year or so. I "imagine" this could keep the lubrication dispersed, and contact points active. Copy them over when better (cheaper!) technology for large files comes along - don't let the technology expire whatever you do.

However, I'm totally impatient for a hard written large storage system at a reasonable cost (blu-ray in a few years?).