Firestore/JVC dr100- can it play through HD200 component out?
 

Before I throw down $3K on two DR100's I was curious if the unit can play back through the HD200's component outputs if the camera is in VTR mode...

I edit in DVC Pro HD and may prefer to digitize 720p60 via the Kona LH rather than converting the M2T files with software.

Anyone know the answer?

by the time it gets to the dr100, it has already been converted, internally, to m2T.

Yes, it can...if you record the data in m2t mode and not MOV mode.

Thanks for the reply...

Sayanara to tape! Hello Firestore and Blu Ray!

What would be even cooler is if you could just detach the firestore and have it act like a digital VTR.

You could play out of the firewire port- into an HD Connect Box converting to HDSDI, and digitize into a Kona at DVC Pro HD.

Or can it already do that?

Can't tell from the literature I've read.

if the DR100 is playing back an m2t file out the component out of the HD200, hasn't it already lost the original 4:2:2 color depth when it was written as an m2t? The m2t is recorded in 4:2:0, isn't it? Converting the 4:2:0 from the m2t to 4:2:2 at the component out means it has to create data from nothing. How is this possibly any better than the m2t file to start with?

Bill- you are asolutely correct. The only reason I'm bumping up to DVC Pro HD is to avoid editing in HDV. I'm also looking for a tapeless solution that does not require the purchase of the JVC deck. Particularly because of all the digitizing problems with the JVC HDV GOP.

My needs require that I digitize ALL of the footage- with no TC breaks.

What's your workflow?

That's kind of what we all want...:-)

workflow:

I capture to m2t files on a pair of FS-4HD's, from my JVC HD110.
Depending on my intent, I either open the m2t files directly in Vegas 7 or run ConnectHD to write the m2t files to an avi format, before editting in Vegas 7. If I intend to do some heavy color correction, I convert to the avi format, otherwise I will do cuts only editting on the m2t files. If I discover that I need to do some FX, I'll convert the m2t files to uncompressed, something like HuffyUV. I'm still exploring the best way to capture 4:2:2 from the component out. Wafian sure looks nice, but, it's price tag is a wee bit beyond my means.

Everything seems to work fine on my AMD Athlon 2x 4800 running on a Gigabyte mobo. Project files are kept on a pair of WD SATA2 drives in a RAID 0 configuration. Two SATA2 drives in RAID 0 have a thruput of around 100mbps. Final output/distribution is usually WMV9.

I am looking at this workflow for the Mac & FCP which seems pretty similar...

JVC HD200- shoot on firestore dr100 as M2T. They don't have a quicktime wrapper yet for 720p60 but I'm sure they are working on it.

Archive the files 50GB on Blu-Ray discs.

Convert to DVC PRO HD using MPEG Streamclip

or

Convert to DVC PRO HD out of the component jacks on the camera into a Kona LH.

I have to decide if the Kona hardware conversion is better than the software conversion in terms of time and quality. Anyone?

Then edit happily, DVC PRO HD in Final Cut Pro.

When they make a wafian that piggy backs on the back of the HD200 I will sell my Subaru for it.

Convergent HD Connect
 

Bill, to clarify, are you plugging a FireStore directly into a Converget HD Connect? In other words, the FireStore acts like a video player so you can see the files on an external monitor?

Tom Thompson, 484 645 3184, tat@tatcom.com