Is the HVX component output before or after compression?
 

Simple question, hard do find a definite answer...

Gunleik

I don't know what you exactly mean but DVPRO is also a compress format.

I'm pretty sure it is uncompressed.

I believe the answer is it is already compressed as DVCProHD.
You cannot get an uncompressed signal from the HVX200.

Don't get confuse that thinking the DVCPro is not compress format.
And the HDV format compress only.

The only diffrence is that the DVCPro is more professional compress that means it is non frame dippendent compress.
And the HDV format is a frame dippendent compress.
There is nothing excist on this camera that make a directly uncompress output without recording first as like the camera's as Canon XH1 and XH G1 well can produce directly without first recording so uncompress output for example.

Of course you can. The live output is completely uncompressed.

OK Barry, now I'm confused - Isn't DVCPro100 already a compressed format?
Do you get something different from the live output than you get recorded to the P2 card?

- Lenny

DVCPRO-HD is of course a compressed format. But the live outputs bypass compression. If you point the camera at a scene and record the signal coming off the analog component output jacks, you'll be recording 100% pure uncompressed HD video.

If you are trying to record the firewire stream, that's compressed. But the analog outputs are uncompressed.

Yow, How did i miss that in the last year and a half. I guess that's what happens when you don't read your book cover to cover.

So - are there options for recording higher quality from the analog outputs that I am unaware of? Is there anything to gain here? No one ever talks about it.

- Lenny

I dont have this camera yet I will get it friday and thought that has no analog output.
Wow thanks Barry Yoh !

It could be done, but it's pretty much not done because uncompressed HD is so extraordinarily taxing on system resources. You could use an analog HD capture card, or you could use a component->HDSDI converter box and capture the converted output of the HDSDI in an HDSDI capture board.

But -- basically, it's a lot less interesting to HVX owners than it is to HDV owners. I mean, the only portable-ish HDSDI recorders are things like the DVCPRO-HD tape decks, and what's the point of piping analog uncompressed video over to a DVCPRO-HD tape deck, when you could just record DVCPRO-HD directly?

So it's entirely possible, but recording uncompressed HD is not a trivial task and I don't know of too many people who bother.

Thanks,
I guess its not such a revelation then.

I worked on a gig recently where the director brought a Sony HDV cam, HD-SDI and two one terabyte RAIDs and used a mac pro to capture and compress on the fly to DVCPRO 1080i. It worked great except for the part where the RAIDs kept crashing and then finally completely crashed and took the project down with it. Luckily there was tape in the camera, too.

Cautionary Tale
 

Thanks for the story Jason. As Barry alludes to, shooting live into an uncompressed RAID system is insane in most instances, too many variables to cause crashes. Not worth it in most cases unless your shots are easily repeatable.

Dan

We shouldn't confuse the workflow of shooting with a RAID with stories about crashing RAIDs. It's clear that the RAID in this story was not healthy. It could have been due to a crummy controller, the use of consumer drives, high temps in the case. Who knows.

That said, a tape backup is a good idea in any case.

The problems I see (given reliable hardware) are 1) the camera is tethered, 2) you need mains power, and 3) if the setup has fans, the audio might be degraded.

But I'd like to second the opinion above: capturing the uncompressed output makes more sense with an HDV cam than with DVCPRO HD. It also makes more sense with an HDMI output than a CAV output. (Note that Blackmagic has a cheap HDMI capture card available: http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/intensity/ It's $350 with analog+HDMI and $250 with HDMI only.)