It certainly can -- that was the big announcement a year ago about FCP HD -- desktop editing of firewire-transferred data.

You don't. DVCPRO-HD is "just like DV" because it's grounded in the same frame-discrete, constant-bit-rate technology; a simple explanation is that DVCPRO-HD is actually four DV codecs working together to encode a picture with 4x as much resolution as DV. So yes, it is "just like DV", and yes you can transfer it over firewire just like DV.

Transferring DVCPRO-HD over HD-SDI would gain you nothing vs. transferring it over firewire.

But DVCPRO-HD is the only high-def format that has been integrated with firewire (well, HDV obviously, but I'm talking among the established pro formats). No other HD format uses it -- HDCAM, HDCAM SR, D5, etc. You'd need HD-SDI capture boards to capture the other formats, but DVCPRO-HD can work with a regular $29 OHCI firewire card, to a regular 5400 RPM hard disk.

No -- it's either in Camera mode, or VCR mode, but not both. Offloading the cards requires it to be in VCR mode.

Barry--Regarding Firewire output of DVCProHD in FCP, I had heard that there was a "recompression" of effects and the image when this happened, and that it was more desirable to go out HD SDI. Is this true?

Also, if editing HD in FCP, what are the options for real-time monitoring on a professional HD monitor (not the computer monitor). Is it necessary to have a separate card to do this? Thanks!

Peter

Don't know. Can't imagine why it would be. If the data on the timeline is untouched, it should just be written straight back out the firewire port. If it's been modified (color corrected, titles added, effects, etc) then yes it will need to be recompressed.

Again, some FCP expert will have to weigh in on this, but I believe that yes, you'd need some sort of HD card like a BlackMagic or Kona or something like that.

Thanks Barry. I think the effects or color corrected shots are specifically what I'd heard there would be recompression of, and this seems to be backed up by your post. How bad is this compression? Does anyone know? The idea of editing on a new Intel Powerbook and going straight out of FW800 to a deck is soooooo appealing, would be a shame if the image was seriously compromised.

Peter

The demo footage we shot had some areas of titling and dissolves -- we showed the training staff some stuff that was labeled with titles so it'd been back through the codec once, when output to tape for display. Looked very nice. DVCPRO-HD is basically DV compression, so recompression performance depends on the particular implementation of the codec -- some DV codecs can go 10 generations without significant loss to the image, some can't go more than a couple (I believe the Microsoft codec was famous for not being able to handle more than a couple of generations down, whereas the Sony Vegas codec is good for something like 8 to 10). So it will be with DV100 -- each codec will need to be tested for generational performance.

However, it's not really nearly as relevant as it once was -- we used to recompress and go out on DV tape, but in HD I suspect we're going to see acquisition and mastering being done in different codecs -- i.e., acquire in DVCPRO-HD, distribute in WMV9 or H.264 or MPEG-2, etc. So the recompression issue pretty much goes away, as you won't be often recompressing back to the acquisition codec.

What we shot and output wasn't compromised at all in any noticeable way. But as a point of correction, you don't need FW800, FW400 does just fine. There's only one deck to go to, the AJ-HD1200A, and it's FW400.