PC - Avid Workflow Handbook for HDV

[Kevin Haberer]

Hello,

I am not an expert here and do not have the answers to create an Avid handbook for PC but I was hoping to ask just the right questions to help someone more HDV and avid savy to fill this post out. This post should be for people who are editing on avid xpress pro 5.2 or greater on a PC with or without a hardware accelerator. There are a few questions this post will bring up so if it needs to be seperated then let me know and I will simply post my questions seperately and make them specific to my needs but I think this should help everyone.

1. Can someone outline the workflow very specifically for wanting to shoot HDV and output HDCAM.

2. What does someone shooting a project on HDV need to know before they begin if they plan to bring their project into a studio with a top tier avid system for finishing and HDCAM output.

3. Does it make more sense to capture and edit the project in sd and then somehow recreate that cut on a media composer system for hdcam output? (what is the process for this)

4. If capturing and editing in avid using native HDV settings for the project, what is the process for downconverting and burning on a DVD...or is the only option sending the cut back to tape and then recapturing sd and then creating a DVD from this.

5. If the DVD is not for distribution but merely to pass around a working cut for other members of the production team to see is there a quick way to get the HDV footage to a DVD without signifigant quality loss?

Please include anything I may have passed over in this attempt.

[John Yamamoto]

hi
it's not worthto do it. unless u will stay in SD as final.
pixel wise
1440x 1080i > 720x 576(or 480 NTSC) >1920 x 1080 ( or 1280 x720)

the benefit of HD( or HDV) is gone.

for the sake use avid, well avid express pro supports HDV , so u may encode into the best codec from avid. ( forget name just check avid)

then suppose all avid will support it's own new codec.

cheers
JY

[Glenn Chan]

3. Does it make more sense to capture and edit the project in sd and then somehow recreate that cut on a media composer system for hdcam output? (what is the process for this)

One workflow that should work is to dub to HDCAM. From the HDCAM dubs, you can offline with miniDV dubs and then online from the HDCAM dubs. I don't think the quality would be as good as editing HDV native because of the added generation from dubbing to HDCAM. I think Avid can handle HDV native??? (Or it has to do DNxHD... I can't remember.)

4. If capturing and editing in avid using native HDV settings for the project, what is the process for downconverting and burning on a DVD...or is the only option sending the cut back to tape and then recapturing sd and then creating a DVD from this.

I know you can at least export a file from Avid into Quicktime or AVI. From there you can use Procoder or whatever on that file.

There may be a better way of doing things... i.e. output SD out into a DVD recorder and burn real-time.

[Kevin Haberer]

Thanks for the advice, I will try other forums...

[Panos Bournias]

Hi Kevin, I use since a year the XproHD Avid for HDV 720p that is not as well supported from Avid as the 1080i. Anyway I think, with all the small problems that you will bypass with time, the Avid workflow is very good. You edit native HDV you render your effects and titles in DVCPRO HD or DNxHD110 - 120 or -140
You export an M2t file to your disc and then you can transcode it into different formats, I personally use the canopus procoder and I make MPEG2 which I finish through encore for DVD M2V filles. In Avid, if you have other obligations for your project than a DVD you can transcode your sequence in DVCPRO HD again or DNxHD (Which is a very nice codec), and then export it to the appropriate decks or transfer it to another Avid. If you want to export to tape you do that creating immediately from the time line a transport stream (M2t file) and exporting directly to tape. This transport steam you keep for the encoding DVD archive etc.

In my case for 720p Avid supports only 30p, 60p. This is a problem that will be solved, as they have promissed, in this year. Another problem is that you cannot preview to an HD client monitor. Only when you capture and when you export to tape. So this is a problem for the CC.

I export previews to tape just to present to my clients on an HD monitor... makes a big difference.

The good thing with Xpro HD is that they upgrade and fix very often and the upgrades come for free.

Avid is very ellegant, stable, well designed, has very good file management and with a few plug ins for me is the favorite NLE application. If you go Avid get a work station that is approved by them in order to avoid problems.

I hope that this could be some help for you. All the best - Panos

[Jaadgy Akanni]

Hi Panos. You seem to be right person for me to ask the following 2 questions:

(1)I wanna shoot everything in 24p format and record HDV24p. Now, in order to edit this in Avid Xpress Pro HD (which does not yet support HD24p) what do I do next? What software do I use to convert it into a usable format for Avid Xpress Pro?

(2)I also have a DR-HD100 DTE so I also wanna ask you how to make .M2T files usable in Avid Xpress Pro. Please point me in right direction. Thank you.

[David Parks]

The belly aching over Avid not supporting HDV 24p is over. Period.

Media Composer v. 3 will support this format. If you have Avid Xpress, you can upgrade for $495. If you're a student it is even cheaper.