Hello. I have a studio/chromakey shoot coming up and have some questions about the Panasonic HVX200 and the Varicam and their compatibility with Premiere CS3.

1) Can I connect either camera via Firewire to my edit computer and record a .mxf (or HDDVCPro .avi) directly to my timeline in Premiere? Adobe's website claims the new CS3.1 version will read the P2 cards, but I was hoping to avoid the file transfer time in order to speed up client reviews of each take.

2) Adobe Premiere, according to their capture format guide, is not compatible with the Varicam. Does that mean it can't do deck control or capture the varicam tapes? Is there a difference in a DVCProHD P2 file from an HVX200 and a Varicam?

Ideally, I would like to bypass the camera recording, but the SDI outs require a beefy computer and even more beefy harddisk array, along with a fancy broadcast card like decklink or aja. All are over my budget at the moment. So now my goal is to speed up the ability for my client to view/approve the take, as well as check my key. Any advice or experiences would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

JH

Your best bet is to have the forum moderator move this thread to the "Attend the world Premiere" forum, the people who are deep into that app can answer most if not all of your questions.

1) Can I connect either camera via Firewire to my edit computer and record a .mxf (or HDDVCPro .avi) directly to my timeline in Premiere?
No, but you can connect the HVX200 via firewire and record using the CS3 "On Location" application. It'll record a high-def AVI file which you can immediately import to your timeline. No P2 cards necessary, no file transfer needed, just live direct-to-disk recording.

Can't do that from the VariCam because the VariCam doesn't have a firewire output.

2) Adobe Premiere, according to their capture format guide, is not compatible with the Varicam. Does that mean it can't do deck control or capture the varicam tapes?
Premiere's capture application may not be able to, but again, OnLocation could capture it (as a live stream capture, not as deck control). You might be able to use something like a DeckLink card to control a DVCPRO-HD deck from Premiere, I don't know.

Is there a difference in a DVCProHD P2 file from an HVX200 and a Varicam?
The recorded codec is identical. The footage is compatible. But the VariCam records to tapes which would need to be captured from a deck. OnLocation could capture the incoming data stream if you just hit "play" on the deck (I'm 99% sure, but haven't tried this).

Ideally, I would like to bypass the camera recording
Easy to do for the HVX200, not really possible for the VariCam.

Thanks for the help. It looks like we will have access to a Varicam with the Miranda DVC820 downconverter, providing a firewire output.

I've ordered CS3 and hope to test this ahead of time, but based on your info and my research, this should be a workable solution. Plus we'll have the tape as a backup.

I'll have a dual core desktop, 4 gigs ram, and G-Raid Firewire 800 external harddrive for the ingest. Once the software arrives, I'll drive up to LA and test the equipment. Will let you know, thanks again.

JH

I'm not familiar with that Miranda box -- does it output DVCPRO-HD? Or just HDV?

No clue about the Miranda box, but now the client wants to drop the Varicam and use the Panasonic HDX900. I love this business :)

No clue about the Miranda box, but now the client wants to drop the Varicam and use the Panasonic HDX900. I love this business :)

Much better for your workflow, because the 900 has firewire out!

I did a hardware test this weekend with the HDX-900 and OnLocation. After fixing a few issues, I was able to get a consistent capture without any problems or dropped frames.

Setup:
HDX-900 set to 1280x720 30p mode.
Firewire 400 into desktop DualCore PC, E6750 @2.66GHz, 4GB Ram
Save disk is a G-Raid 320 external Raid-0 via Firewire 800.

Adobe Onlocation captured the footage as AVI Type 2, 960x720 (1.33) at 59.94 fps. I use VirtualDub to decimate the frames by 2 and get my 29.97 fps progressive needed for this project.

POSSIBLE BUG: When I set the Field Monitor to AVI2, I had inconsistent fps. One clip would be at 59.94, then the next would record at 17fps; each clips being random fps. I fixed this by setting the Field Monitor to AVI1. However, OL claims the footage is still AVI2!. Either this is a bug with OL and the DVCProHD codec (or camera), or I just didn't have the right settings for either device.

My shoot is Thursday, and will followup with any other issues or solutions. Thanks again for your help Barry.