View Full Version : help!!can i get uncompress video out of z7 ?


Danny Nguyen
July 10th, 2008, 11:35 PM
i currently own the z7.everything work fine but th enext coming project i need to do a bit of keying.so i wonder can i get uncompress signal(4:2:2) come out of z7 through hdmi or component for better keying work ?

John Knight
July 11th, 2008, 12:57 AM
Hi Danny - you can't. Z7 is MPEG-2, giving you a 4:2:0 color space in HDV.

Danny Nguyen
July 11th, 2008, 01:13 AM
hmm so it will same with v1 ?

John Knight
July 11th, 2008, 01:54 AM
Same with any HDV camera.

Danny Nguyen
July 11th, 2008, 01:59 AM
so i tmean all the ingal com though hdmi and componet is after the hdv compression....

Steve Phillipps
July 11th, 2008, 02:30 AM
I'm sure you can get uncompressed from the HDMI, look at products from Convergent Designs. The Flash XDR hooks up to the HDSDI and they do a HDMI to HDSDI converter I think. Also, does their XDR Nano take feed from HDMI?
Steve

Slobodan Milivojevic Bobansky
July 11th, 2008, 03:46 AM
i currently own the z7.everything work fine but th enext coming project i need to do a bit of keying.so i wonder can i get uncompress signal(4:2:2) come out of z7 through hdmi or component for better keying work ?

Off course U can get uncompressed out. Everything that comes out from cameras lens, without being recorded on tape is 4:2:2 great quality signal.

I have tried to capture full HD via HDMI on my DECLINK intensity card, and it works just fine. Picture quality is perfect, and very usable.......

So, U can get a great key results......

Craig Irving
July 11th, 2008, 07:59 AM
Yes. The key component being that you have to be capturing the signal live and via HDMI (not firewire).

If you have already recorded to tape, then you've already chosen to compress the signal using MPEG-2.

The Convergent products will be great if you want to capture live into a higher quality codec and preserving 4:2:2. Both will require HDMI to HD-SDI converters, and only the XDR allows you to record uncompressed. The Blackmagic products work fine too, you just need to be near a PC. And the Matrox MX02 will be great, so long as you have a MacBook Pro or Mac Pro, though the MacBook Pro may not have the hardware requirements to record uncompressed. You may need to choose another high quality codec.

Myself I wouldn't even both recording uncompressed. There's many high quality 4:2:2 codecs that are pretty close to uncompressed, such that visually I don't think many could tell the difference. I know I probably couldn't tell the difference between a 100mbps MPEG-2 recording at 4:2:2 compared to a completely uncompressed signal.

John Knight
July 11th, 2008, 03:07 PM
Yes. The key component being that you have to be capturing the signal live and via HDMI (not firewire).

I did not know this! I learn something new every year.... (some years)

Danny Nguyen
July 12th, 2008, 05:58 AM
i did try to capture from z7 to my mac pro thought hdmi and componen.the footage look to gainy event i got gain set to -6.and it seem like it go through hdv compression.i will try to test again with both shooting to tape and to computer and try to c the different between them 2.

Sherif Choudhry
July 12th, 2008, 06:44 AM
i currently own the z7.everything work fine but th enext coming project i need to do a bit of keying.so i wonder can i get uncompress signal(4:2:2) come out of z7 through hdmi or component for better keying work ?

Danny, there is a large thread on the Sony V1 and Canon HV30 forums on people who are recording uncompressed live from the hdmi port to intensity cards on PCs, or through the magma box into laptops with raid arrays. Sorry i cant supply thread but search on MAGMA or INTENSITY CARD. According to them the difference between uncompressed and HDV is significant BUT i dont know what the difference in image quality will be by the time you create a standard definition DVD. Cheers.

Sherif Choudhry
July 12th, 2008, 06:46 AM
i did try to capture from z7 to my mac pro thought hdmi and componen.the footage look to gainy event i got gain set to -6.and it seem like it go through hdv compression.i will try to test again with both shooting to tape and to computer and try to c the different between them 2.

My understanding is that You have to capture the footage LIVE thru the hdmi, NOT AFTER you have already recorded to tape or card. Once its on tape it is already HDV compressed. Anyone on the forum recording uncompressed?

Danny Nguyen
July 12th, 2008, 10:01 AM
what i did was i conect my camera to my macpro with hdmi cable then go to log and capture in fcp and use capture now to capture what ever come out from z7 !!is it live capture ?