Aloha,

What is the status of LumiereHD being able to work with footage from the FX1?

I can currently capture footage, but nothing else works yet.

Will future versions of LumiereHD be able to capture with timecode from the FX1? Being able to use in and out points to capture HDV footage from the FX1 would be great.

If you have a beta version of LumiereHD I would be very interested in helping. I am currently doing a feature with two FX1's and a solid post solution would be great.

Dustin,

We will release a beta to all our customers on Tuesday.

The beta won't allow to go back to the camera but will allow for everything else, including MPEG2 Transport Stream encoding in 1080i 25 Mbps for output to DVHS decks.

Mahalo...

Frederic
Lumiere HD

The beta with support for the FX1 has now been released.

It is available to our customers on our website.

Frederic

Frederic,

Thank you! I am already capturing with the beta version.

Will there be any future versions of LumiereHD that support timecode? I really want to be able to put in and out point and have LumiereHD capture just the sections of the tape I need.

Dustin,

timecode...hmmm perhaps with the Z1

Frederic

Sooooo....
Hows it going editing with the FX-1 and FCP? Is the Lumiere beta version doing the trick?
Problems? Work arounds?
Anyone using a G4 dual 1 gig?

Thanks-

Jeff Patnaude

Hi, I just purchased an FX1 and I am now finding out I have more and more money I need to spend D:

I am leaning towards a G5/FCP system, and then purchasing this plugin.

My question is, do you have any users using HDV VTR's or decks, or does your plugin support this option?

although I do not have some kind of deck right now, I am used to an editing workstation with one, and I am trying to save the heads on the camera.

does Lumiere support deck control or support in any way?

thanks, sorry if this was asked before.

Evan,

Yes Lumiere HD supports the DVHS 30K deck from JVC.

We are now working on compatibility with the 40K.

Frederic

FYI, there are similar deck support options for PCs with the Canopus Edius NX and Edius SP, which happen to be well ahead of what you can do with HDV on Macs. I'd steer clear of Macs for HDV work until Apple ships a proper self-contained solution, which by recent accounts appears to be some way off.

Kevin,

I think the Apple vs. PC debate when talking about HDV is irrelevant.

HDV is just a format and most professional editors aren't going to change their editing system and OS to accomodate for a format amongst others.

As we have all witnessed over the years, release after release, NLEs outdo each other and I think it would be silly to switch everytime an NLE releases more features or support for a format.

As far as Lumiere HD competing with Canopus, well... we do our best. We're a small company trying to offer the best product we can.

Frederic

<<<I think the Apple vs. PC debate when talking about HDV is irrelevant.>>>

For most other things I'd be inclined to agree, but in this particular case it's clear the PC platform is leaps and bound ahead of Macs for doing HDV work. Maybe that won't matter to a whole lot of people, but for someone like the fellow who just bought an FX1, there are better ways for him to edit the footage than to buy a G5 Mac for that. If people really want to try to edit HDV on Macs that's fine with me, but it simply doesn't sound like the workflow is efficient and there are issues with using the DVCProHD codec for editing. Just want people to know they have other options, and that for right now PCs are worth considering.

PCs are always worth considering. ;)

Frederic

Kevin,

Let me ask you a question. What are the most important things for you to have when editing HDV? In order of importance?

Frederic

<<<What are the most important things for you to have when editing HDV? In order of importance?>>>

One of my top priorities for any video work is that I can get it done as quickly as possible. Based on everything I've heard, there isn't currently any real-time solution for getting HDV footage into Final Cut Pro for editing, so right from the start the workflow is significantly hampered. If that one problem could be solved effectively I'd say Macs at least have a practical solution for dealing with HDV, which I would not say today.

Another one of my priorities is being able to edit on my laptop. I expect this to be a bit of a challenge for HDV, but I know of at least two shipping editing applications which should be able to do functional HDV editing on the laptop I currently own. Hard drive issues will be the limiting factor there.

After that it's the usual editing issues plus figuring out how to output finished HDV projects. My current plan would be to encode to Windows Media HD at 720p resolution and burn to a standard DVD, until we have some better way to distribute HD content.

I also know people who think it will be critical to have real-time monitoring of HDV editing projects. I assume there's hardware people can buy to generate realtime HD output from FCP-HD, but how much does that cost?

For PCs there are at least five currently-shipping video editing applications that directly support HDV capture & editing, and at least two of those appear to meet my needs. For Macs I see no direct support of HDV at all, and the workarounds available sound rather awkward. I'm surprised Apple hasn't addressed this issue themselves yet.

I am not trying to start a flame fest, but I have already made the descsion of which editing system I will be going with (2x G5/ FCP) I have a 1080i CRT studio monitor and from what I hear, all PC applications (except maybe Avid) have problems with a monitor

You yourself just admitted that your top priority is getting something done fast....so you will take whatever is on the market and claims to work. I am stressing over a workflow right now too, but you have to forgive the camera and format for being so new.

Basically there are only two editing systems in LA, Avid and FCP (to a smaller extent). All other programs are not even mentioned, much less used or taken seriously. I am not talking about your friend with the Xl1 and a canopus capture card who goes to American River Community College, I am talking about post production houses.

I already have access to someone else's PC-Based avid suite, so all that is left is a FCP system @ home. My editor would laugh in my face if I tried to get him to cut on anything else.

right.

so...i guess...in conclusion...I think the worst possible thing we could do right now is grab whatever is on the table first.

This is a new format we are talking about, I just spent thousands on this camera + equipment, so why would I want to buy whatever crappy software worked first? Unfortunatley it takes more time for the "bigger" guys to get on board. I mean, we dont even have a deck from sony available.

<<<You yourself just admitted that your top priority is getting something done fast....so you will take whatever is on the market and claims to work. I am stressing over a workflow right now too, but you have to forgive the camera and format for being so new.
->>>

Actually, I'm talking about buying a product which I have reason to believe will work as claimed, because I happen to already own the equivalent DV-only solution from the same company. In your case you apparently have specific requirements and limitations which discourage you from considering alternative options, even if they might be useful to you. For a relatively trivial sum you could be using PC-based HDV products to do your initial HDV capture and cutting, then output to either Avid or FCP for finishing touches, and you'd be saving so much time just on the capture step that this would more than pay for the modest investment. But don't take my word for it: go try demos of all the available HDV editing products, then report back after you've seen how long it takes to convert an hour of HDV footage to the DVCProHD format. I'd be interested to hear what you conclude about the practicality of trying to do HDV work in either Avid or FCP.

Two questions for Fredric Haubrich:
First: Thank you for being here, Fredric, we really appreciate your presence in this discussion. Congratulations on all you are achieving at Lumiere.

Question 1:
Say we buy Lumiere’s solution to import stuff from an FX1E (PAL) into a G5 running FCP-HD, work on it there, and then use DVD Studio Pro to create a finished widescreen NTSC DVD. Can we put that on a DVD-R and send it off for pressing, given the tools currently available from Apple and Lumiere?

Question 2:
We figured that in addition to the widescreen NTSC DVD described in question one, we would also have a fully-cut HDV product that we could hang onto, waiting for the Bluray (or whatever) consumer DVD market to mature. This makes sense, right?

But - surprisingly to us laymen who just USE the tools -- there appear to be a couple of hurdles to doing this:

a):::
We cannot at present export our edited HDV production back onto HDV cassettes in the FX1E retaining the full HDV resolution (is that correct?) - so we have to, what...STORE the HDV production somewhere...on an external drive, say....? Would that work while we wait for the technology to mature?

b):::
What about creating an HD DVD file using DVD Studio Pro. The DVD Studio Pro website mentions "HD" is some context but I'm not sure how to interpret it. Using our current edition of DVD Studio Pro we can certainly create great widescreen NTSC DVDs: Can we also create an HD DVD with the current edition of DVD Studio Pro? Or is that something else that we have to wait for?: An upgrade of DVD Studio Pro. If today's DVD Studio Pro won't do the job, do you know when that upgrade is anticipated?

I know you're living-and-breathing all of this every day, Frederic...many thanks for your help in bringing us all up to speed on what's happening...and what' s not.

Scott

<<<-- Originally posted by Scott Shuster : Two questions for Fredric Haubrich:
First: Thank you for being here, Fredric, we really appreciate your presence in this discussion. Congratulations on all you are achieving at Lumiere.
Scott -->>>

You're welcome. It's been an interesting and fun ride.

<<<-- Originally posted by Scott Shuster :
Question 1:
Say we buy Lumiere’s solution to import stuff from an FX1E (PAL) into a G5 running FCP-HD, work on it there, and then use DVD Studio Pro to create a finished widescreen NTSC DVD. Can we put that on a DVD-R and send it off for pressing, given the tools currently available from Apple and Lumiere?
Scott -->>>

Absolutely. The final HD master can be encoded in a Widescreen Progressive DVD with DVDSP3.

<<<-- Originally posted by Scott Shuster :
Question 2:
We figured that in addition to the widescreen NTSC DVD described in question one, we would also have a fully-cut HDV product that we could hang onto, waiting for the Bluray (or whatever) consumer DVD market to mature. This makes sense, right?
Scott -->>>

Yes it does. You can hangon to it until AVC on HD DVDs is available. I think this will be te winning HD DVD standard. ;)

Meanwhile, I also was able to include a transport stream of a shortfilm on the ROM of a DVD with VLC player. Many have been able to play this 720p file realtime from the DVD! Granted the film was only 17 min (1.5 GB).


<<<-- Originally posted by Scott Shuster :
But - surprisingly to us laymen who just USE the tools -- there appear to be a couple of hurdles to doing this:

a):::
We cannot at present export our edited HDV production back onto HDV cassettes in the FX1E retaining the full HDV resolution (is that correct?) - so we have to, what...STORE the HDV production somewhere...on an external drive, say....? Would that work while we wait for the technology to mature?
Scott -->>>

Yes, until we figure out how to get back to the SOny HDV cameras and decks, which I suspect will be soon...you can also store the TS on DVHS or disk or DVD ROM (4.5 GB is approx 45 min in 720p)

<<<-- Originally posted by Scott Shuster :
b):::
What about creating an HD DVD file using DVD Studio Pro. The DVD Studio Pro website mentions "HD" is some context but I'm not sure how to interpret it. Using our current edition of DVD Studio Pro we can certainly create great widescreen NTSC DVDs: Can we also create an HD DVD with the current edition of DVD Studio Pro? Or is that something else that we have to wait for?: An upgrade of DVD Studio Pro. If today's DVD Studio Pro won't do the job, do you know when that upgrade is anticipated?

I know you're living-and-breathing all of this every day, Frederic...many thanks for your help in bringing us all up to speed on what's happening...and what' s not.
Scott -->>>

Like described above, you can make a widescreen DVD with DVDSP3 using compressor. The reference to HD on the Apple website is about compressors ability to use HD source to create the SD MPEG DVD. Looks fantastic!

Frederic