View Full Version : Timecode preservation in HDV production


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Filip Kovcin
March 1st, 2005, 03:59 AM
thank you kevin,

i just searched mentioned site, but i cannot find (at least for now) that info about recapturing (batching).
is it possible for you to somehow narrow my searches?

thank you,

filip

R Geoff Baker
March 1st, 2005, 05:46 AM
Other than the demand for 'batching' -- I would have thought that is what this thread is about? Capture in DV, recapture later in HDV ...

You don't need to do this with 'batch capture' -- you can do it with any capture that preserves the (same) timecode each time. If you are using a Mac the reference earlier in this thread to a site that offers a utility that will capture and preserve timecode is there.

Filip, we have been down this path but I guess without resolution: You can do what Kevin describes _without_ batch capture; batch capture is 'simply' the organized capture of a list of files. But if you capture from the same list manually, you've still got the files & can still use them in an edit.

Does this address your question?

GB

Filip Kovcin
March 1st, 2005, 02:57 PM
Geoff, Douglas, Kevin, Sean, Michael and Others!


thank you for your efforts!
i beleive i made to many wrong explanations due to my not so proper english.

you are absolutelly right, that if time code is preserved - you can manually enter all clips and finalize what is needed. i just didn't thought about that manual solution, simply because this will not work for me.

i am working with relativelly long projects and usually with lot of cust, therefore i just overlooked this simple truth that timecode is needed even if you can't batch automatically.
of course - preservation of timecode even without automatic batch is very reasonable.

i overlooked that maybe because during relativelly long period of time (11 years) i worked on many systems both pcs and macs and never been in such a situation to work without TC. and since allways my work was off line/on line automatic batch approach, i simply forgot that one can work manually and still need TC!

MEA CULPA.

pure manual solution was something i tried just when something goes really wrong. and usually just for small amount of clips/cuts.
definitely not for entire projects i usually work with - something beetween 300 to 800 cuts... :(((

this amount of cuts will be kind of nightmare to manually prepare and redigitize it in on line resolution. especially if your project uses multicamera approach.

but, again - you learn every day...

and yes - this address my question.

thanks,

filip

R Geoff Baker
March 1st, 2005, 03:24 PM
No Filip, you misunderstand me.

You don't have to manually _re-edit_ you just have to manually recapture. You don't even have to match the clips on the timeline exactly with what you capture -- as long as what you capture _includes_ the material referenced in the timeline, that is, as long as the timecode of the clips on the timeline can be found in what you capture all is good.

Your english seems quite good, but you've never worked with a system that could bypass the batch capture process I guess: If you have fifty clips on the timeline that reference a tape, you can capture the entire tape as one big file ... and let the edit software find the clips it wants within that giant file as long as the timecode matches! Yes! It is really that easy. Timecode preservation is essential to this, but batch capture is not even required ... not even necessarily a good way to go, unless you've good pressing drive space problems and you want to have no more than the clips required on your HD.

Cheers,
GB

Filip Kovcin
March 1st, 2005, 07:23 PM
<<<-- Originally posted by R Geoff Baker :... unless you've good pressing drive space problems and you want to have no more than the clips required on your HD.-->>>

yes, that's my case.

i.e. "12h" of materials shot with 2 or 3 cameras. (documentary with many "talking heads" etc.) which is 12x2h or 12x3h

filip

R Geoff Baker
March 1st, 2005, 08:16 PM
Even so, you have at most 12 tapes that you have to capture. This is not a 'batch capture required' situation. You just capture blocks that include your material, in ten minute chunks say -- I've produced hour long documentaries with similar amounts of source & know what the drill is. Batch capture is nice but not essential ...

GB

Filip Kovcin
March 2nd, 2005, 01:47 AM
24h or 36h!!! not 12h and really short shots.
in approx 50 min. film will be around 800~900 shots, each approx. from 4sec - 10sec. long. different cameras - almost same persons in the shot, different angles etc. so in myu opinion this will be painful. maybe i'm too lazy for that.

10 minute chunks will probably not work for me.


thanks,


filip

Kevin Shaw
March 2nd, 2005, 02:55 AM
By my calculations, 36 hours of HDV footage captured to typical intermediate editing codecs at a bit rate of about 10MB/sec works out to around 1300 GB of data. If we allow roughly 50% overhead for editing and output rendering that's about 2000 GB total, or the equivalent of eight 250GB hard drives costing a modest $1000 or so. Add a good eight-drive SATA controller card and you're up to $1500 with tax and shipping, which isn't bad to have 36 hours of HDV footage online at decent quality. Compare that to the value of the time required to meticulously log and batch capture individual portions of that footage, and $1500 is a bargain. On the other hand, if you can eliminate maybe half the footage during capture you can cut the hard drive requirement to a more modest 1000 GB, which is a little more manageable.