We're in the process of budgeting for a HD studio shoot with the JVC proHD camera, and would like some feedback on what Windows users are using for ingestion. Sorry Mac-people, but feel free to read anyways :)

The cheap options are:
1) Adobe Premiere 2.0 with AspectHD and ingest live via firewire.
2) Canopus Edius NX with HDexpansion, ingest via firewire or component. (but I'm an Adobe fan...)

I would love to get a Decklink with a component/SDI converter, and use Prem2.0 to get an uncompressed capture, but I can't afford the fibre channel raid setup for the storage demands. Can someone clarify the minimum harddrive setup required for a 720/24p uncompressed capture?

Aja's Xena line looks interesting, but I need Premiere AND After Effects, and it seems their models are divided between the two packages. Hopefully in time they might work this out.

So let me know what your strategies are or what success you've had. Thanks

Jason,

What NLE are you currently cutting on?

We have always used Adobe Premiere to edit, and we're trying to upgrade from a Matrox X100 setup.

Maybe if you already used to Premiere you could look at Cineform's method. There is one or two really nice things about Cineform. 10 bit and they have some nice way of pulling down footage to get variable frame rates out of the component. I do not edit on Premiere for HDV but if I did I'd check out Cineform.

If you wanted to jump ship and go with another NLE, I can recommend and help with Liquid.

Good luck..

If you like editing with Premiere then use the Cineform Codec. The Cineform Aspect and Prospect (8bit vs 10bit) codecs are both great and will server you well. The Wafian hard disk recorder uses the Cineform codec to capture and the footage I've seen from it is great.

I like the Wafian too, but it's over our budget.

Which card do you use to ingest the component signal with Cineform?

Does Premiere create an AspectHD/ProspectHD project? So if I input .mov's to the timeline, it has to render the whole clip before I can playback?

I also need to be prepared to capture footage from miniDV, DVCam, and DigiBeta and work with SD as well as HDV/HD. We can rent the necessary deck, but won't SDI or component yeild a better capture channel than firewire?

I'm really excited about all this new technology, so I'm just trying to stay as future proof as possible.