I've been shooting in SD for a while and may have the chance to work with HDV. I'm editing with FCP 5. Can someone provide me with basic tips to make my workflow run pretty smoothly? Can I capture HDV using a SD deck? Is it better to capture using SDI out and would I need to purchase a new cable other than my existing firewire cable? Would I need to upgrade my current capture card that came stock with the computer or will it be okay and still give me good quality? Obviously, I'll need to change my settings for editing HDV, but will cutting in FCP 5 be okay or will I need other software? Anything else you can provide will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Reggie

Hi Reggie, and welcome to DVinfo!

I'm editing with FCP 5. Can someone provide me with basic tips to make my workflow run pretty smoothly?

What camera do you have? For the Z1/FX1 (like I have) it's sort of a no-brainer. Just choose the HDV 1080i60 (or i50 if in PAL land) easy setup and then go about your business just like you would with regular DV. The Canon and JVC cameras have some limititions to which modes can be edited in FCP.

Can I capture HDV using a SD deck?

If you're recording HDV your deck will need to be able to play back that particular "flavor" (Sony/JVC/Canon) in order to use the tape. Otherwise you can just use firewire from the camera like you would with DV.

Is it better to capture using SDI out and would I need to purchase a new cable other than my existing firewire cable? Would I need to upgrade my current capture card that came stock with the computer

The Canon is the only camera with SDI. Is that what you have? It would require a capture card. Did your computer come with a "capture card"? Assuming you have a Mac since you're using FCP. They don't come with capture cards unless you bought a preconfigured package somewhere. But they do have internal firewire ports which should work with the current HDV cameras.

will cutting in FCP 5 be okay or will I need other software?

Again, you need to tell us what camera you have to answer this. With the Sony cameras you don't really need anything else. What kind of computer are you using? The dual and quad PowerMac G5's have been the best so far for HDV, but with the universal version of FCP now available that may change in favor of Intel Macs soon....

Thanks a lot Boyd. I'll be using a dual Power Mac G5. I'm not too sure about the type of camera at this point, but I'm hoping its a Sony.

Reggie