CONSOLE and 24F HDV

[Blake Calhoun]

I've downloaded the CONSOLE demo and it seems to work great except I'm having issues with 24F HDV files once I import them into Avid Xpress Pro.

Does CONSOLE support 24F HDV recording?

Reading through the manual I see a note saying "24F recording (NTSC)" - doesn't mention yes or no for 24F HDV.

60i HDV works perfectly.

So it seems to record 24F fine and playback well within CONSOLE, but when I import into Avid the timecode out number is wrong (but timecode in is good) and the audio is completely out of sync. Picture looks great as long as I transcode it to the DNX145 codec (a little blocky in HDV on playback, although scrolling through it's fine).

I'm using an XH-A1 camera. Interested in the hard disk recording it offers, but not if 24F doesn't work (with Avid especially).

Thanks,
Blake

[Gert Kracht]

On page 18 of the manual (on the bottom):

Avid Xpress® can properly read 60i, 30F, 50i or 25F MSF files recorded by CONSOLE; it cannot read 24F MXF files recorded by CONSOLE.

[Blake Calhoun]

Yeah, I saw that, but it is referring to MXF files which are Standard Def coming out of CONSOLE.

All the HDV files are MPEG (M2T files).

So do you think it's an Avid thing or a CONSOLE thing regarding 24F HDV? I have not tested the original MPEG file I recorded in CONSOLE in another NLE. I guess I can try that?

Thanks for checking that though...

[Gert Kracht]

I know that HDV is pretty 'new' for some brands of software.

For instance: Pinnacle has just introduced Studio 11 which now can work very nicely with the A1. Maybe Avid has the same problems?

I also have Studio 10 and a HDV plugin but that did not work for me as it should be. The new version does. I like the program for it's fast way to make a simple DVD. But I prefer a good hardware and software solution.

Coming back to the subject: I think there are many things to solve in software land.

Until now I do the same as many people: trying out everything!

Please let me know what came out of your second step.....

[Blake Calhoun]

So I continued my test and found that it's not Console. Console actually records the TRUE 23.98fps (from the A1) to the MPEG file - at least that's how Vegas reads it and how MPEG Stream Clip reads it. Pretty cool.

Avid does NOT read the file properly.

However, interestingly, Avid does read the timecode IN correctly - neither Vegas nor MPEG Stream Clip see the timecode at all (at least I can't figure it out so far).

What I think I might do (since I already own an Avid) is record the 24F clips with Console, then use MPEG Stream Clip to transcode them to the DNxHD175 codec and work in a true 1080p24 Avid project instead of HDV.

A little bit of extra work involved, but since I'm not having to capture footage from tape I'm still saving tons of time. Only bad thing is unless I can figure out the timecode issue there will be no way to re-batch capture the footage later from tape if needed (if for example hard drive crashed, etc.). Tapes will still be a good archive source though.