Some questions about Aspect HD

[David Newman]

I'm not sure how a fast dual core Althon compares with a single dual core Opteron, I expect the performance to be very similar.

Prospect HD will optionally upscale 1440x1080 to 1920x1080 during the capture process. The reason to do this is for HDSDI exports which are only 1920x1080 (not 1440.) If you do not intend using HDSDI this upscale is less important, although it can help with effects work as square pixels are preferred (plus the upscaled result is 10-bit encoded.)

Note: The Canon may shoot 1440x1080 HDV, but if you use it HDSDI output you get 1920x1080.

[John Hewat]

Originally Posted by David Newman

I'm not sure how a fast dual core Althon compares with a single dual core Opteron, I expect the performance to be very similar.

Thanks for that - it's difficult to tell because the numbers are not consistent across the formats.

Cinform.com lists the following RE Aspect HD:

"Best Performance: Dual-core Pentium D (820 or 840) or or Dual-core Athlon X2 (3800+ or greater)"

If I do go with Athlon I'll be getting a Dual Core 4400+ so I'm assuming that it will do the job just fine - but if Aspect HD is engineered specifically for the Opterons then I'll think a little harder about it before I decide on Athlon.

But if Opterons are only really required for Prospect then I might give them a miss and go with the MUCH cheaper option. I am not a professional, just an amateur (who would like to be a professional) but what I mean is that I probably won't be making any income out of all this so I'm probably better off going with Aspect and the Athlons.

[David Newman]

Aspect HD will serve you well, and so will an Athlon Dual Core 4400+.

[John Hewat]

Thanks for your help David - Time to purchase I think.

I'm going to have a lot of fun this summer with all my new toys!

[Chris Metts]

Hi everyone!

I am looking into some equipment for a feature film I will be working on. We decided early on to shoot HDV with the JVC-GY-HD100 in 720/24p mode. Also we want to capture all of our footage with the FS-4 pro DTE device. ( heres the link.... http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...ughType=search ) That being said we wanted to upgrade our system to somthing that could handle the HDV files. I am an Adobe user so when I found this computer at B&H, I thought it might do the trick. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...ughType=search

I Also want to get Aspect HD to edit the HDV files with. My only concerns are, 1. Will this computer be fast/good enough for HDV editing? Especially a feature length movie.

And 2. I have heard that when you capture HDV using the FS-4 pro it turns the files into a type called "M2T" files. Will Aspect HD be able to edit these files? straight out of the FS-4? Or will I need somthing to convert them with?

Thanks in advance,

Chris

[David Newman]

Aspect HD comes with the HDLink tool that will convert M2T files to CineForm AVIs for real-time editing and high quality post.

That B&H system as is somewhat underspec'd for 2005 or 2006 (good for 2004.) You want a Pentium D (not 4) 830 or 840 (or better) or an Athon X2 4400+ or better with a video disk setup up in RAID 0 (2x250GB drives striped.)

[Chris Metts]

Thanks David,then thats what I'll get!

:O)

Chris

[Rafael Lopes]

Hi Gang,

I'm planning to buy a new pc to edit HDV footage from my FX1E on Premiere Pro 1.5 and I was wondering if it is really worth it to buy an AMD 64 dual...or should I buy a cheaper pc (say an AMD 64 single) and use Cineforms' Aspect HD?

Cheers,

Rafa

[Kevin Shaw]

Rafa: you'll need all the processing power you can afford to get the most out of HDV, regardless of what editing software you use. The Cineform plugin works reasonably well on single-core processors, but faster chips will speed both the time it takes to transcode into the Cineform codec and to render your finished project back to HD delivery formats. Best "bang for the buck" right now is either the AMD or Intel dual-core processors at around $325-350.

[Erik Rangel]

http://www.cineform.com/products/Asp...s_Requirements

I really like Aspect HD, it's worked great for me.

PC System Requirements
Recommended
CPU Minimum: 2.8+ GHz HT Pentium 4 or Athlon 64 OR
Best Performance: Dual-core Pentium D (820 or 840) or or Dual-core Athlon X2 (3800+ or greater)
Memory 1GB Dual-channel PC3200 DDR or 1066MHz RDRAM
System Drive Dedicated 7200 rpm drive - used for program storage
Video Storage Minimum: One dedicated 7200 rpm drive OR
Best Performance: Two or more drives organized as RAID 0
OS Windows XP plus Service Pack 2 w/DirectX 9
Software Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 plus v1.5.1 HDV update
Physical I/O Firewire (IEEE 1394) controller for connection to camcorder
Graphics Card AGP graphics card with onboard memory. No shared memory setups as is common with motherboard-based graphics chipsets
(Optional) Suggested Component Output Graphics Cards Nvidia FX540 or Matrox Parhelia APVe

[Pierre Barberis]

1/ do you have any idea of the quality of this announced 1280*720p capable camcorder recording on an SD card at 9Mbps in "some" MPEG4 ??

2/ DO you ( at cineform) have any plan to capture and transcode into Cineform AVI the footage of that camcorder ??

It would be nice to be able to edit these shots along with others coming from other HDVs cams...

Thanks , david, for your rsponse.

[David Newman]

Not yet, although it could be done very easily if there is a matching decoder that comes with the new Sanyo camera.

Sanyo, please send us one.

[Kevin Shaw]

Keep in mind that the HD1 is a consumer-oriented camcorder in a small form factor with an inexpensive lens and single-chip sensor, recording 720p at 30 fps using a marginal bit rate. That might look better in some ways than other consumer camcorder footage, but will probably be "stuttery" from being 30 fps progressive and otherwise not be all that great. I can't see using this for much other than personal purposes, expecially when you can pick up a better HDV camera for under $2000.

Not to say that someone couldn't make a semi-pro MPEG4 video camera for a reasonable price, but I don't think this is it.

[Pierre Barberis]

Originally Posted by David Newman

it could be done very easily if there is a matching decoder that comes with the new Sanyo camera.

Thank you. let Sanyo hear you.

Originally Posted by Kevin Shaw

Keep in mind that the HD1 is a consumer-oriented camcorder in a small form factor with an inexpensive lens and single-chip sensor, recording 720p at 30 fps using a marginal bit rate....
...especially when you can pick up a better HDV camera for under $2000.

Agree. I own them (Z1 & HC1). But the form factor is also a very attractive ....factor ! So I will consider it a serious candidate for skiing, cycling, etc..And until I have seen them, it remains some hope that the encoding MIGHT be OK. After all, in some other MPEG4 ( like WMV, remenber that small software house from Redmond...run by Mr Guillaume Des Portes ) encoding 720p at 5Mbps turns out to be excellent...

[Kevin Shaw]

Originally Posted by Pierre Barberis

After all, in some other MPEG4...encoding 720p at 5Mbps turns out to be excellent.

Again, we're talking about MPEG4 video encoded in real time in a consumer-quality camera, not video encoded down to MPEG4 from higher-quality source using an unlimited amount of time and processing power. Can't assume there's any correlation between the two.