Help: Standard-Def to Cineform

[Ben Hickson]

So I'm putting together my Steadicam reel and that involves working with a lot of different formats from a lot of different cameras.... CineForm, naturally, is the logical choice.

I have standard def stuff recorded on regular mini-DV. Some 4:3, Some 16:9 squeeze, Some 16:9 letterbox. What is best workflow to get this stuff off the tapes and into cineform? Can HDLink capture from DV cameras or just HDV?

What software/settings should I use to capture the stream from the tape losslessly before dropping the .avi or .dv or .whatever into HDLink?

Thanks!

[Jay West]

My HD-Link (with Neo HD v5) does not recognize SD cams. You probably need to find an old version of Cineform to capture SD from a mini-DV cam.

If you do not have or cannot find an older version, then whatever capture function your NLE has will capture the DV as losslessly as can be done. The compression was already done when the mini-DV was recorded.

When I have a lot of this to do, I've also used Sony MRC units to record off the firewire port on the older DV cams. Capturing that way allows me to keep using the edit workstation for other things while the capturing goes on. I suspect that you could use other tapeless units such as those by FireStore, if you have them.

[David Newman]

I've never capture from SD sources. We can convert many type of SD AVI files, although it is not a feature we've focused on.