So confused about the best HDV workflow

[Ed Quinto]

So, there are many tutorials on the web suggesting HDV workflow but they were written in 2005, 2004. We are about to buy our first HDV camera, probably the Z1, and I need to prepare our editing machines for HDV editing. We will be purchasing a HDV deck as well and form the deck we would be doing all the capturing of footage. As for editing, the most complicated things we'd be doing are green screen keying and color correcting.

My questions:

1. As suggested in many online articles, should I capture HDV native and then transcode to DVCProHD?

2. Use a Capture card from Blackmagic or AJA?

3. Capture and edit in native HDV?

4. Edit in AIC?

5. Monitor HD via AJA/Blackmagic or can i monitor thru the HDV deck?

6. I do not want to go uncompressed.

Final output would be 4:3 DVCAM/DVD for SD broadcast and/or 16:9 DVD. Currently I have a Quad G5 but am woundering if the new 24" iMac would work well as a HDV editor as well.

[William Hohauser]

Originally Posted by Ed Quinto

So, there are many tutorials on the web suggesting HDV workflow but they were written in 2005, 2004. We are about to buy our first HDV camera, probably the Z1, and I need to prepare our editing machines for HDV editing. We will be purchasing a HDV deck as well and form the deck we would be doing all the capturing of footage. As for editing, the most complicated things we'd be doing are green screen keying and color correcting.

My questions:

1. As suggested in many online articles, should I capture HDV native and then transcode to DVCProHD?

2. Use a Capture card from Blackmagic or AJA?

3. Capture and edit in native HDV?

4. Edit in AIC?

5. Monitor HD via AJA/Blackmagic or can i monitor thru the HDV deck?

6. I do not want to go uncompressed.

Final output would be 4:3 DVCAM/DVD for SD broadcast and/or 16:9 DVD. Currently I have a Quad G5 but am woundering if the new 24" iMac would work well as a HDV editor as well.

1. Probably not although that might improve your green screens.

2. Can you afford it? Then do it.

3. Works great except your green screens might need to be transcoded to another codec. The finished edit is being down-converted so you shouldn't render back to HDV which would degrade the project. If you envision an HDTV future for the project you can use Compressor to make an uncompressed master of the finished edit. It'll be big.

4. Works, but there's really no need. Will not improve your green screens much.

5. If you have the AJA or Blackmagic then you can monitor live HD playback, the HDV deck will only let you preview still frames.

The iMac is not compatible with the AJA, Blackmagic or any other capture board. Your Quad G5 is fine for the job.

[Ed Quinto]

1. So transcoding to DVCProHD would only help wiht green screen, maybe. No other benifits such as greater realtime performance?

2. If i have a capture card from AJA or Blackmajic then I could monitor in SD with a CRT monitor and HD with a Cinema Display correct?

3. Is there any other way to at least monitor in SD for color correcting?

[Gunleik Groven]

For SD/DV monitoring, you could get the Canopus ADVC 110

AJA also made some firewire cards you could pick up secondhand.

I don't do HDV, but from what I see in posts the DVCPRO HD route have some advantages in editing and CC, greenscreening is not one of them, as you'd have to add data that simply isn't there.

Faster renders & realtime, holds better when CC'ing. I-frame.
Better startingpoint for final renders to a multiple of formats.

Those are the primary advantages of transcoding.

Decklinks multibridge line give you the monitoring on a LCD. I'd maybe just give the Intensity a shot, if monitoring this way is your only desire.

http://www.decklink.com/products/intensity/

Gunleik

[Nathan VanHoose]

This has drove me crazy as well. I have edited hours and hours of HDV video and by far the best workflow I have found is:

1) Import HDV-- straight up HDV no converting.

2) Drop the HDV into a DV timeline. Note that this works best when you can edit your video without rendering it first. Fortunatly, this works well for me since I am editing fairly straight forward stuff. This may rule out my workflow for you.

3) When you have finished editing the video, render it so you can watch it and change it as necessary.

4) Export with compressor as DV video.

5) Viola! Now you can put the video on DVCPro for broadcast or on a DVD. Whatever.

I know this seems a little backwards but it has proved to be the easiest for me and provided the highest quality output.

[William Hohauser]

Originally Posted by Ed Quinto

1. So transcoding to DVCProHD would only help wiht green screen, maybe. No other benifits such as greater realtime performance?

2. If i have a capture card from AJA or Blackmajic then I could monitor in SD with a CRT monitor and HD with a Cinema Display correct?

3. Is there any other way to at least monitor in SD for color correcting?

1) The DVCPro codec contains more color information that the chroma keyer can use to successfully create a sharp steady matte. Since you are shooting in HDV which doesn't have the same color resolution, the color information isn't there but transcoding to DVCPro allegedly helps. There are FCP plug-ins available that upconvert the colorspace of a clip so the chroma-key is cleaner. These might be a solution but I've only seen these plug-ins work with DV footage. Haven't had a chance to try any chroma-keys in HDV yet.

2) Check with the companies. They are always upgrading their cards.

3) Sure but I wouldn't trust them too much yet. A method I use to watch live action HDV for editing purposes is a simple $20 Apple DVI to Video adapter. Plug it into the second monitor output and send the video to a SD monitor with 16:9 capabilities. I also plugged a laptop into the VGA port of my LCD HD TV at home and got a really great picture. I wouldn't trust the color reproduction on either one, especially the DVI to Video adapter. I believe that someone has come out with a low cost HDMI card for the Mac but until someone vouches for the picture accuracy skip it.