HDV audience? (What to do with footage)

[Charlie Durand]

I have an HD TV and would love to get an HD video camera.

If you shoot something in HD(HDV), say a wedding, how do you get it to the customers in HD?

Or do you? I guess I could use the camera as a deck for playing back on my local TV but I wouldn't be able to send video to my family or friends.

Plus, if I were to buy the Sony FX1, use it for the next few years, then get something else.. is there a chance those tapes will only play in the FX1?

[Kevin Shaw]

Originally Posted by Charlie Durand

If you shoot something in HD(HDV), say a wedding, how do you get it to the customers in HD?

For now the most practical way to do that is to encode the finished project to a compressed format like WMV-HD, then deliver on standard red-laser DVDs using either a computer or something like the Avel Linkplayer2 for playback.

if I were to buy the Sony FX1, use it for the next few years, then get something else.. is there a chance those tapes will only play in the FX1?

That's an excellent question! In theory the HDV 1080i tapes recorded by the Sony cameras are likely to be widely playable in the future, but it's anybody's guess how much that might be the case. That's a good argument for converting your important HDV footage to digital format and saving it on hard drives, so you don't have to worry about tape-based playback.

[Edwin Huang]

Originally Posted by Charlie Durand

I have an HD TV and would love to get an HD video camera.

If you shoot something in HD(HDV), say a wedding, how do you get it to the customers in HD?

Or do you? I guess I could use the camera as a deck for playing back on my local TV but I wouldn't be able to send video to my family or friends.

Plus, if I were to buy the Sony FX1, use it for the next few years, then get something else.. is there a chance those tapes will only play in the FX1?

You could charge your customers an $400 extra premium charge for HD and buy them a DVHS deck. :)

[Steve Crisdale]

If your family or friends owned a HDTV; and they had enough spare cash... do you reckon they'd be deciding against the only affordable options to shoot HD images - simply because they thought they couldn't distribute their HD stuff easily yet?

If the decision to get a HDV camcorder came down to whether family or friends could view the amazing images you get on their viewing equipment... then HDV would have been dead in the water right from the start.

Going HDV isn't about family and friends - it's about what YOU perceive as worthwhile for YOU...

If you have a business shooting wedding vids... downconvert to SD and give your rellies a standard DVD. If they have computers with DVD drives in 'em, give 'em a WMV9 HD DVD as well!!

If you really want to put blockages in the way of purchasing a HDV camcorder... then you're probably not really prepared to buy one.

[Charlie Durand]

Originally Posted by Steve Crisdale

If you have a business shooting wedding vids... downconvert to SD and give your rellies a standard DVD. If they have computers with DVD drives in 'em, give 'em a WMV9 HD DVD as well!!

If you really want to put blockages in the way of purchasing a HDV camcorder... then you're probably not really prepared to buy one.

I'm not putting "blockages" anywhere Steve. Just asking questions. I'm trying to gather some information (read prepare) before making a purchase.

Any thoughts about the compatibility of the HDV tapes in the future? It would stink to end up with HDV tapes I can't play later.. you agree with that I hope.

I'm fine with the option of downconverting to SD. It's nice to know you have the originals in HDV for future use. I have read about playback issues between makers and wondered what people thought about that.

I'm not trying to start a fight. I was wondering what people were doing to get around some of these issues.

[Steven Gotz]

It is pretty simple to supply the happy couple with a AVeL Linkplayer2 for under $300 including everything. If they are willing to pay extra for you to shoot in HDV, then they should be willing to pay extra to watch it.

Then give them some regular SD DVDs to pass around to the family.

Tell them that for an extra $100 storage fee paid in advance, you will transfer the video to whatever the final format is for HD distribution. Whenever it happens to be available.

[Robert Bobson]

On which kind of videotape is HDV distributed to television stations?

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Originally Posted by Robert Bobson

On which kind of videotape is HDV distributed to television stations?

By and large, HDCAM. This will likely change to BluRay once the decks become more ubiquitous. The decks used to playback XDCAM (uses BD disks) won't play back the BluRay disks you'll be burning to, but stations will likely have these available, based on what we're hearing. Who knows...maybe a dual playback deck someday.

[Bob Zimmerman]

I would record everything in HDV, convert and edit in SD for now. You still have the HDV tape and down the road you will be able to capture that again.

I would offer a SD copy and a HDV copy. Let them worry about it. In a few years all the formats will be worked out.

[Steve Crisdale]

Originally Posted by Douglas Spotted Eagle

By and large, HDCAM. This will likely change to BluRay once the decks become more ubiquitous. The decks used to playback XDCAM (uses BD disks) won't play back the BluRay disks you'll be burning to, but stations will likely have these available, based on what we're hearing. Who knows...maybe a dual playback deck someday.

Douglas,

For those who may not have already tackled providing content for broadcast, but harbour (secretively or otherwise) the thought that maybe someday their material will 'go to air' - do you have any tips regarding getting HDV to the broadcast formats required by certain broadcast networks?

The sort of worflow for instance... I've always assumed the best starting point is to contact the network directly, and just ask them what format they prefer for HD material... but there's things about the workflow beyond that that I know I'd like to know - that could make the task easier than envisioned, or an undreamt nightmare.

Any further insights you have from your experiences so far would be greatly appreciated.

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

You've gotta know what the client prefers/needs. In our client cases, it's always HDCAM, but there are other formats too. We have one client that will take HDCAM, but they prefer sequential frames on a hard drive so they can dump to their media server.

Other than that...The workflow is about the same as anything else. Be sure you have the leader and pops they ask for in the length they ask for them. You'll want a set of HD colorbars if your NLE can't provide them. Be sure audio is legal, etc.
Other than legal colors not being as big a deal, it's not much different, unless you're delivering surround sound on the multichannel. We've only delivered one multichannel, and to be sure I was on the right page, we did this old school and transferred to cam via T/C. I'm taking a class on HDCAM SR in January, and looking forward to learning more about mastering to 12 channels vs 8, since we can deliver alternative mixes that way. I don't know if I'll ever use the knowledge in real life...but nice to learn.