Which FCP/HD editing solution works best?

[Steve Mims]

I recently shot a nine minute short using the JVCHD10U. I made a VHS worktape with a window burn for logging purposes, then dubbed that to DV and captured my selected takes to do an offline edit. In FCP I adjusted the timecode for each clip to match the timecode from the windowburn so that an eventual EDL would match the original HD footage.

I've been researching FCP/HD solutions for some time... I've read about Heuris, Lumiere, and a proxie system for using FCP.

I'd love to hear from someone who has cut a project and completed it in FCP.

I'd like to know:

1. Which path they chose, file wise.
2. What hard drive solution was used. (disk array or stripped ATA drives or what)
3. How it went.

My project will be edited on a G5 with 2.5 gigs of ram and I have a deadline for completion of May 10.

Thanks in advance. And by the way, thanks for the all the useful information that pops up here.

Steve Mims

[Paul Mogg]

I've been testing the Lumiere solution and I have to say it's pretty amazing, I would highly reccomend getting a copy when it's introduced at NAB in a week's time.
I'm editing a large documentary using it as we speak, using an anamorphic DV offline process. I've tested the whole process through from start to finish, and it really works, all from one simple interface. No more messing with a ton of different apps.
Go to the Lumierehd.com website if you'd like more info.

[Paul Mogg]

Sorry, wrong url, their website is:

http://www.lumierehd.com/

[Steve Mims]

Paul,
Thanks for the information.

Can you tell me the set up you used, specifically:

1. Which Mac?
2. How much RAM?
3. What type of hard drive/drives? (and how they are organized)

Also, do filters and settings adjusted 'off-line' carry over to the end of the process when the final HDV project is laid off to tape?

Thanks again,

Steve

[Paul Mogg]

You're welcome. I'm using a dual 2ghz G5 with 2.5gb of RAM, I have two internal 250gb SATA drives, which I sometimes configure as RAID 0 (if I'm working in HD uncompresssed or DC30 codec) an external SATA 160gb (via a Seritek SATA interface card), and another external 250Gb ATA drive on Firewire 800. I boot and run off an external 80Gb drive on firewire 400.
I'm liking the DV offline process so far as the actual editing process is the familiar DV one, with no suprises, and with all the realtime advantages. It seems that yes, all of the filters etc carry over to the final HDV "online", though I can't claim to have tested this extensively yet. Once you've edited in DV you just use media manager to create an "offline" sequence at 720p resolution then open that offline sequence and reconnect all your media to the .m2v files (program stream) sitting on your hard drive, then render and output.

Seems to be a very workable process.

[Steve Mims]

The G5 I will be using is also 2ghz with the same amount of RAM.

About the hard drives you use: of those you listed, which configuration is best and/or adequate to handle HDV files without dropping frames?

Thanks again.

[Paul Mogg]

For playing back HDV compressed, via the VLC player, any of the hard drives will do it fine. For editing uncompressed 720p HD, or DC30 lossless 720p codec editing in FCP, I'd use the two SATA drives striped ad RAID 0.
If, when I've finished editing this doc using the DV offline method, I need to do any color correction tweaking on the uncompressed version of the final HD edit, (which I'm sure I will), I will do this with the RAID array setup. That's how I'm planning it at the moment anyway.

I hope this helps

Paul