Previewing HDV on an external tv/monitor

[Michael Rich]

I have a Sony HC1 and I edit in Final Cut Pro 5 and I was wondering, what would be the best way to be able to preview my HDV footage as I edit it on an external HD tv or monitor?

I'm using a 19" CRT monitor to edit on currently, but I do have a HD TV that I could preview on, but what would I need in order to output to the TV? It supports both component in and HDMI.

I would really appreciate any recommendations anyone may have. I'm working on learning all the various "professional" interfaces I've run across, but I've mainly just toyed w/ my old DV cam until I got my HC1 and now I'm doing a lot of church event videography, so I want to get the workflow down right.

BTW, I edit on a PowerMac Dual 2.0GHz G5, with PCI-X, you know the one that doubles as a room heater during the winter. ;)


thanks!

[Bill Koepnick]

Hi Michael...

I have the same Mac, and the same need to view HDV work on an external monitor for color correction and general video reference. As you have discovered, there is no way to use your camera to convert the firewire stream back through your camera as you could with DV.

I wound up getting an AJA Kona 2 card to accomplish this task, and am very happy with the results. At $2400 it is an expensive option however. It does output HD SDI which you could convert with yet another AJA box to feed your HD TV.

The good news is that AJA now has the Kona LH for about $1700 that does the same job AND gives you the option of capturing your HDV footage via analog component inputs straight into a DVCPROHD compression format (no more long-GOP worries). If I were shopping today, that's the card I would buy.

The Blackmagic Decklink is also a good option, but I have no experience with their gear.

In any event, you will need a card to make this work - no firewire options exist (yet).

Hope that helps.

Bill Koepnick

[Boyd Ostroff]

Originally Posted by Bill Koepnick

AND gives you the option of capturing your HDV footage via analog component inputs straight into a DVCPROHD compression format (no more long-GOP worries).

While you might be capturing in the DVCproHD format without long GOP's, anything recorded to tape will already have undergone the HDV compression, so it seems unlikely that you'll get better quality and it will be just as prone to dropouts. Now if you want to capture live via component directly from the camera to the computer as you shoot then that's another matter...