HDV and SD in the same video....options?

[Nathan Quattrini]

What options are there to use both DV and HDV video in the same video while keeping them both looking their best in doing so.

I have Premiere Pro 2.0 that I edit with, a Sony TRV280 and a Canon A1 on the way. I`ll need to mix video from both for a project I am going to so. With the A1 I will also be recording to a firestore FS-C with the A1 if that matters.

[Kevin Shaw]

Originally Posted by Nathan Quattrini

What options are there to use both DV and HDV video in the same video while keeping them both looking their best in doing so.

If the DV footage is shot in 4:3 format, your best bet is to downsample and crop the HD footage to match and edit as a 4:3 DV project. Or you could do a 4:3 DV project with the HDV footage downsampled and letterboxed on the screen, but then your aspect ratio changes between scenese. If your DV camera has a widescreen recording mode you could try using that and editing as a widescreen DV project, but the quality probably won't match very well between the DV and HDV source material. Or you could edit the HDV as HDV using the DV footage in a smaller picture-in-picture window, but that probably won't be what you want.

There isn't really any good way to mix HDV footage with footage from most DV cameras. You can do it, but after a while you'll be finding yourself wanting a second HDV camera.

[Nathan Quattrini]

the purpose of the project is to show and know what camera shot what footage, so thats not a problem. How would I go about down converting and cropping the HDV footage which is 1440x1080. Do i need special plugins for that? Or just resize it in premiere to %50? But I think in premiere would make it lose alot of quality. Open to suggestions on how to do it.

[Kevin Shaw]

Originally Posted by Nathan Quattrini

the purpose of the project is to show and know what camera shot what footage, so thats not a problem.

In that case you can either work in HDV or widescreen DV with the HDV footage filling the screen and the DV stuff "pillarboxed" with a blank area on the left and right. That'll give you the best compromise of quality between the two types of footage, and it will be obvioius which camera shot what.