DR-HD100 and Quicktime help

[Ben Lynn]

I have a 100 and I just purchased an HD100 firestore. I'm editing on a pc running Vegas 7. I was doing some testing and this is what I came up with:

.m2t format captures to the HD100 fine and opens in Vegas 7 no problem.

Set to Quicktime the HD100 appears to capture fine, but when I import the file to Vegas it only opens the audio portion of the file.

Am I not able to record in Quicktime and then import into Vegas? This is for a project coming up and the editor will be using FCP so I want capture as a Quicktime file. If this doesn't work for some reason I can always buy Clipwrap but I'd like to get the workflow going with the quicktime format.

Thanks for the help.

[Don Bloom]

Ben,
I don't believe you can but I could be wrong. You know me, if it ain't DV-AVI I don't do it. ;-)

Don

[Tim Dashwood]

The best approach in your cross-platform workflow really is to use m2t and Clipwrap.

[Ben Lynn]

Don,

The DR-HD100 definitely records to the Quicktime format with the jvc. I'm just not sure I can open it on a pc.

Tim,

I've thought about using Clipwrap just because it may be the safer workflow. I could shoot the files, dump them to my own hard drive, then give the firestore to the editor. He could Clipwrap the files and go to work. If something goes wrong then we would still have the .m2t files on my own hard drive. On the other hand, there may be other times where the files are going straight to an FCP editor who doesn't have Clipwrap and it would be important to record straight to quicktime.

Does that problem sound like something you've heard of? I don't have a mac to test the drive with before I shoot the material this weekend so if I don't hear a definite answer then I'm going to just shoot it as .m2t.

Thanks.

Ben

[Tim Dashwood]

Ben,

One of the key reasons I searched so long for someone to write ClipWrap was that I needed an app that would remove the need for me to make the decision to record either m2t or mov during the production phase. Probably about 50% of the producers I've worked with haven't given post-workflow a single thought when the camera rolls on day 1. In my experience with low-budget filmmakers their priority seems to be 'get it in the can' and then figure out how to cut it.
The unknown post-production workflows of many different projects & clients demands a certain level of versatility and that's why I now always shoot m2t unless I know "for sure" that I will personally be editing the material myself in FCP.

The Clipwrap procedure doesn't add any more time to the workflow than simply copying the source files anyway. As you suggested you could use Clipwrap to directly copy & wrap m2t files from the DR-HD100 to a hard drive. If you are moving to a FCP suite you would have to copy them anyway so you might as well wrap them in quicktime while you're at it!

As for your concern that a FCP suite may not have ClipWrap: IMHO it is affordably priced at $49.95 so there really is no reason any professional wouldn't spring for the cost to save time, keep your options open for the future and maintain quality.


One last thought... the other benefit for you as a Windows user is that if you always shoot m2t you will always have files that you can use on your system for demo reels, etc.

[Don Bloom]

Hey Ben, yeah that's what I meant to say.
Don

[Ben Lynn]

Thanks guys.

Tim, you have me convinced. I think that for fifty bucks it's worth the insurance I get from being able to back up as .m2t and also edit in fcp. Now I'm ready to go shoot!

Ben