HM700 workflow?

[Dave Farrants]

I could use some suggestions for my new HM700 workflow. I've come from 2/3rds tape camera (DVCAM) and an FX1 (1080i), most of my stuff ends up 50/50 on DVD and web.

I've just acquired an HM700, shooting 1280x720 50p (with camera default scene file) I'm getting great web stuff, very high quality, but when I then DVD this footage I get a huge loss of quality, blocking of solid colour and aliasing of fine detail.

I'm exporting a XDCAM timeline from FCP as self contained, into Compressor > Apple DVD 70 min settings, then into DVDStudioPro and then Toast.

In an ideal world I'd shoot p and i together, so any suggestions from HM700 users to improve my workflow to get a quality DVD and web movie?

[Dave Farrants]

Wow, 61 views in 10 hours and not one suggestion - is there some big secret recipe out there :-)

Well, after nearly wearing out a re-writable DVD (best invention since sliced bread) I've come up with a workable solution, shoot 1280x720 @50p, edit in FCP in XDCAM, copy timeline to a ProRes timeline, render, export a self contained ProRes movie, import into Compressor, Apple DVD 70 min settings then DVDSP to author and then Toast to burn and that still gives me a 1280x720p XDCAM timeline for web use which is giving me stunning quality.

Did find exposure far more critical than I'm used to on DVCAM, and have noticed a very small amount of noise creeping in but I'm guessing some picture tweaks can get rid of that. Shooting 1280x720 @25p gave me similar results. Still interested in hearing some other views on this.

OK, I know I'm late to the party using HD, but when I was getting the quality of end result from my 2/3rds DVCAM (with v. expensive glass) I didn't need HD, especially as I had the advantage of a hard drive recorder on the back giving me quick ingest to FCP, and to be honest, until standard def DVD's die and downloads become the norm, it still doesn't quite make sense to me to shoot HD then downconvert for DVD!