HMC40 to DVD

[Mike Cornett]

I will taping an all day seminar and the client wants a standard DVD-R after each taping. Each seminar will be anywhere form an hour to 2 hours max.

What "box" do you use in between the camera and DVD burner. There are a number of solutions and I was curious what you've used and would recommend?

Thanks!

[Jeff Pulera]

Hi Mike,

Not sure what you mean about a "box" in the workflow. The HMC40 does offer down-converted SD output during taping, over component and composite according to the specs, so just get yourself a stand-alone DVD recorder and connect direct to camera. I do this for long church events (different camera, but same workflow) and then put the master DVD into a duplicator immediately after the event for instant sales (discs are pre-printed).

The table-top DVD recorders usually range from $150-250. I think mine is a Toshiba and it has HDMI out, which I run to a 7" iKan portable LCD display attached to my tripod with an articulating arm, so it's right next to the camera and I can shoot in comfort and also be assured that the DVD recorder is working, with overlays shown on the preview monitor. Of course make sure that the camera overlays are OFF so they don't get recorded!

[Mike Cornett]

Thanks Jeff. The "box" I was referring to was any AJA, Matrox, and/or Black Magic hardware that you guys may use. I have tested the composite out of the HMC40 to a DVD burner and it didn't look to good. I'll be recording HD on the card, so I'll have a "backup" so to speak if they want an HD version.

I just thought that maybe I'd get better quality going HDMI in through a professional piece of hardware and out to a DVD burner.

It looks like the Matrox MXO2 Mini would be a great solution. I think AJA and Black Magic would be a cheaper solution though.

If using the composite out of the HMC40 is virtually the same quality as using a piece of hardware, then I guess I'll just to do that rather than invest in a $300 to $1000 dollar box.

[Eric Olson]

Originally Posted by Mike Cornett

Thanks Jeff. The "box" I was referring to was any AJA, Matrox, and/or Black Magic hardware that you guys may use. I have tested the composite out of the HMC40 to a DVD burner and it didn't look to good. I'll be recording HD on the card, so I'll have a "backup" so to speak if they want an HD version.

I just thought that maybe I'd get better quality going HDMI in through a professional piece of hardware and out to a DVD burner.

It looks like the Matrox MXO2 Mini would be a great solution. I think AJA and Black Magic would be a cheaper solution though.

If using the composite out of the HMC40 is virtually the same quality as using a piece of hardware, then I guess I'll just to do that rather than invest in a $300 to $1000 dollar box.

As you rightly suspect, sending the composite feeds into a consumer DVD recorder yields about the worst quality possible. However, provided you remember to disable the on-screen camera overlays, the loss of quality is usually an acceptible tradeoff for having a DVD immediately.

While a more complicated solution may achieve better quality, the corresponding greater chance of failure may not be worth it. One possibility is to capture live HD into a computer and use software to master a DVD in real time. This is easiest if the camera that has firewire output. However, any such custom solution is likely to fail until the bugs are worked out.

Does your DVD burner have component YPbPr, S-video or firewire inputs?