Possible to output XDCam EX video to tape?

[Jim Gunn]

I think I already know the answer to this question. But a friend of mine insists that it is poossible to output edited 1080p30 XDCam EX footage shot with a Sony PMW EX-1 to some kind of tape, presumably a mini-DV or DVCam tape. I told him it was not possible, that instead I had to deliver a file output from Premiere Pro CS5 on a hard drive or other media because this footage will not be able to be recorded onto a tape. Can anyone confirm?

[Steve Game]

Jim,

You should be able to put SP mode 1080i/60 footage straight onto the timeline in an editor and print to HDV tape. If your editor does some sort of 'smart render', any parts of clips not modified by filters, cropping or transitions will pass through without recompression. That's because the EX SP mode is compatible with HDV's 1440x1080 60i 25Mb/s CBR data stream.
You mention 30p. The situation depends on your editor and tape recorder. Some will render 30p video to 30psf, which will display as 30p on a TV. I'm not sure whether the recorder or camcorder that you write tapes with will accept such a stream.

Steve

[Olof Ekbergh]

You can output to VHS or HDcam or any tape format, from edited footage.

Even if it is shoot on 10 different cameras and some of it made completely in the computer, the EXcams are no exception, weather shot as 24p, 30p or 60i. It is just up to your NLE and video out card to make it compatible to standards the tape deck will handle. Most NLE's will output 30p as psf (progressive segmented frames) as Jim mentioned. This is just a 60i stream with repeated frames.

[Jim Gunn]

Thanks for the answers guys. So it is indeed possible to output to a tape in some kind of format resembling HDV that the editing system can manage to output to a mini-DV or a DVCam tape. But it's obviously not going to retain the full resolution of 1080p30 XDCam EX footage that a Sony PMW EX-1 shoots, right? If my client wants the edited video at full resolution, I am going to have to deliver a file that I output from Premiere Pro CS5, like perhaps an mp4, same as the raw footage clips?

[Vincent Oliver]

Buy yourself a BluRay burner, each disk will hold 25gb of data - approx 1.5 hours of EX footage.

Why bother with tape.

[Jim Gunn]

Vincent, I do have a Blu-Ray burner and that is what I usually use to ship raw and/or edited video files to clients. Unfortunately one client does not have nor do they want to get a Blu-Ray drive even if I offer to pay for it, so I am stuck Fedexing a small USB drive for that client. (My aDSL is too small to upload the files online) The question about tape was just to confirm an argument withh a friend who said I could export my 1080p30 XDCam EX footage from Premiere Pro CS 5 to a tape in full res when I was sure it wasn't possible.

[Bart Walczak]

You can convert it to HDV like other people here suggested, but be aware that:

1. You'll be recompressing the material, effectively applying another MPEG-2 compression, and worsening the overall quality of the recording, not even mentioning the subsampling from 1920x1080i to 1440x1080i. The quality will suffer.

2. HDV can be written on a miniDV tape, but make sure that they can play it back - for example JVC's recorder BR-HD50 will only read 720p25 HDV tapes and nothing else.

[John Peterson]

Has anyone actually tried this? I'd be curious to know your observations?

Thanks,

John

[Vincent Oliver]

Originally Posted by Jim Gunn

Vincent, I do have a Blu-Ray burner and that is what I usually use to ship raw and/or edited video files to clients. Unfortunately one client does not have nor do they want to get a Blu-Ray drive even if I offer to pay for it, so I am stuck Fedexing a small USB drive for that client.

The trouble with some clients is that they don't understand new technology, You have offered a solution that fits in with your workflow. I would personally use some clever phrases to encourage your client to re-think.

eg.

My clients are now asking for all the High Definition files to be put on BluRay as this is far more secure than tape and easier to access.

As an independent film maker we need to give all our clients the highest possible quality material, and tape is not the best solution for your project.

We stopped using tape when we saw the benefit of using high capacity BluRay disks, all our clients now expect this .


Get the idea?

[Alister Chapman]

I've shot 1440 SP mode on my EX's on various occasions and it works just fine. The material behaves just like HDV material once you have imported it into your NLE. I've needed to do this to supply material to some broadcasters that just can't deal with anything other than tape. It's frustrating but sometimes it has to be done.

It's best if you only use interlace if you want to maximise your compatibility with HDV.