Vegas and HDCAM at DVinfo.net

Jon Fairhurst · August 2nd, 2007, 05:45 PM

I have an HDCAM tape that I need to get transferred to a hard drive for editing in Vegas. Does anybody have any suggestions?

Note: this is a "quality above all else" project. I need to decode once, edit (cuts only) and encode once.

I plan to have a local post house to capture the tape to a hard drive. Can Vegas then deal with the HDCAM files? The other option is to have them decompress the content to a hard drive or RAID. I would then work with uncompressed 1080i from the RAID.

BTW, I'm in the Portland, OR market, in case you can recommend a post house for the job.

Thanks!

Mike Kujbida · August 2nd, 2007, 08:29 PM

This same question was asked just the other day on the Sony Vegas forum.
The clips were coming from an HDCAM HDW-730S.
The recommendation was to have the post house dump it to uncompressed AVI.
The file(s) will be quite large but hard drives are very cheap these days.

Jon Fairhurst · August 2nd, 2007, 10:05 PM

Thanks Mike,

That's the plan then.

The material is only about ten minutes in length, and I don't need the audio. If I round up to 1.5 Gbps thats 1.5G * 10 * 60 / 8 = 112.5 GB. No problem.

I'll bring a couple of USB drives, so I'll have a backup.

Now, what to do about the long-term archive?... Maybe I'll bring three hard drives - and see about buying a Blu-ray writer...

Jon Fairhurst · August 3rd, 2007, 11:01 AM

So... Anybody have any recommendations for a RAID?

And... Is there an easy way to render a lower res video in Vegas and use it as a proxy? I've used Raylight before, and it enables low-res proxies automagically. Can mortals do this as well, or do I need Cineform or some other 3rd-party software to run proxies in Vegas?

Thanks!

Mike Kujbida · August 3rd, 2007, 12:10 PM

Jon, I've never tried to do this before but here's a thought.

Render the clips (to a different folder) out as standard def AVIs, making sure to give each one the exact same name as the original.
Do your "off-line" with the SD AVIs.
When you're done editing , move this "off-line" folder to a different location on your hard drive.
Open the VEG file and, when Vegas asks you where the file is, point it to your uncompressed files folder.
In theory, it'll load the uncompressed ones just fine because they both have the same name.

Glenn Chan · August 3rd, 2007, 12:22 PM

It might be easier to use the takes feature in Vegas.

Render out a proxy (render to new track or render as). Add that proxy as a take to your clip. Hit t to toggle between proxy and full-res.

2- Gearshift from VASST automates the process. But for that little footage, you may not need it.

Jon Fairhurst · August 3rd, 2007, 02:56 PM

Mike,

That's exactly the brute force method I was thinking of. It's not elegant, but I know that I can make it work.

Glenn,

I've used takes before, but I didn't realize that I can cut and edit Take 1 and have all the other takes follow. I'll definitely test this method before I commit.

I'll check out Gearshift as well. The schedule isn't too tight, so I can take the time to learn new tricks.

...Come to think of it, I've got one additional level of challenge. I will be converting all my 60 Hz footage to 50 Hz. I've got some 50 Hz footage that will be converted to 60 Hz. In the end I will generate masters at both frame rates.

So... I will have three "takes": 50 Hz uncompressed, 60 Hz uncompressed and the proxy. Before editing, I plan to do the rate conversion with this:

http://www.algolith.com/index.php?id=algosuite0

Vegas is generally excellent when handling different formats. Hopefully that will hold true on this project as well.

Thanks for your suggestions!

August 2nd, 2007, 05:45 PM	#1
Jon Fairhurst Inner Circle Join Date: May 2006 Location: Camas, WA, USA Posts: 5,513	Vegas and HDCAM I have an HDCAM tape that I need to get transferred to a hard drive for editing in Vegas. Does anybody have any suggestions? Note: this is a "quality above all else" project. I need to decode once, edit (cuts only) and encode once. I plan to have a local post house to capture the tape to a hard drive. Can Vegas then deal with the HDCAM files? The other option is to have them decompress the content to a hard drive or RAID. I would then work with uncompressed 1080i from the RAID. BTW, I'm in the Portland, OR market, in case you can recommend a post house for the job. Thanks! __________________ Jon Fairhurst

August 2nd, 2007, 10:05 PM	#3
Jon Fairhurst Inner Circle Join Date: May 2006 Location: Camas, WA, USA Posts: 5,513	Thanks Mike, That's the plan then. The material is only about ten minutes in length, and I don't need the audio. If I round up to 1.5 Gbps thats 1.5G * 10 * 60 / 8 = 112.5 GB. No problem. I'll bring a couple of USB drives, so I'll have a backup. Now, what to do about the long-term archive?... Maybe I'll bring three hard drives - and see about buying a Blu-ray writer... __________________ Jon Fairhurst

August 3rd, 2007, 11:01 AM	#4
Jon Fairhurst Inner Circle Join Date: May 2006 Location: Camas, WA, USA Posts: 5,513	So... Anybody have any recommendations for a RAID? And... Is there an easy way to render a lower res video in Vegas and use it as a proxy? I've used Raylight before, and it enables low-res proxies automagically. Can mortals do this as well, or do I need Cineform or some other 3rd-party software to run proxies in Vegas? Thanks! __________________ Jon Fairhurst

August 3rd, 2007, 02:56 PM	#7
Jon Fairhurst Inner Circle Join Date: May 2006 Location: Camas, WA, USA Posts: 5,513	Mike, That's exactly the brute force method I was thinking of. It's not elegant, but I know that I can make it work. Glenn, I've used takes before, but I didn't realize that I can cut and edit Take 1 and have all the other takes follow. I'll definitely test this method before I commit. I'll check out Gearshift as well. The schedule isn't too tight, so I can take the time to learn new tricks. ...Come to think of it, I've got one additional level of challenge. I will be converting all my 60 Hz footage to 50 Hz. I've got some 50 Hz footage that will be converted to 60 Hz. In the end I will generate masters at both frame rates. So... I will have three "takes": 50 Hz uncompressed, 60 Hz uncompressed and the proxy. Before editing, I plan to do the rate conversion with this: http://www.algolith.com/index.php?id=algosuite0 Vegas is generally excellent when handling different formats. Hopefully that will hold true on this project as well. Thanks for your suggestions! __________________ Jon Fairhurst

August 2nd, 2007, 08:29 PM	#2
Mike Kujbida Inner Circle Join Date: May 2005 Location: Windsor, ON Canada Posts: 2,770	This same question was asked just the other day on the Sony Vegas forum. The clips were coming from an HDCAM HDW-730S. The recommendation was to have the post house dump it to uncompressed AVI. The file(s) will be quite large but hard drives are very cheap these days.

August 3rd, 2007, 12:10 PM	#5
Mike Kujbida Inner Circle Join Date: May 2005 Location: Windsor, ON Canada Posts: 2,770	Jon, I've never tried to do this before but here's a thought. Render the clips (to a different folder) out as standard def AVIs, making sure to give each one the exact same name as the original. Do your "off-line" with the SD AVIs. When you're done editing , move this "off-line" folder to a different location on your hard drive. Open the VEG file and, when Vegas asks you where the file is, point it to your uncompressed files folder. In theory, it'll load the uncompressed ones just fine because they both have the same name.

August 3rd, 2007, 12:22 PM	#6
Glenn Chan Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 4,750	It might be easier to use the takes feature in Vegas. Render out a proxy (render to new track or render as). Add that proxy as a take to your clip. Hit t to toggle between proxy and full-res. 2- Gearshift from VASST automates the process. But for that little footage, you may not need it.