4k down convert to HDV 1080p Workflow :)

[michael zaletel]

Just messin' around with some R3D footage downloaded from RedRelay and converted to HDV 1080p through RedAlert and Quicktime Pro. I know, I know, GOP ughh...but seriously it's hard to tell the difference, picture holds frame by frame (with motion) and the file size is teeny tiny. For some lower end projects it could be a nice workflow and you can archive an hour of 1080p HDV on $2 miniDV tapes. Data rate of HDV makes editing a lot faster on older/slower/cheaper computers and hard drives. I'll tell ya this, RED footage converted to HDV is the best-darn HDV footage I've ever seen! Also, might not be a bad workflow for Scarlet (3k to HDV 1080p) so people can edit in iMovie on iMac G4's. Problem there is the initial conversion would take forever on a low-cost machine.

Please be merciful in your replies to this...I'm seriously just thinkin' out loud.



-shooter

 

[Dj Joofa]

Data rate of HDV makes editing a lot faster on older/slower/cheaper computers and hard drives. I'll tell ya this, RED footage converted to HDV is the best-darn HDV footage I've ever seen!

Yes, HDV editing is great. However, I am not sure of one thing that why it happens. Editing seems to be reasonably fast for 1920 x 1080 (1440 x 1080), 23.98 fps, on a even on a old Power Book G4. However, when I try to convert the editing timeline into a self-contained Quicktime time it take ages. I have tried to figure out that why that happens, but it has always perplexed me.

Of course, one reason is immediately clear: All those GOPs that have the edits have to re-calculated. But probably that should not take too long a time.

The last time I captured HDV footage from a Canon XL-H1 using firewire I noticed in a cursory analysis that the timecode is 30 base even if the timeline is 23.98. Does that mean that only timecode is 30 base but the actual frames are ~24 in a second, are they still 30 in a second, just that FCP reports them as 23.98 in timeline. Of course, one can find that out by digging deeper into the Quicktime files captured. But I was too lazy to do that.

Interestingly the timecode of the edited movie was 24 base.

I was under the impression that all those redundant frames inserted by camera because of firewire capture would have been removed by FCP. But as I said above, I am not entirely sure that they have been removed or just flagged and FCP deals with them appropriately in the timeline.

In case they extra frames are retained by the captured media and are part of the HDV media stream comprised of GOPs, then it is understandable that if FCP is getting rid of the extra frames during final export of the editing timeline then it may take very long as each and every GOP has to be redone.