Re: Do I really need a capture card for editing hdv? Help!

Trouble is it seems people have different opinions on what's needed and what's not.

That's absolutely true, and part of the answer to that needs to be deciphered based on what they're actually doing vs what they think.
In other words, there are a lot of measurebators in various communities, when in truth, opinions come from folks that don't own the gear, don't do the work, don't actually deliver, and in some cases, none of the above.
That's where it gets really scary.
Short story:
Here on the COW, and over on another community board, a new name showed up under an alias. He inquired about using the Sony V1 camcorder along side a 35mm cam. He was told over and over how it wasn't possible, but one of his good friends kept telling him it was, and that he'd done it. Ultimately, this led the cinematographer to do some test work with the V1. He determined that the information that he received from the communities was based entirely on FUD, most of it from one particular manufacturer, and he shot the Superbowl commercial and a theatrical release using the V1 next to a 35mm. I was his AD on one of those shoots.
Fast forward, another person, fairly well known, Dean Devlin. Dean was told by a manufacturer that the V1, and now the EX, couldn't be used along side a Genesis. He was the first to use a Genesis for a major release, and shot the entire movie "Flyboys" with that camera. He recently completed production on "Librarian" and "Legacy." One (for broadcast) was shot entirely with a set of V1's, the other, shot with V1 and Genesis, and a theatrical release is currently being produced using EX's along side the Genesis. In "Legacy," (Starring Timothy Hutton), at least 20% of the shots are from an HDV camcorder. And no, Sony did not give him the cameras, Sony wasn't even aware of his projects.
And it's all edited/timed/mastered/delivered from a desktop computer with no special drives/RAIDS/hardware.
Dean can buy whatever he wants.

It's hard to wade through all the opinions, no doubt. At the end of the day, it's going to come down to what makes sense for what you're doing at the moment.
You're likely going to be ingesting dozens of hours of content that will boil down to 22, 50, 60, 90 mins of content to be delivered. To whom have you sold this content? Have you already sold to Discovery? Then they'll guide you on what you need to know for Delivery. They have a delivery document. Ask for it. If you've already sold to Natl' Geo, they too, have a delivery data sheet.
In many cases, you'll be required to deliver on HDCAM. Does it make sense to buy an HDCAM deck? IMO, no. We hire a service bureau to do our once-a-month required Xfers to HDCAM. It makes MUCH more sense, because we're not delivering episodics. Flipside is that we can deliver to BD, HD files on HDD, 4:2:2 on Beta, 4;4;4 on disk, SD on disc etc with nothing else. We're not often delivering for film-out, so that eliminates certain concerns. We do have HD SDI monitoring in two rooms. We don't have the best monitors money can buy, and when we need those monitors, we know where to go. We do have the best audio money can buy, because that's the foundation of our work. Other side to that is you might have the best audio gear in the world, but you park it in a bedroom converted to a studio. You've just turned your "best audio gear in the world" into a pair of JBL plastics from the local CrapUSA store.
There is _so_ much more to this discussion than just the hardware and software, and lots to think about with regards to your workflow, monitoring, what you already know vs learning curve, and delivery requirements that needs to come first. Figuring out the hardware becomes fairly easy after that.
Sorry for the long post, but IMO, you're going about this acquisition the wrong way.





Douglas Spotted Eagle
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Certified Sony Vegas Trainer
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