Re: capture: HDV vs. DVCPro HD?

Mortimer, I have had projects that were captured from HDV that were a nightmare to recapture and others that were over a thousand edits and perfectly resynced. The secret to shooting HDV seems to be start each tape at zero, rather than set a timecode. During capture, don't ignore timecode breaks. Yes HDV seems to have constant breaks but often this turns out to be the default capture option of deliberately breaking shots with every camera stop start. This is in the capture window set up tabs. HDV does have breaks. So does DV. Don't ignore them.

HDV in my experience is no worse than DV when it first introduced us to firewire capture & control. Everyone said it wasn't real timecode and not frame accurate. I don't hear those complaints any more as we have learned to deal with it. HDV still seems to confuse but I have found operator error the major cause of capture horror stories. A lot of beard stroking and mutterings about "long GOP" seems to surround HDV posts. Since FCS2,I have been happy to recommend using HDV native on many projects using the rules I have outlined without any more problems than a DV job. Reading the Cow, I see more posts about the horrors of P2. Every format has issues that require research and management, from the pre production stage onwards.