First HD project
by wayne clague
on
Aug 11, 2009 at 2:53:27 pm
Starting my first HD project. Some info- I'm shooting with a Sony PDW700 XDCam and editing on Avid, thus I can pretty much shoot and cut it in any of the HD flavors. It's a corporate video, no broadcast, and I need to decide on which format to go with. I'm leaning toward 720p 59.94, but am such an HD newbie that I can be talked into anything- except for 24P, which to me is to soft for my taste. I've shot HD before, but this is the first project that I will be cutting. Any and all guidance, suggestions, tips, advice, and pitfalls to avoid is appreciated.
Re: First HD project by Bob Zelin on Aug 11, 2009 at 7:30:10 pm
The PDW700 is a Sony product. The native resolution is 1080i, not 720p. 720p 59.94 is the native Panasonic format. Modern cameras shoot at 23.98, and a pulldown is performed to work at 29.97 or 59.94. Your AVID will edit using the DNxHD Codecs from AVID, not native DVCProHD. You choose DNxHD145 or DNxHD220 from the AVID menus, not DVCProHD.
My suggestion - you TRY THIS before you do your actual shoot, or you will be lost.
Re: First HD project by wayne clague on Aug 11, 2009 at 9:37:36 pm
Thanks for the reply Bob. The 700 allows you to acquire either 1080I, 1080P, or 720P. So I think I have some flexibility here, unless I'm missing something.
Also, I am/will be doing more tests before production begins. This is the part I'm most nervous about and want to make sure is ironed out ahead of time.
Re: First HD project by Gary Hazen on Aug 12, 2009 at 12:37:18 pm
Fortunately Avid works well with XDCAM HD. Your workflow will be dependent on your your particular set up.
What version of Avid MC are you using?
The AMA feature was added recently with v3.5, this allows you to edit the material directly off the XDCAM drive without the need to import. Alternatively, you may want to bring in the proxies for a rough cut and then import the hi res clips for finishing.
How will you ingest the material?
Directly from the camera, PDU-1 or an PDW-1500?
Do you have Mojo Dx or Nitris DX?
Avid MC & Symphony work with XDCAM HD natively. The hardware will allow for additional streams of XDCAM HD. The caveat is that the long gop format doesn't play well with others. You can edit all day long inside of Avid using XDCAM HD, but if you want to spit out a quicktime reference for Sorenson you need to do a mixdown or transcode to DNxHD. A hardware i/o & a PDW-1500 will allow you to capture the material using the DNxHD codec via HD-SDI. Or you can import the material and then transcode to DNxHD.
Re: First HD project by wayne clague on Aug 12, 2009 at 3:15:15 pm
Thanks for the reply. We have MC 3.5 and will bringing in the footage via the PDW-U1. Also, the finished product will be SD and Blu-Ray DVDs with a HDCam tape master. I think I'm pretty set on shooting progressive.
