Is it worth the time and space to convert HDV to ProRes?
by Simon Dybeck (02simond)
on
Apr 16, 2008 at 8:44:13 am
Hi
I am working with a Sony HDV camera and have been editing in HDV for a while now. Recently I have read a lot about converting to ProRes before editing. As of now I dont have a video card to do that for me so is it really worth converting to ProRes after capturing the HDV material?
Is the benefits of ProRes(what are the benefits?) worth the extra space and conversion time?
I stumbled across this problem lately because I wanted to do some after-work in Color with my HDV project.
Re: Is it worth the time and space to convert HDV to ProRes? by Harry Pallenberg on Apr 16, 2008 at 5:08:36 pm
The more you do with the footage the better ProRes is. Color correcting, FX, filters, titles, lower 3rds,moves, got lots of layers, time remap, all that will benefit from ProRes as its I-frame and 4:2:2...
But probably the main thing is how are you getting out of FCP? HDCAM? SD DVD? Web?
Thanks,
Harry.
Forum Cowmunity Leader: Indie & Doc
Forum Cowmunity Leader: HDV
Re: Is it worth the time and space to convert HDV to ProRes? by Jeff Carpenter on Apr 16, 2008 at 8:08:10 pm
I decided it was worth it.
I mean, I use the Apple Intermediate Codec instead, but it's the same principle. The rendering and compression times are greatly reduced, and real-time effects seem much better too.
Yes, it takes more space, but storage is getting cheaper and cheaper. I just bought two 1 TB SATA drives for $250 each and raided them in my computer.
That's a 2 TB SATA RAID whereas I'd been using a 1 TB external firewire 800 RAID that I has spent $1,000 on last year. That's twice the space for half the cost of what I got last year!
Invest in extra storage. The time you save on rendering times will make it worth the cost.
Re: Is it worth the time and space to convert HDV to ProRes? by Zak Mussig on Apr 17, 2008 at 3:20:05 pm
Simon,
I think you ultimately need to weigh the positives and negatives of working with HDV as ProRes against what you need from your workflow. Do some tests and decide if the potential for added quality is worth the extra disc space needed. Since you're talking about transcoding, I doubt you would see any overall decrease in turnaround time vs. rendering and conforming HDV (depending on the length of sequences you're dealing with).
There's a tutorial her on the COW about capturing HDV as ProRes via firewire. That could help you out. There's also the ability to capture and edit HDV but set your sequence to render to ProRes. This may be the best of both worlds as you'll only really see a benefit over staying in HDV as you avoid re-compressing graphics and effects to HDV during renders. That's assuming you're talking about transcoding or firewire capture vs. capturing over HD-SDI from a deck.
Web video delivery is constantly increasing in quality and someone will get wise some day and standardize a way to move that web content onto a TV in real time, so now is the time to start thinking about keeping content that's "just for web" in as high a quality as is possible with an eye to what it looks like in HD rather than what it will look like on YouTube.
Re: Is it worth the time and space to convert HDV to ProRes? by Simon Dybeck on Apr 17, 2008 at 5:00:35 pm
ok, capturing as ProRes by Firewire sounds good. And also if you put the computer on converting over the night it's still better than having to dela with it all the time when you are working.
But does it really work good to work with HDV in a ProRes sequence? Does the render files become ProRes and then when you export, all clips that havent been rendered because there are no effects on them need to render then?
Re: Is it worth the time and space to convert HDV to ProRes? by Zak Mussig on Apr 17, 2008 at 7:17:50 pm
Under the render control tab of the sequence settings dialog there's a drop-down to choose the render codec. The options are "same as sequence codec" or Apple ProRes 422 [HDV, XDCAM HD/EX only]". So you still have an HDV sequence, but any renders are done in ProRes.
I have to be honest and say I'm not 100% sure whether or not this avoids the awful HDV conform times, or if this sequence can be put out to HDV tape w/o exporting to HDV. SOmeone who has used this workflow may know better. If you're going to web or DVD that may not affect you.
Re: Is it worth the time and space to convert HDV to ProRes? by David Wegley on Apr 19, 2008 at 8:47:35 pm
I've got a Sony Z1U and a G5 2.0 PowerMac. I have a podcast and I'm using the Prores codec simply because it speeds up rendering and other things. Just a decision I made.
David Wegley
PowerOne Productions
Phoenix, AZ
http://www.hudcast.com - HUDcast Podcast
http://www.poweronepro.com - PowerOne Productions
Re: Is it worth the time and space to convert HDV to ProRes? by Simon Dybeck on Apr 22, 2008 at 1:53:42 pm
i tried importing by firewire as ProRes. After that i made a rendering test and Prores took much more time! How can this be. That's the biggest reason for me to change
Re: Is it worth the time and space to convert HDV to ProRes? by Zak Mussig on Apr 23, 2008 at 2:34:09 pm
Simon,
What did you have it render? By that I mean, what filters or motion changes did you apply to the footage that FCP wouldn't play it back? Are you using a ProRes sequence or are you still in an HDV sequence? If you capture as ProRes (even over firewire) you're out of HDV land and you match your sequence to your footage.
