HDV editing FAQ
carried from the HDV FAQ thread
To answer many of the questions you might have with regards to HDV, here is a short list of common Questions
What is HDV
High Definition video is the standard used in High Definition camcorders, much like the DV standard used in current MiniDV Camcorders. Because of its format, it is using the same MiniDV tape, and capturing at the same bitrate. Certain camcorders are also able to capture video at both HD or SD quality.
How many Different Standards of HDV is there
There are many different HDV standards. But generally, the 2 main formats are
HDV1: 1280x720 with support for progressive video. The MPEG transport stream is 19.7Mbps/s. Supporting camcorders: JVC JY-HD10U and GR-HD1U.
HDV2: 1440x1080 with support for interlaced video. The MPEG transport stream is 25Mbps/s. Sony HDR-FX1 and HDR-Z1.
How do I edit HDV Content
You can use current software editing suites to edit HDV content.
Consumer
Pinnacle Studio 10 Plus & above [
http://www.pinnaclesys.com ]
Sony Vegas Movie Studio+DVD Platinum Edition [
http://www.sonymediasoftware.com ]
Ulead VideoStudio 9 with paid online upgrade [
http://www.ulead.com ]
Prosumer
Avid Liquid 7 ( formerly Pinnacle Liquid Edition ) [
http://www.pinnaclesys.com ]
Sony Vegas 6 [
http://www.sonymediasoftware.com ]
Ulead Mediastudio Pro [
http://www.ulead.com ]
Adobe Premiere Pro [
http://www.adobe.com ]
Canopus Edius [
http://www.canopus.com ]
Apple Final Cut Pro [
http://www.apple.com ]
Avid XPress Pro [
http://www.avid.com ]
How do I capture HDV Content
Same as what you have to do, for your DV sources. Simply hook up your camcorder with an application that supports it, via Firewire.
Can I use external hard drives to edit HDV content
Yes you can. Consumer external hard drives provide sufficent bandwidth for you to edit, at most 2 streams of data.
What are the system Requirements to edit HDV content
If you take a look at the picture quality afforded by the HDV standard, you will see that it contains much more data at the same bitrate. Because of this, more compression is involved, to store 6 times more information than that of conventional DV. To handle this format, you should have a fairly powerful PC to edit HDV
A minimum system specification should comprise of an
Intel Pentium 4 HT 3.0 or Dual Core 3.0 with an Intel chipset based motherboard
1gb of Ram
A mid range graphic card, such as the ATI Radeon 9600 or Nvidia 6600 wuth 128mb ram
Multiple physical hard drives
In short, if your PC is able to play games, it should be able to edit HDV
What should you look out for when choosing software for HDV Editing
If you are using the Mac platform, you only have 1 choice. But if you are using the PC platform, you will be spoilt for choices.
The main important considerations, in no order of importance should be
a. The editing interface
b. Whether it is using Native HDV codecs or not
c. The functions that you require
a. The editing interface
This is self explanatory. The faster you get up to speed, the more money you can start making to recoup the initial investment
b. Whether it is using Native HDV codecs or not
This is an EXTREMELY IMPORTANT consideration. Many software applications make use of an intermediary format to handle HDV content. This is either to conform to the nature of the proprietary editing hardware / software, or to lower system resources. When an intermediary format is used, time is spent transcoding ( converting to the format ) during capturing / importing and when exporting
Eg of capture and export process
Capture / Import
Convert to intermediary format ( Loss of quality ) 1 generation
Editing
Convert to HDV ( Loss of quality ) 1 generation
Export
Note that when editing, you are losing 2 generations of quality for each editing workflow
You are also spending time transcoding, which may take as long the rendering time ( which is long enough! ) for a project.
Alot of editing applications emphasise on the tons of functions they offer but NOT the need for transcoding. Since the purpose of HDV is to increase the video quality, one should NOT compromise the quality of their projects by having to suffer generation loss with each edit.
c. The functions that you require
No matter how much features a solution has, it means squat if it cannot do the things you want.
Some editing applications, like Pinnacle's Studio 10 or Liquid Edition range of products, have a feature known as InstantSave or Background Rendering, both of which i find extremely useful and wish to point out
InstantSave is something which will allow you to NOT lose your work in the event of a crash. it saves your work 30 times every second
Background Rendering This is an option in the editing suite to render your project in a format you choose. Best suited if you have a DUAL CORE processor system, i find that if the final format is DVD, and you select MPEG2 as the background render format, your projects will take MUCH LESS time to render, than normal.
Pricing, Licencing issues
For pricing details on each software, you should consult the distributors for each line of products
Educational Licence
If you are a student studying in a qualified institution, you are eligible for a student price on the software product. Simple present your student card in the retail outlet (eg: Challengers ) to obtain the special pricing.
Please take note that most educational licences are meant for home usage and users are NOT allowed to create commercial content with it. This said, if you are a company / individual that purchased an educational licence at a much cheaper price, and sell your projects for commercial gains, it is no better than using the PIRATED version of the software!
Upgrade Licences
Similarly, Upgrade licences allow users who own a previous version of a product, to purchase the current version of the software ata discounted rate. This is usually done to reward loyal customers of that product. If you read the licence agreements, a prerequisite to be eligible for the upgrade product, is that you need to have a full version of the software.
That means one full version, one upgrade
Again, if your company only has 1 full version, and multiple upgrade softwares, it is contravening the licence and is no better than using the pirated copy of that software!
Eg: 5 upgrades, 5 full softwares.
Installation of the software on multiple computers
Depending on the licence, this is generally tolerated. with a single software purchase, you are usually allowed to install it on multiple computers, but you can only use ONE instance of the software at any one time.