hdv questions

so we are looking at taking our dv systems to have the ability to edit hdv. but would like to know what i'm gonna need. the average system is g5 1.8 dp, 1.5 GB ram.

-will we need a raid solution for each computer, or is a sata drive fast enough?
-can hdv recorded tapes be played and/or captured from a dv deck?
-i'm looking at a decklink card>hd link>23" apple display for monitoring. any snags i'll run into?
-advantages disadvantages of editing hdv vs aic? opinions?
-where can i find the specs of the aic codec?
-with a hdv deck, is it just a firewire connection to capture? would it be wiser to capture via a decklink card?
-anything else i should know/am missing?

also, what would be the best way to share one deck with multiple systems, or would it be best to just move teh deck around?

thanks in advance

HDv and DV are about the same data rate. Since HDV is really MPEG-2, and it is HIGHLY compressed, by the way; you can run it off of one internal hard drive and maybe off Firewire.

It comes in over Firewire from the HDV deck or camcorder and HDV and DV/DVCAM are totally different animals.

One HDV device wih a Firewire connection to your MAC running FCP 5 or FCEHD and you're there.

You can't really share a deck with many systems because Firewire can only work independantly on one system at a time.

A Decklink capture card is only necessary for true HD uncompressed capture.

You can share the deck by using a patch bay but if you don't have the gear already then it's a big pain in the butt and kinda pricey.

Other wise just move the deck around to each system.

-CHL

Hey guys --

Jumping in here -- a client asked me this question and I didn't know... If you are digitizing HDV footage using the "HDV" capture preset, a) what exactly does this preset do (compression-wise), or is it "uncompressed," and b) generally what is the hour-to-GB ratio?

thanks
karl

hi karl. from what i understand, hdv is sampled at 4:2:0 and uses mpeg 2 long gop - I frame every 15 frames for compression. so definately compressed. but because of the heavy compression it's "hour-to-GB ratio" is basically the same as dv. also it is upper fields first on the 1080 version- reffered to as hdv 2 i believe. and it is non-square pixels.