HD 1080 offline workflow -- dvcpro HD? or DVcam downconverts?

I'm going to be editing a feature that will be shot on the new sony F23. They are shooting 1080. I have FCP 6 and a modest system set up for offline editing. (G5 2.7, dual processor, 1TB G-GRAID with 800FW). The DP said he could give me a drive with all the footage digitized DVCPRO HD 1080 and that we could use these files for the final output as well -- so in theory I'd be editing in the online format. My questions are 1) will the files be too big for my set up? And 2) why would we want to do final output in DVCPRO HD 1080 when we could go to a post house and online it full resolution uncompressed? Would it be better to just get DVCAM downconverts made of the HD tapes, reverse telecine in cinema tools, and then go to a post to online conform at full uncompressed HD?
Or is DVCPRO HD 1080 just fine?

Hi Christina

If you have the space/time for all the Video and rendering then go for it. I still use my Dual 2Ghz G5 for uncompressed 1080 HD so your dual 2.7Ghz will be fine (How much memory do you have?).

I would however make sure you keep the other drive that the DP supplies you with all the footage on as backup and at the end of a days editing, backup the FCP project file to it.

Your 1TB G-Tech should be fine via FW800 although you might find a few times it becomes sluggish but this is the speed of the HDDs NOT your Mac.

The main bottleneck for you in this workflow is using FireWire but its perfectly usable. In fact I'm doing a longform Documentary from HDCAM in DVCproHD CODEC on a mix of FW800 drives and eSATA RAID at the moment and having no problems so far (except for the fact that someone shot a few tapes 25Psf on 23.98 TC!!! Don't ask me how but it still works albeit without being able to re-conform as the4 TC is unusable... which reminds me I must ask Mr Nattress about this).

Anyway I digress.

Yes, in my experience use the DVCproHD as long as you have the speed/space on your HDDs to cope.

Ben

PS: If you are using 1080 DVCproHD you'll have files that are about 42GB per hour including two PCM 16-Bit Channels of audio so hopefully you'll have plenty of free space on your G-Tech. Remember DO NOT fill the drive(s) over 80% or you run the risk of serious slow down in performance and /or corruption of the data on them.



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Congrats on the gig.

I would downconvert for offline-- it'll make editing a lot more fun. Tugging around a 1080 frame -- every 1/30 of a second is a lot to ask of any system much less previous gen, and ertainly not FireWire. You're talking a SATA storage system for 100 mb/s or higher.

I happen to love DVCAM for offline-- and for online corp/ed work I do. It's light, lean, great for intermediate presentation quality. For dubdowns, you can jam the HDCAM timecode for absolute accuracy. I think your system would be powerful enough to play 23.98 so after Cinema-Tooling reverse telecine of the 29.97 dub -- this would give you frame-to frame equivalency. I had a bad time with this on my aging Dual 800 on one feature gig but you should test DVCAM-to-23.98 on your G5. Your drives should also handle it but others will comment.

- Loren
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Hey Loren don't be so doom and gloom man!

I hear what you are saying but she'll be loosing 75% of the physical resolution and an additional 50% of the colour detail. Not to mention incurring transfer times/cost and issues that you just don't need when trying to get on cutting a feature.

Also spotting post problems in detail when cutting an HD offline is much easier and will enable earlier flagging of potenial grade and FX issues. Something I am concerned with on a feature I'm offlining on DVCAM (due to budget not choice).

Besides you can easily run 2 layers of DVCproHD 1080 video on a Dual 2Ghz G5 from a single SATAII HDD connected via FW800 let alone a Dual SATA RAID 0 on a Dual 2.7Ghz...


Ben



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Thanks for the input! As long as my system can handle it then it seems DVCPRO HD is a good option. My main concern was it being too big a strain on the system. I don't want to be bogged down with those kinds of issues. I just want to edit.
I have 3 gigs of RAM on my machine.
I guess another concern is the director talked about having an identical drive and working with me remotely when he's traveling. But he has an ibook and I fear that the HD project will be a strain on his system even with a good drive. Don't even know if he has the right specs for FCP 6. So that might have to be factored in.

thanks again!

Yes do some tests and if you think its too sluggish then downconvert. I personally think you'll be happily surprised cutting DVCproHD - you should also be able to do realtime 3way color correction on your Dual 2.7 (I can on my dual 2).

OOoo iBook.... he'd really have to test but I reckon thats a nono for both FCP 6 or DVCproHD

Although I have been cutting remotely on a MacBook and MacBookPro...

...the MBP is the only one I'd recommend along with a FW800 drive.

Ben

PS you might benefit from some extra memory in your G5 but see how it performs first.



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]