HDV Workflow issues...

Ok i posted this somewhere else but it got buried and i have yet to get a good idea of how to tackle this...

Potentially I have a shoot coming up for a band that i'd like to do in HDV, but it would involve mixing Sony's 1080i HDV and JVC's 720p HDV as there would be two cameras of each. My question is how to mix these two formats on one timeline?

The best option i can think of is to get the 1080i down to 720p but im not sure how best to obtain that, will Compressor handle this effectively? Does it have the HDV 720p codec? Or should i try and render both out to the DVCProHD codec and avoid HDV completely?

I don;t want to downconvert to DV anamorphic in the camera as the point is to be able to deliver something in HD resolution. The FAQ and the HDforIndies site didn't offer much in combining the formats more just explaining them.

Ok thanks for any responses in advance...

I've actually done a few tests downconverting 1080i HDV to 720p and it works surprisingly well (for HDV) as long as you blend the fields on the downconvert to get a good progressive.

I used compressor but equally you could use the Nattress Standards Converter which does a fantastic job from within FCP you could also make lovely 50% slowmo of 1080i60 footage to 720p30 using the Nattress G Map Frames part of the plugin.

[www.nattress.com]

I personnally would convert all your footage to DVCproHD as you'll save time on renders and other annoying HDV workflow and recompression issues.

Ben



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

How do you blend the fields in Compressor 2 ? Do you use the blur function?

Thanks for the info, im going to shoot some test 1080i footage and see how it looks compared to HDV 720 and DVCproHD 720 as well as the conversion times, see which is best...