HVX straight to drive - can digitize without a Kona card?

Hi there gang,

My new colleague wants to shoot a mini-doc and is considering the HVX200 at 1080/24p. This would be a one-off, not the main HD project in March which will use different cameras.

I read a little (always dangerous!) about this camera and saw that it captures 1080 progressively, but along an interlaced stream... is this true for tape but not for capture-to-disk?

We won't be getting our Kona cards til March. So the main question is should we capture via the DVCProHD codec, in order to bring the files into FCP (5.1.2 Universal, machine specs below)?

ie: what would our capture options be AND what would be our pulldown concerns, if any...

Thanks,

Marla
Hardware Overview:

ATI Radeon X1900 XT
Machine Name: Mac Pro
Machine Model: MacPro1,1
Processor Name: Dual-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 1.33 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MP11.005C.B04
SMC Version: 1.7f8

This will get you started

[www.kenstone.net]

Michael Horton
-------------------

That is a thing of beauty!!!!

Wow, Go Ken Stone!

Thanks Mike,

Marla

Marle,

I am using the HVX200 in 1080i or 720p outputting over Firewire to a MacBook Pro with Final Cut Pro 5.1.2 in "Capture Now" mode (without P2 cards) to an external RAID drive set (1.0TB)

This works very well and it creates the clip already captured in the browser when the Capture Now session is finished.

"I am using the HVX200 in 1080i or 720p outputting over Firewire to a MacBook Pro with Final Cut Pro 5.1.2 in "Capture Now" mode (without P2 cards) to an external RAID drive set (1.0TB)"

WOW - thanks John! That is SO COOL.

Couple more questions for ya:

1) Is the capture really clean? ie, there's no artifacting and it looks as good as with the P2 card?

2) MacBook Pro - that means via FW400, right?

3) Does this mean you can capture unlimited lengths, as opposed to a measly 8 minutes?

4) Also, when they say 1080i with this HVX200, is it really 1080p, but moving in a 1080i stream? I read that yesterday: I know we need progressive for sure, so any info you can give me about how to deal with that (like do you then have to pull out frames and, if so, what's the best tool, etc)

4) And, last but not least: what raid are you using?

Sorry to pepper you with questions, but we are shooting next week and this is very thrilling information...

Thanks,

Marla

Marla,

I just got my HVX200 last week and I have been learning the camera. As long as you set Capture Now and Uncontrolled Device Capture over Firewire you can capture as long as you have Capture Now set to, and of course you have the disk space available.

I am testing a product that I will ultimately sell at my store. It is a two 500 GB SATA RAID connected through an Express 34 card. I am planning on developing a battery pack for powering the drives in the field. it will be a few weeks before I have this package ready, but the way I see it, it is the only good solution presently for capturing DVCPRO HD 1080i or p in the filed.

The external enclosure has removable trays so that disks can be replaced very quickly and initialized as JBOD or RAID 0.

Impressive and creative thinking! I will pass this on to my colleague who is directing the shoot next week... Sounds like we may be 2 weeks early for optimum performance...

Marla