Anyone have any experience with the Sony hvr-m15

I pitched myself for a show that was shooting on the varicam. I seen so many of these HD shows that can't afford/won't pay for a bumpdown to SD dvcam, The hvr-m15 does both, and does a down rez to SD too.

Seems invaluable especially for delivering things like music videos and shorts.

Could I digitize from F900 and varicam at SD, using firewire, and then have a post house online it?

Offline? Online? What are these ANTIQUATED terms in which you speak? Capture as SD? Why?

You are looking at this with AVID eyes.

Capture DVCPRO HD at FULL resolution. DVCPRO HD really does not take up that much space. Depending on the frame rate, from roughly 2 to 5 times the rate of DV. If you shoot 720p24, then it is double the DV Data rate and is EASILY edited using firewire 800 drives, or better yet, eSATA. If 720p30...you can still get away with firewire 800. And if you shot 720p60, then you might need eSATA drives or an eSATA raid...and with how cheap drives are, storage is not really an issue.

And since you are at FULL RES, there is no recapturing (money saver)...all you do is take your final output to a post facility with FCP and output to the format you need.

But...if you MUST...the DVCPRO HD Decks (HD1200 and HD1400) allow you to downconvert the signal to a DV signal if you want to go that route. But, again, I fail to see the point. Cost savings on drives really will be wiped out when you have to pay for a day or two of re-capturing...and what if there are a few clips that slipped a few frames one way or the other? That means time fixing the cut. Going native is smart and cheap.

Now...you talk about downconverting HDV as DV? Uhhh...why? HDV has just about the EXACT SAME data rate as DV...and thus the same space requirements, so downconverting really makes no sense.


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> You are looking at this with AVID eyes.
I wish I had an Avid eye, I'd have a lot more work. I'll trade one of my FCP eyes for an Avid one.

>
> Capture DVCPRO HD at FULL resolution. DVCPRO HD
> really does not take up that much space.
> Depending on the frame rate, from roughly 2 to 5
> times the rate of DV.

We are talking 1080 on a feature.

If you shoot 720p24,
The people shooting 720p24 are usually using the HVX, so getting their footage into a system and working natively is blissfully easy.

> it is double the DV Data rate and is EASILY edited
> using firewire 800 drives, or better yet, eSATA.
> If 720p30...you can still get away with firewire
> 800. And if you shot 720p60, then you might need
> eSATA drives or an eSATA raid...and with how cheap
> drives are, storage is not really an issue.

How many terabytes is 40 hours of tape? So like $5,000 on storage, and $4000 in x-fer costs or $20,000 in gear to do best quality tape ingest.

or Sony deck for $1700 and $4000 for online and color correction.

> And since you are at FULL RES, there is no
> recapturing (money saver)...all you do is take
> your final output to a post facility with FCP and
> output to the format you need.

Yes that sounds great, How much storage do I need? And what does my client/I pay to have it digitized at the online quality? The 720p24 12 minute short I worked on used a whole terabyte. So I'll need like 20?

> But...if you MUST...the DVCPRO HD Decks (HD1200
> and HD1400) allow you to downconvert the signal to
> a DV signal if you want to go that route. But,
> again, I fail to see the point.

Do either cost under $2000?

Cost savings on
> drives really will be wiped out when you have to
> pay for a day or two of re-capturing...and what if
> there are a few clips that slipped a few frames
> one way or the other? That means time fixing the
> cut. Going native is smart and cheap.

I really feel that we are talking at cross purposes here. I don't own a davinci so I'm going to color correction anyway.

> Now...you talk about downconverting HDV as DV?

If I said HDV i was oversimplifying I mean 1080i or 720p.

> Uhhh...why? HDV has just about the EXACT SAME
> data rate as DV...and thus the same space
> requirements, so downconverting really makes no
> sense.

It looks to me now that the Sony deck is HDV a flavor of mpeg2, and so it would be incompatible with the DVCproHD tapes from the Varicam and f900, is that correct?

It looks to me now that the Sony deck is HDV a flavor of mpeg2, and so it would be incompatible with the DVCproHD tapes from the Varicam and f900, is that correct?

Correct. DVCPRO HD is a Panasonic format, so you need to rent the DVCPRO HD deck.

How many terabytes is 40 hours of tape?

1080i 23.98 - 2TB
1080i 29.97 - 2.4TB
1080i 59.94 - 4.69TB

What frame rate are you shooting? If a FEATURE, then I'd suspect 23.98...but is that an option at 1080i? I believe that 23.98 is restricted to the 720p format, so you are looking at about 3.0 TB of storage needed.

So like $5,000 on storage

[www.macgurus.com]
about $2000 for a 5 drive 3.7TB eSATA RAID

[www.macgurus.com]
About $4000 for this 5 drive 3.7TB option

[store1.sonnettech.com]
And about $3700 for this 3.7TB option.

MUCH less than $5000.

and $4000 in x-fer costs or $20,000 in gear to do best quality tape ingest.

Beg pardon? Where are you getting these numbers? You can rent an HD1400 DVCPRO HD deck for under $400 a day. And if you rent it for like 4 days...but get it on a THURS so that the weekend is free, that is $800 for 4 days. $1200 for 5 days if you need it longer. NO capture card needed. Just the Mac, FCP and a good RAID array. Transfer costs? Transfer to what? And where are you getting $20,000?

The 720p24 12 minute short I worked on used a whole terabyte. So I'll need like 20?

How much footage? I had 78 hours of DVCPRO HD 720p24 footage and that all fit on a 1.5TB drive....with 260GB to spare. Not sure what you did to take up that 1TB drive.

Do either cost under $2000? Decks? To rent, as I stated, $400/day. Don't buy one unless you have a series that you will use it on and it will pay for itself. These decks run $25,000. This is why you rent.

I don't own a davinci so I'm going to color correction anyway.

DO you mean that you ARE NOT going to color correct? OK...how will the color correction happen? Colorist using COLOR? Output to tape and have a DaVinci artist tackle it? What?

Or was that a typo and you ARE going to color correct?


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Gotta agree with Shane. By capturing in HD, if you need to go to SD, you can always just use software conversion or a capture card to do the export. Full flexibility. But if you capture in SD -- and you're using an HD deck anyway -- you won't ever have an HD copy, a flexibility that's quite invaluable these days. Having an HD master means you can export a large-size web movie, leave room to make HD DVD formats, perform remasters for any kind of re-release, and be more compatible with any future mastering/release formats.

If you shoot HD, I really don't see a good argument for not having an HD master down the line.


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