HDV codec sucks in renders and exports

I am currently editing a few clips for a feature film that is just about complete.

It was shot with a sony HDV and i hate working with this codec.
The render times suck and it has some compression pixelation in the blue sky which is not allowing me to key it or color correct it smoothly.

Can you tell me what is the best work flow to work in when working in HDV.

The movie is done its 100 minutes long.
Should i uprez into anything before i send to color or even output?

Thanks

You skipped the most important part of working with HDV...getting out of that codec ASAP by converting it to a workable codec in ingest (ProRes).

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

I had nothing to do with the ingest, i understand that at loading it would have been best to make it a different codec with an AJA or BlackMagic.

I have recived the drive as is
this week.
The loading and editing has been done over the entire year of 2007.

This is what i have to work with.

Thanks JOE

Try unrendering everything and set timeline for ProRes or 8 or even 10 bit uncompressed. All your renders should be of better quality. Alas, you can't bring back what HDV loses though.

Wow! a 100 minute project to render on HDV... that's gonna take like months!

Before i take it over to Color
is it better to render it out in ProRes?

Am i basically exporing in ProRes then taking it over to color?

Yep, you should do that. Prores allows more calculation space than HDV. It's more suited for these roundtrips too.

Also, you don't need to use the ProRes HQ (220mb) codec, the medium quality (140mb) codec will consume much less data and therefore shorter renders without any concievable difference in image quality.

The important thing here is that ProRes enable you to work in a 4:2:2 color space as oppossed to a 4:2:0 of HDV.

I may be working on a job where the HDV has already been digitized by the client but not edited; would it behoove me to transcode it all to ProRes in Compressor before I start working on it?

JK

_______________________________________
SCQT! Self-contained QuickTime ? pass it on!

Ok great i am convinced i will be working in ProRes Medium quality.

In order to turn all the cuts that are HDV upres them into ProRes
what do i need to do.

I need to retain my cuts and cross dissolves not to mention my dissolve outs and ins.
Can this be done and still have a few frames of handles?

IF so how?
thank you.

This may not be the best or quickest way around, but I've found that it works.

Duplicate your master sequence(s). Open the master sequence(s) on a 2nd monitor if possible.

In duplicated sequences, create a new video track, delete all transitions & move every other clip onto the new track. Extend the video out each way by 2 or 3 seconds to give you handles.

Use the Media Manager to process to Pro Res. Do this at night & leave it over night...

Send to Color. Color correct & grade.

Send back to FCP.