Cut to the Chase

So… I’ve had a change of heart… HDV has managed to wooo it’s way into my heart. Now, I know you are asking… “how much did you have to drink to get to this point….” my answer, “not enough!” So after starting at PostWorks and watching them begin to capture an HDV tape… I started asking a lot of questions. Here is a summery of my findings:

So you shoot HDV… great, you now have a hard archival copy of your footage (got to love tape). The major question up until now (for me) has been, how do you deal with this less than amazing codec in post. While I have presented the ProRes 4:2:2 option, there is another way which makes things even more brilliant, than before: HD-SDI. Holy smokes why didn’t I know about this before now! I knew of SDI… great way to playback video with minimal quality loss. HD-SDI is that and a bag of chips. The SDI signal carries pure digital audio with it and through the wonders of BlackMagic, can be captured into FCP. Yes, this has probably been around a while, but you have to understand… as I have just learned about it - I’m a kid in the freaking candy shop!

In the past, I have questioned why you would spend an extra $3,000 on a camera with a “jack-pack” which includes HD/SD-SDI… but it is all clear to me now. Here’s the post system setup: One badass MacPro, with one Blackmagic DeckLink HD Extreme card (http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/hd/), your new HDV jack-pack cam…. and… and… oh wait.. THAT’S IT! No more… through the HD-SDI out of the camera, and the HD-SDI in on the DeckLink card, you are able to tell FCP to capture your HDV as full blown 1080i or 720p HD - through hardware, not software. No transcoding to anything once the media is capture… just you and your newly found HD files, loving each other in all the ways a person can love a set of binary.

Now also consider this: Sony also makes a sweet HDV deck that sells for about as much as an HDV camera… however, the deck makes things even nicer. Because you have the DeckLink card, you are able to control the HDV deck video RS-422 controller built into the card! Other bonuses… add a HD-SDI monitor or an HDMI monitor to the system, and you can run your video to it video the DeckLink card. There are many other small upsides to this DeckLink card - visit their site for all of them.

Now why am I all gitty about HDV now? I mean, if you could shoot tapeless and not have to log and capture all that tape, why would you? With the cost of the card, and the camera, you could easily get a HVX200 or a Sony EX-1. Why would you put your self in the HDV world when you could have “much more?” I would go HDV over tapeless HD because I don’t have to archive everything I shoot on to a hard drive and worry about that hard drive dying on me… I start a tape library with a good (am I mean good) logging/cataloging system for the tapes, I find a self, and stash them for the rest of my life! I could go on, and on - but I think I have finally found my answer to this question of, “What do I buy and invest in for a professional home/freelancing system” Answer: HDV.

Additional Links:
My (current) “dream” setup:
The Camera: Canon XH-A1 (or jack-pack XH-G1)
The Deck: Sony HVR-1500
Card: BlackMagic, DeckLink HD Extreme
Approx. Total Cost: $10,000
OR
Approx. Total Cost: $7,500 (no deck - camera with jack-pack)