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)

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Holy crap - we’re nominated for a Webby! I know, I can’t believe it either. We found out today that our December 20, 2007 Wallstrip show HAHA is nominated for a Webby in the Best Editing Category. This project was a total collaboration on among the entire office and its amazing to be nominated!

Beyond HAHA, Wallstrip has two shows in the “Honoree” category. CALM and U.S. Dollar. While these two shows aren’t able to win awards, they noted as in the 15% or better of all enteries submitted. The Shop here could not be more excited about this recognition for our work in web video. Winners are announced May 6th.

There is a “People’s Choice” award, and I would love it if you guys would vote for HAHA. I’ll be sure to post the results as we know them!

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With some gentle persuasion, our office has been buying more OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Drives than LaCie drives to fill out external hard drive needs. With the launch of a new daily web show on March 7th, our office is in a buying mood to build out what is needed for this new show. On the purchase list, five 750 GB “Quad-Interface” (eSATA, FW800, FW 400, USB2) OWC drives.

Not only is OWC (Other World Computing) customer service much easier to get a hold of than LaCie, but they are unbelievably willing to meet your needs. Just last week, one of the drives we ordered from them was having electrical issues - basically it wasn’t mounting regularly. I gave them a call and in about five minutes, I had a solution: We were to send this “faulty” drive back to them, meanwhile OWC would cross-ship us a replacement. This all happened Monday, by Friday we had a new drive in our hands. Amazing! The are really, “Other World Computing.”

I have been using OWC drives for my personal and profession storage needs for about two years now, and I have no complaints about their drives, or doing business with them. If you live in the mid-west you will experience a shorter shipping time seeing that OWC in in Illinois.

Check them out - they do more than externals too. Any upgrades you need for your mac, they probably have it. Look them up - I would bet you enjoy them as much as I have.

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Last week announced new MacPros… if you haven’t taken a look at these things yet, please do. The upgrades Apple has released and great. These upgrades come a week before MacWorld ‘08.

Many rumors  are floating around regarding Apple and what they will announce at the end of the week. There are high hopes for “MacBook Air,” Apple’s ultra-thin MacBook. There is also a lot of speculation surrounding iTunes and what advancements will be made public. I’ll be keeping my ears open for information that may affect this community.

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