5 Replies Latest reply: Jun 7, 2011 5:49 PM by Saad Khan RSS

    Correct settings for HDV capture

    Saad Khan Community Member

      Hi. I'm using Premiere CS5.5. I went on a few forums to get the correct settings for HDV capture.

      I can record the footage fine. However I saw a few things which didn't seem right.

      After capturing the HDV footage, the file was a .mpeg file. Secondly, the clip was 1 hour and 10 minutes and

      it was only 11.3 GB. Does this sound right? A 55 minute .avi file is 11.6GB. I thought a HDV clip would be quite a large size file.

      If this dosen't sound right, is there somewhere I could go to, to check that my settings are correct? By the way I'm filming and capturing with a Canon XHA1.

      The footage is 1080i. HDV. I've exported it and it looks fine. Just want to make sure I've captured it correctly and to the best quality.

      Thanks for your help.

        • 1. Re: Correct settings for HDV capture
          Harm Millaard CommunityMVP

          You can't use settings for cpature, since it is only a digital transfer of data. It is an exact copy of what is on tape, nothing more, nothing less.

          • 2. Re: Correct settings for HDV capture
            Saad Khan Community Member

            Thanks so much Harm!

            • 3. Re: Correct settings for HDV capture
              SFL46 Community Member

              The HDV format was advanced by Sony and others to use the same miniDV tapes used for SD.  In fact, your Canon XHAI can record and play either without changing the tape transport speed.

               

              Your observation in relative file sizes is due to the fact that HDV is highly compressed (MPEG), whereas, SD (AVI) is not as highly compressed.  This is one of the reasons folks (such as Harm) don't consider HDV to be an edit format, but just a delivery format.

               

              Note that what Harm was saying is symantics--you capture an analog source through a capture card that digitizes it.  When you transfer a image file from HDV or SD, it is already digitized, so a bit-to-bit transfer occurs.

              • 4. Re: Correct settings for HDV capture
                Harm Millaard CommunityMVP
                This is one of the reasons folks (such as Harm) don't consider HDV to be an edit format, but just a delivery format.

                 


                Actually I use HDV quite a bit and it works nicely, being relatively easy on the system, the drawback is however the long GOP format. The same applies to XDCAM-EX. Ideally, one would have DV like material, without GOP structures, with around the same compression but with 1920x1080 or even 4K á la RED resolution with only 65 MB/s data rate for full HD 1920x1080 in 4:2:0 colorspace or 91 MB/s for XDCAM-EX material at HQ settings. Of course 4:2:2 settings require a bit more, as does RED 4K.

                 

                To cut it short, I don't think HDV a delivery format, but an editable format.

                • 5. Re: Correct settings for HDV capture
                  Saad Khan Community Member

                  Thanks for all your help guys. I really appreciate it.