Sony HDR-FX1 Handycam

[dprgb]

I think you're going to need some sort of software to capture the HDV image and convert it into single frames or non-mpg2 video. I don't know how well doing effects would be on footage that has the long-GOP of HDV.

[vonbon]

I’ve been doing some research and it seem like I would need a new capture card and a new computer in order to bring it in at its full uncompressed HDV quality. That’s a lot of money. Plus its hard to get a non opinionated answer from anyone. They all love the DVX100 but it doesn’t natively shoot at 16:9. The DVX shoots at 24p but unless you go to film your movie will be “broadcasted” interlaced. Also I can’t find any comments on the FX1’s SD quality, which is native 16:9. I need to get more info on that GOP stuff.

[dprgb]

Well, I have a DVX100 but I'll try not to be too opinionated.

I also don't really have a problem with the FX1, seems like a good deal for the price. But I do have a problem with the HDV format. You wouldn't need a capture card to capture the HD footage, as there's no such thing as uncompressed HDV. The HDV 1080i data stream is the same rate as regular DV (25 mbs), so it can be transferred the same as you would regular DV footage - over firewire. From the tape, that's the highest quality you can get, and it is being highly compressed. To compare, the Sony f950 HDCAM camera captures HD at 440 Mbps (although that's actually 1920x1080 compared to 1440x1080 that HDV is, but still that's a huge jump).

DV captures and compresses each individual frame, HDV takes one frame and sets it as a keyframe, then looks at areas of the image that change over the next 14 frames, and compresses each of those "changed" frames. So if there's a lot of changes in those 15 frames, or you're chroma-keying and there's a lot of background info that's not changing from frame to frame, the compression can create artifacts. Also, if there's an error in the data stream during those 15 frames, you lose a half-second of video because it can't decompress properly. JVC gets around this by using a 6 frame GOP, but that camera's only 720p.

The only other option would be to tether the camera to a computer and capture the analog composite video out of the camera through a capture card. I'm not sure what kind of quality comes through with this (like color depth and chroma/luma sampling) but this you'd probably need a good computer with a RAID to capture.

I'm still waiting for the new Panasonic P2 DVCPRO-HD camera to come out, at least that compresses each individual frame. Don't know if the wife will let me get that one, though. Maybe the ReelStream Andromeda that lets the DVX output uncompressed 10-bit 4:4:4 video at near-HD resolution...

[m.d.]

wow thanx for the info on the Panasonic P2 DVCPRO-HD, I didn't know such a beast was coming.....4:4:4 uncompressed would be awsome.

and I would just like to echo what others said....HDV is highly compressed...there are many programs in which you could edit this, Liquid edition having probably the best support, but for a lot of compositing operations....i'm not sure any mpeg2 format would be a very good.

On the other hand, for video editing,HDV is great bang for the buck quality.

For more info understanding GOP's and such
http://www.digitaltelevision.com/publish/dtvbook/ch2.shtml#video

very good resource

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