Magic Bullet for 50i HDV

[kippard]

Any thoughts/opinions of Magic Bullet for turning 50i HDV into 24p? Also, if I have a DV suite, will I be able to edit HDV on it, necessarily (1.2GHz, 512MB)?

[edDV]

Magic Bullet is slow slow slow (on a Core2Duo)

What is a DV suite?

1.2GHz, 512MB is not going to cut it for HDV.
Vegas Movie Studio Premium lists 2.8 GHz minimum for HDV. I'd say you need more than that. Also 1GB min RAM for XP, 2GB for Vista.

Also I don't think PAL is a good idea. Get some experience with DV/HDV interlace then switch to 24P when you know the tradeoffs.

Shooting a movie should be about learning production technique, not tech quicksand.

[Soopafresh]

Your PC is not nearly fast enough for editing and rendering. Add $1000 to your budget for a system which will allow you to do decent editing. Get a Quad Core with at least 2GB of RAM and 2x 750GB hard drives. You don't need a fast video card.

Here's a 140MB raw Mpeg video clip to give you an idea of what you'll be dealing with (Windy Bridge Video)

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=X0H1CQMZ

[kippard]

Yeah, quicksand - I don't want it either, but I have to decide what to learn. I was imagining editing the entire project in 50i HDV and then converting it to 24p for the film look. (Suite - you know - the room where my PC is, or simply my PC and software) Thanks! Thanks for the clip Soopa! Is HDV always an m2t file? AVI?

[edDV]

Yeah, quicksand - I don't want it either, but I have to decide what to learn. I was imagining editing the entire project in 50i HDV and then converting it to 24p for the film look. (Suite - you know - the room where my PC is, or simply my PC and software) Thanks! Thanks for the clip Soopa! Is HDV always an m2t file? AVI?

If a movie is the goal, you seem to be ignoring the investment needed for the production side (e.g. tripods, lighting, audio, storyboarding, scripting, directing, etc.). Those take priortity. You can always re-edit after you are "discovered".

[2Bdecided]

The HV20 can shoot 25p native. It's a great camera for the price.

Otherwise, you can fake 25p from 50i. If the input is HD and the output is SD, the quality is more than good enough. To make it convincing, you have to force your camera to use a 25p-friendly shutter speeds when shooting at 50i (e.g. 1/50th) - otherwise you're going to have to add motion blur in post, which is painful.

There is far more to the "film look" that just dropping to 25p. If that's all you do, you'll have cheap looking stuttery video (like a typical BBC Three production!).

Cheers,
David.

[kippard]

...you have to force your camera to use a 25p-friendly shutter speeds when shooting at 50i (e.g. 1/50th) - otherwise you're going to have to add motion blur in post, which is painful.

Nice tips. Thank you!