Hard drive cams, to dvd - format time??

[allankayak]

Hi there, first post but hey

I am trying to find out about Hard drive Cameras.

I see that most HD cameras store footage as Mp2. So, would I be right to say you could drag the files straight into Final cut Pro, edit a quick movie and export for DVD studio Pro, and carry the format all the way through, so that, the DVD format and build time would be quite short.

I guess I would have to set the project up to the same format, codec, size in FCP?


I am trying to work out what gear to use for an outdoor center, so we can produce DVD's of a rafting trip etc right after the trip, right now, capture time from DV and DVD build time mean this is not possible.

[guns1inger]

This assumes that the footage is DVD compliant to begin with, and not recorded at out of spec bitrates. It also assumes Final Cut Pro can process mpeg2 natively without having to re-encode. They are the two main questions you need to answer. If the footage is within spec, and FCP handles mpeg2 natively, then it should be very simple and fast. I can take the mpeg2 stream from our FTA digital broadcasts, remove the adverts and write the stream back to disc, then author in under 20 minutes for a one hour show using Womble mpeg wizard, a dedicated mpeg2 editor, and DLP for authoring. Most of the time would spent in the actual authoring process rather than capture and encoding if the base material is already DVD compliant and FCP doesn't force you to re-encode.