Capture HDV via SDI, Firewire or components

[danielheldman]

Got a question about capturing HDV footage via firewire, SDI or component cables.
Which method will I be able to gain picture quality?

[addu]

all will be same

[guns1inger]

Firewire is a digital transfer of the image data, so it should be better than the analogue transfer methods

[edDV]

Got a question about capturing HDV footage via firewire, SDI or component cables.
Which method will I be able to gain picture quality?

Which camcorder? You need to get up to the Canon XH-G1 with Jackpack option for SDI.

For the rest, IEEE-1394 (firewire for HDV format), HDMI for YCbCr.

The HDMI out may be better than HDV for live camera, not for HDV tape playback. Analog component will be less quality than HDMI but for live camera may be superior to compressed HDV. You need to test.

[danielheldman]

I want to find out the following few different settings.
JVC GY-HD110u to capture live to my Mac Pro using BlackMagic Design Multibridge via component cables. I captured 10 bit uncompressed 4:2:2 and I think this will give me the best quality.

VS.
Capture the footage to mini HDV tape and capture it thru firewire to my Macpro and capture footage to 4:2:2 uncompressed HD.

VS.
Capture the footage to mini DV tape and using component cables via multi bridge tio my Mac Pro and capture footage to 4:2:2 uncompressed HD.

I also have a Sony A1U and would like to test different capture method as well.

[edDV]

I want to find out the following few different settings.
JVC GY-HD110u to capture live to my Mac Pro using BlackMagic Design Multibridge via component cables. I captured 10 bit uncompressed 4:2:2 and I think this will give me the best quality.

Success at beating HDV over firewire depends on where the GY-HD110u taps the YPbPr output in the camera, that is before or after HDV compression. You should ask JVC support or in the JVC forums.

I suppose you have a 10bit uncompressed project and you want to import the HD110u file. That camera does not produce 10bit resolution gray scale. You would need to go higher.

[danielheldman]

edDV...wah!!! very impressed with your knowledge. Yes, I have a 10 bit uncompressed project on hand and the budget is really tight.
Any suggestion on the cameras or any go around?

[brucejackson]

very interesting discussion. If take the HDV camcorder that has component out puts, connect it to a capture card that takes component in and hooked up to a mac using final cut pro to capture 10 bit compressed 4:4:4, will I get the 4:4:4 quality?

[edDV]

very interesting discussion. If take the HDV camcorder that has component out puts, connect it to a capture card that takes component in and hooked up to a mac using final cut pro to capture 10 bit compressed 4:4:4, will I get the 4:4:4 quality?

Unlikely. It again depends on the internal processing for the camera section of the camcorder. A typical camcorder samples RGB off the sensor, then processes to a YCbCr 4:2:2 or 4:2:0 output to the HDV compressor. The output of the HDV compressor is always 4:2:0 (quarter bandwidth chroma).

The HDMI and analog component outputs might tap from the pre-compression 4:2:2 point in the flow or at the 25Mb/s 4:2:0 output from the HDV compressor.

[edDV]

edDV...wah!!! very impressed with your knowledge. Yes, I have a 10 bit uncompressed project on hand and the budget is really tight.
Any suggestion on the cameras or any go around?

A true 10bit to SDI HD camera would be at the HDCAM level. A bit pricy but not to rent for a short shoot.
http://www.broadcaststore.com/store/prod_search_results.cfm?category_search=1011

Nothing wrong with what you are doing.

[2Bdecided]

Even if you think you're getting 4:4:4, the sensor itself may not deliver that chroma resolution. 3 sensor cameras can.