special device for capturing HD

[adanchev]

I have Canon camcoder HD but I am not happy with capturing. Are any special devices for direct capturing HD and DV from the cassettes and how I could buy it? My address is adanchev@yahoo.com

[ßsimian]

you need to use firewire(ieee1394). if your computer doesn't have a firewire port you can add a pci card for about US$10.00 and a firewire cable for around US$5.00.

[edDV]

A simple program for streaming the HDV tape contents over IEEE-1394 to an M2T HDV file is HDVsplit.
A simple program for streaming the DV tape contents over IEEE-1394 to a DV-AVI file is WinDV.

In both cases the resulting file is an exact duplicate of the video-audio data on tape.

The HDV file will be 1440x1080i @ 25fps. The DV file will be 720x576i @ 25 fps.

[Jensen]

Can you capture through HDMI?

[adanchev]

Are you familiar with Magic Bullet Instant HD pro 0.1 of Red Giant? Are dowloaded trial copy but it can not convert DV into HD?THe price is not high $99 but why should I spend it if it does not work? Please, comment your opinion if you have used it already. Why the trial copy does not work?

[edDV]

Can you capture through HDMI?

Yes you can but this only has value for capping the camera section to uncompressed YCbCr over HDMI. Data rate will be close to 960Mb/s which will require either a two to three disk RAID zero or a realtime encoder (e.g. MJPEG, Cineform or MPeg) that can handle uncompressed input.

There is no point to capping from HDV tape decompressed over HDMI when 25Mb/s over IEEE-1394 gets full HDV quality.

[edDV]

Are you familiar with Magic Bullet Instant HD pro 0.1 of Red Giant? Are dowloaded trial copy but it can not convert DV into HD?THe price is not high $99 but why should I spend it if it does not work? Please, comment your opinion if you have used it already. Why the trial copy does not work?

Magic Bullet Instant HD is for software upscale of DV video to HD formats. There is no point to using it with the HV20 since this camcorder can record direct to HDV format.
http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/categories/enhancement/magic-bullet-instant-hd/

[adanchev]

I understand but I have many old DV files I would like to use. Is it suitable for trasferring them into HD format?

[edDV]

I understand but I have many old DV files I would like to use. Is it suitable for trasferring them into HD format?

Yes if you need to edit DV together with HD material. If you just need to play DV or DVD files to an HDTV, the TV will upscale to TV screen resolution in hardware.

[adanchev]

When I export HD movie with titles during the duration of the titles the format of the picture is squeezed, after the text ends the original format (full streen) is resotred. It can be used as a good effect, but in my case I would like to have normal size of the screen with and without titles. The old Premier has never created such problems, may be HD is confusing it.

[edDV]

When I export HD movie with titles during the duration of the titles the format of the picture is squeezed, after the text ends the original format (full streen) is resotred. It can be used as a good effect, but in my case I would like to have normal size of the screen with and without titles. The old Premier has never created such problems, may be HD is confusing it.

I don't know what is causing that. Are you sure your project is set to wide?

[adanchev]

what do you mean - set to wide?

[edDV]

Premiere Pro project. When you spec "File" "New", you are presented with a project setting menu.

[adanchev]

Yes, sure. I made it wide. But there is probably some option in exporting to avoid this smashing of the image. In the time line it is ok - after I export it the ready movie has the problem

[edDV]

Can you post a frame grab showing the problem?

[adanchev]

yes. frame 1 shows the normal format. Frame 2 shows that happens when I add the title. By the way such effects I receive also when I try to add some other effects. What is the reason and how to avid it? Thank you.

frame2.bmp

[adanchev]

here is frame 1

frame1.bmp

[adanchev]

May be I need another video card - specially constructed for editing HD?

[adanchev]

Dear friends,
Attached to my note is a short video file composed in HD setting. It consists of three parts which have the following problems:
(a) In part one – the goats - When I put titles the format of the video is normal in the project but during the exporting it shrinks during the text appearance.
(b) Part b – the dog is DV format
(c) Part c – goats in the yard is DV which I transferred to HD using Red Giant software. I am not sure I am doing it correctly, but I do not see any improvement in the quality. The format is also small which is not good.
I would appreciate if you could comment the problems.
Alexi

[edDV]

I'm still not understanding the "squeezed" problem.

If you are using an HDV project setting and the import video is HDV format, the video should preview from the timeline in 16:9 aspect ratio.

The actual HDV video has non-square pixels and will appear horizontally squeezed if viewed as square pixel. This is also true for wide DV format.

When you export encode, you need to specify the correct aspect ratio. If you are exporting to a square pixel format, you may need to scale the actual image from 1440x1080 to 1920x1080.

[adanchev]

Thank you for your answer.
It is really a puzzle I cannot solve yet.
I export the movie in Microsoft avi format
Use compressor 3ivx D4.5.1 Pro video Codec
Pixel aspect ratio D1/DV NTSC (0/9)
Size 1440 x 1080
All the file is squeezed almost twice – a small window in the screen with a very good quality.
May be my video card VIA OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 host controller is not suitable for high definition.
Thank you.
With appreciation
Alexi

[edDV]

Thank you for your answer.
It is really a puzzle I cannot solve yet.
I export the movie in Microsoft avi format
Use compressor 3ivx D4.5.1 Pro video Codec
Pixel aspect ratio D1/DV NTSC (0/9)
Size 1440 x 1080
All the file is squeezed almost twice – a small window in the screen with a very good quality.
May be my video card VIA OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 host controller is not suitable for high definition.
Thank you.
With appreciation
Alexi

Most likely encoder or player settings not the display card.

[adanchev]

There is a following problem with HD editing. When I import a clip called “Video clip” for editing there is no problem. When I import a clip saved after the capture as MPEG file it is imported in a size with cuts about the half of the frame showing only part of it. I suspect it might be as a result of capturing if I use MPEG-4 Video Codec instead of the standard 3ivx D4 4.5.1. Pro Video Codec. What do you think? Can MPEG files be adjusted for its full size?

[adanchev]

I am sorry - starting HD created big troubles as it is rather different that the DV - but of course once the problem is solved you enjoy an excellent quality. Sorry to distrub you so often, I appreciate all anwers.

[adanchev]

I made additional observations. The file which has no problems during the editing is avi format 720 x 576 (1.067). The file which frame is cut during exporting is mpeg format 1440 x 1080 (1.333). it is of better quality and I would like to use it but how to adjust it for editing not to lose part of the frame? Thank you.

[edDV]

I made additional observations. The file which has no problems during the editing is avi format 720 x 576 (1.067). The file which frame is cut during exporting is mpeg format 1440 x 1080 (1.333). it is of better quality and I would like to use it but how to adjust it for editing not to lose part of the frame? Thank you.

Are you using (1440x1080i) HDV project settings or 720x576 DV wide project settings? Is the end goal an HD or SD file?

[adanchev]

My project setting is HDV (1440x1080i).

[adanchev]

Which setting would you recommend me for exporting HD movies?

[2Bdecided]

If your encoder can't handle aspect ratio flags reliably (or you can't figure out how to make it do so), then you need to export square pixels. The project can stay at 1440x1080, but the export should be 1280x720 square pixel (1:1 PAR) for example.

Cheers,
David.

[adanchev]

I made the experiment with square pixels, but the Media Playyer Classic does not display it. If I try Windows Media Player it gives Insufficient system resourse exists to complete the required service. What's the matter?