HD > SD downconverts

robby racer · October 29, 2004

Hello, nice forums. I've been reading them for a while now but this is my first post.

We are shooting our first HD project with a Varicam and we'll be making downconverts of the footage so I can offline them at our studio and online the project somewhere else. What happens to the aspect ratio when the footage is downconverted? By just plugging the component outputs from an HD deck into say a DV deck will that give me the letterbox on the DV dub? Sorry if this is a very newbie question, this is my first venture into the HD world.

Thanks :)

Keith Mottram · October 29, 2004

Hello, nice forums. I've been reading them for a while now but this is my first post.
We are shooting our first HD project with a Varicam and we'll be making downconverts of the footage so I can offline them at our studio and online the project somewhere else. What happens to the aspect ratio when the footage is downconverted? By just plugging the component outputs from an HD deck into say a DV deck will that give me the letterbox on the DV dub? Sorry if this is a very newbie question, this is my first venture into the HD world.

Thanks :)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

your work flow would be a lot simpler if you avoided downconverting altogether, dont forget you can firewire footage in with a panasonic deck and varicam is really compressed so your not looking at that much storage. You also avoid all the problems of frame rate conversion (assuming your shooting 24fps).

Keith

Edited October 29, 2004 by keith mottram

Mitch Gross · October 30, 2004

You cannot simply plug the decks ionto one another in order to get a downconvert. You need to go through a box that performs the conversion, then feed this signal to tape. Certain decks have these boxes built in. These boxes would be where you would address any aspect ratio issue.

Christopher Bell · October 30, 2004

Panasonic's 1200a deck can downconvert DVCPRO HD via SDI or Composite. It can also transcode DV/DVCAM/DVCPRO25,50,HD to 1080i. Varicam material can be transcoded to 1080p @24fps as well for film out.

If you are using a G5 Mac w/FCPHD, seriously consider using the firewire option. It is a very efficient use of drive space, especially at 24p. When I edit, I much prefer to see my footage at full res.

Chris Bell, DP

Varicam/1200a owner

robby racer · October 31, 2004

Thanks for the input everyone. As we get closer to shooting this project I'm learning more about the workflow. We actually have a Panaisonic sales rep coming to visit us and he's bringing a Varicam and a HD-1200a for us to play with.