George Peters

But both HDV and AVCHD are mprg compressed with only a few I-frames, MiniDV is all I-frames. Somehow the idea of having non-I frames in a clip I am about to edit feels... wrong. No need to. I am going to have some film telecined and I am searching for "the HD-format" to get it telecined to. I don´t have any HD camcorder, so I have no need for a tape. Once I have decided for the format, then the search for a transfer house that can treansfer to hard drives in "my HD-format" begins. And that is the whole problem. Why all these formats? What format to choose? Where is the editing-fiendly all I-frame compressed "medium quality HD-format"? I don´t have the disk arrays needed to go for uncompressed HD, it feels like overkill for me. And I don´t want HDV, it feels almost worse than miniDV due to the mpeg compression with long GOP structure...

OK, so I am confused about all the different HD formats... it was so much easier in the SD days when all you had was (basically, digitally) three options. 1- Uncompressed. Best quality and the best option for professionals wanting the best. Overkill for consumers, a bit more tricky to edit. 2- DV compressed. Good quality. Easy to edit. A good option for semipro and for consumers. 3- Mpeg2 compressed. Not as good image quality as DV, a bad option for editing. Mostly a compression for finalizing the work to a DVD. OK, lets look at HD. 1- Uncompressed 4:4:4. Best quality, huge files. Only for Pros. Hard to edit? 2- ? What is the HD compression comparable to SD-DVcompression? 3- H264. Not as good image quality due to compression, not a good option for editing. The compression to use when finishing on Bluray. So What do you guys think should be the "DV comparable" compression in HD (number 2 in my list)? AVCHD? Hell no, it is compressed a lot. HDV? Hell no, is feels more compressed than DV. HDCAM in 3:1:1? HDCAM SR in 4:2:2? Uncompressed HD 4:2:2? (is there such a format?) DVCPro HD in 4:2:2? What are all these formats, and wich one is "the closest" and comparable to DV compression in SD work? Are there any other "medium quality HD formats" I have failed to mention? Something with only I-frame compression? I think I am going nuts...