SDX900 DVCPRO50 to NLE

Jay Wood · January 7, 2005

I am not sure which is the best way to go when recording in the field with a new SDX900 I just purchased.

Should I record on tape, then use an SD93 (expensive!) to transfer to FCP via firewire, or should I use the SDI board to record directly on to a laptop in the field? Does using SDI convert the DVCPRO50 codec and is therefore less desirable? Will recording to a laptop give me more flexibility in monitoring with a software based vectorscope, waveform monitor, etc? Thanks for any help.

John Ealer · January 8, 2005

I am not sure which is the best way to go when recording in the field with a new SDX900 I just purchased.

Should I record on tape, then use an SD93 (expensive!) to transfer to FCP via firewire, or should I use the SDI board to record directly on to a laptop in the field? Does using SDI convert the DVCPRO50 codec and is therefore less desirable? Will recording to a laptop give me more flexibility in monitoring with a software based vectorscope, waveform monitor, etc? Thanks for any help.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I would most certainly recommend recording to tape. Even if it's practical for you to record everything you shoot straight to the hard drive, that's fine, but you'd still want the tapes as backup. You can use the software based tools you describe even if you don't record the SDI feed directly.

J

Phil Rhodes · January 8, 2005

Hi,

I believe the SDI will give you uncompressed 4:2:2 images, but that's a pretty incremental benefit if you're shooting 50mbps.

I doubt a 2.5" laptop hard drive would keep up with uncrunched SD, anyway - anecdotal evidence suggests that you might just barely do it with an external firewire drive.

Phil

Jay Wood · January 9, 2005

Thanks for the information. Think I'll stick with tape and transfer to FCP or Avid via firewire from the SD93.

January 9, 2005

Ok this seems pretty ridiculous. Surely there must be some way of downloading footage to computer from this camera with ease.

I was considering to start saving for this camera. But if it means I'll have to buy an SD93 to go with it ($9500) just to get it onto computer, I don't think I'll bother.

And surely laptop drives can take 50mbits. Unless theres something obvious I am missing. Some laptops have firewire, which range from 400 or 800mbits per second. So theres got to be something I am missing here.

Or how much would it cost for someone else to put the tapes onto hard drive?

Edited January 9, 2005 by Daniel J. Ashley-Smith

Phil Rhodes · January 9, 2005

Hi,

By the time you have finished saving for it, it will be obsolete (and that's no reflection on you, it's more that they become out of date so fast)

> Surely there must be some way of downloading footage to computer from this camera

> with ease.

Yes, you take the tape out of the camera and put it in a VTR. Nobody but nobody usnig an SDX900 would use it as a studio VTR.

I thought we established they had firewire anyway.

> I find this kinda of confusing, George Lucas burned his footage straight to hard drive

> straight from one beast of a HD camera. Unless he was using super-duper industrial

> hard drives, I can't see how downloading footage from this camera to hard drives is a

> problem.

Why is it a problem? And yes, you end up using super industrial sized hard drive arrays (of quite normal looking drives) to store high def.

> Or how much would it cost for someone else to put the tapes onto hard drive?

If you're shooting one production and want to capture it all at one go, that might be quite affordable, but affordable in a "we're a feature film, a few hundred quid is affordable" kind of way.

Phil

Charles Lorch · January 10, 2005

I second jay in saying that noone would use the 900 as a VTR. Although I don't think the 93 is over $9,000. The base with only firewire we had priced out at about $6,000. The only way though to get RS422 is with the optional component card, which in our case wanting SDI as well would have ment having both cards and putting it in that $9,000 range. In the end we got a great deal on a 930 which we are very happy with.

I also second the question of why you would ever consider not rolling tape. Are you actually working with clients and projects or just playing around?

Jay Wood · January 10, 2005

I second jay in saying that noone would use the 900 as a VTR. Although I don't think the 93 is over $9,000. The base with only firewire we had priced out at about $6,000. The only way though to get RS422 is with the optional component card, which in our case wanting SDI as well would have ment having both cards and putting it in that $9,000 range. In the end we got a great deal on a 930 which we are very happy with.
I also second the question of why you would ever consider not rolling tape. Are you actually working with clients and projects or just playing around?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi Charles. Thanks for the response. The reason I was considering going direct to PC rather than tape was to avoid purchasing the 930. But I agree with the comments here that, from a backup point of view alone, it doesn't make sense. And the speed issue of capture, especially using DVCPRO50, is a valid concern. Plus the 930 does give me other benefits.

And this is why this forum is so good. There is a lot of wisdom out there for the asking. Thanks again.

Charles Lorch · January 11, 2005

If you're going to transfer via firewire to your NLE then the 93 should be fine. Give a call to Jeff at Able Cinema @ 212-462-0100. He is very knowledgeable on all the deck options and was a great help to us when we were looking. He can get you a 93 for under $6,000 too.

Scott Rachal · January 12, 2005

We have an SDX900 with an SDI out card. The only thing we use the card for is SDI out to hard drive when we shoot in-studio green/blue screen work. We can run a single cable to a Mac with SDI Input in another room.

Other than that we always shoot to tape.

We had the advantage of having a DVCPRO50 studio deck before we got the SDX900, I should add. Listen to CB though, if you are using a camera in the league of the 900, you need to have a deck.

(How can you shoot hand held sports or music video footage trailing a PA with a laptop? ;-) :P

-Scott

Jay Wood · January 12, 2005

Thanks Charles. I'll check out Able Cinema. And Scott, thanks as well. So, Scott, are you capturing in DVCPRO50 when you transfer via SDI? And obviously your Mac and disk set up is keeping up fine with capturing the video.

Jason McKelvey · January 21, 2005

You could get an SDI input card for your computer. Also remember that the camera VTR records at 8 bit and if you use the SDI output live to a studio or edit VTR, you get a 10 bit recording. Huge difference. I think it was something like 256K color versus 800K. Correct me if I'm wrong.

J

Phil Rhodes · January 21, 2005

Hi,

Careful there - I know it's not what you mean, but the way you put it made it sound like an SDI link to a DVCPRO-50 deck will get you an 8-bit recording, which isn't the case.

8bit/channel resolves (2^8)^3 or 16.7 million different colours; 10bit/channel resolves (2^10)^3, or just over a billion.

Phil

Jan Crittenden · January 23, 2005

Phil,

From the camera head coming off of the back of the SDI output, the camera will send a 10 bit signal as you monitor the camera out. If you monitor the SDI switched to the VTR, it is after the compression algorithm and yes then it is 8 bit. In any of the DVCPRO50 machines, the SDI out will send a 10 bit signal so that you can edit in a 10 bit domain, but when you record back it is an 8 bit format, just as you say.

Hope that helps,

Jan