Sunfox: You are not as out of touch as you think. You got it about 100% right.

V6 will capture HDV when you turn Vidio Capture OFF. (Yes its true. Turn it OFF). V6 will not scene detect; with those long GOPs who can? I never got CineForm to do it. GearShift is a script plugin that gives a great intermediate for editing. It is a must unless you have a key to MIT or NASA at the weekend. That's it - and you knew all that didn't you?

Mike

Cineform is pretty good at scene detection for HDV, but not perfect. So I've found I have to check by reviewing the tape through the camera and recapturing any clips that it hasn't done properly. Not many, but yes, a pain. I find working with the Cineform intermediate is fine (real time), even with some effects applied. However I'm going to give the V6 capture and gearshift proxy a try because it appears to have universal approval.

I played around with Cineform when it first came out, but it didn't work well on my PC (huge memory leak - each Cineform transcoded clip loaded into Vegas would add about 100mb of memory usage that was never freed up; after a couple dozen clips my PC was completely out of memory). I never had a problem with scene detection on Cineform, it actually worked 100% during my tests.

And yes, I too found using Cineform's intermediary format "OK" for editing, but on my P4-3.2Ghz with 1gb memory it was still a very low framerate. When I gave up and switched back to plain DV, I realized how much I prefer 30fps editing.

A question on Gearshift, which I am reading up on. Is it a complete capture utility or merely a way to mass-replace HD with SD clips? For instance, how do you keep the SD and HD versions perfectly in sync? (Back in January I actually experimented with editing in DV and then replacing all the clips with the Cineform equivelant for rendering, but ran into the memory glitch I described earlier).

Does V6 support "virtual" clips yet? For instance, take a single video file and chop it up into multiple "virtual" scenes (something that the otherwise crummy Windows Movie Maker does).

Does V6 support "virtual" clips yet? For instance, take a single video file and chop it up into multiple "virtual" scenes (something that the otherwise crummy Windows Movie Maker does).

1) you mean like... press the "s" key to slpit any clip (event) on the timeline wherever you want?

or

2) using the trimmer select an area within a clip and create a Subclip?

1) has been with us since forever

2) was introduced in V5

Am I missing some subtle definition for "virtual clips" that is different than above?

>"Does V6 support "virtual" clips yet? For instance, take a single video file and chop it up into multiple "virtual" scenes"

I have used save Regions in Trimmer since V3 to create virtual subclips, and by carefully naming each region they can be auto-sorted into any order required.

Edit:

Ah, subclips. Last time I seroiusly messed about with this was V4, never tried it in V5. Now if only we can do scene detection after a capture and make these automatically.

Obviously experiences with Cineform are variable, and it would be nice to understand what are the controlling factors. Real time (ie 25 fps or 30fps, as appropriate to your material) is essential for effective editing, and this is what I see with Cineform intermediate. My present project has over 100 camera shots and obviously many more clips as the editing proceeds. I haven't experienced the severe memory bleeding mentioned and really it's like editing DV. Sony does mention that V6 response reduces as the number of Cineform clips increases and that the preferred method is to render out as each segment is completed. Still early days for me with HDV, so there's a lot yet to finding the most effective work flow.

And... what about the "S" key.... it seemed (to me anyway) that this was maybe a new discovery as well? If not... please do explain how this did not fit your requirement for "virtual" clips?