Field Capture: Hardware, Software & Workflow????

MH_Stevens wrote on 9/2/2007, 8:08 PM
For those of you who have nothing to do this holiday weekend here is a a couple of questions relating to Vegas HDV capture to HHD and field monitoring and processing.

My films are desert nature docs and I like being out in the wild and just hate it when I get home and load up a tape I had high for and see there is a problem I didn't see in the camera LCD, so I am experimenting with field capture to HDD and field editing. The software I have at hand is On Location for monitoring and capture, Cineform NEO for a intermediary codex and Vegas 7 for the edit.

For hardware I started with an HP 9000cl laptop running 32-bit Vista with Dual Core T7300 2.0MHz, 2 GB RAM, GeForce 8600M GS and two 160MB 5400rpm HHD. This is well within Adobe and Sony specifications but it did not work for me. Capture was flawless. I captured to the HD where Vegas resides as MPEG with zero dropped frames.

THE MAJOR PROBLEM: Very poor and shaky images from the field monitor. When panning with the camera the monitor jumped like at 2 frames per second. Horrible! I ask where do I need more in the hardware. Better video card like the ATI 2600? Jump to a 2.2GHz processor? 64-bit which allows full use of 4GB RAM? The bore is that to jump from this $1400 machine to anything like questioned means paying $3800, a $2400 jump.

Also two Field Work-flow / Vegas capture questions.

1) Capture mpeg or m2t for Cineform NEO?

2) Where to set Zebra black point? My camera (FX1) has no black stretch so the bottom end detail is always a challenge.

Hope some of you can help. Cheers Mike.

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 9/2/2007, 8:51 PM
Change your prefs in Onlocation to I&P frames and not just I frames. That alone will help you a lot.
Bear in mind that Onlocation is always slightly latent.
Capture M2T and convert later.
MH_Stevens wrote on 9/2/2007, 8:57 PM
Hi Douglas:
I've been meaning to ask if you got the vid that was meant to rest you before NAM.

What about the black point?

Cheers,

Michael
farss wrote on 9/2/2007, 9:21 PM
What about the black point?

I guess you're referring to shadow detail?

In the end the camera has only so much latitude (dynamic range) and you cannot control the lighting so I think really all you can do is decide to blow out the highlights or get more in the shadows. Even with black stretch which helps a little there's always the noise floor of the CCDs that gets you. The only way forward unfortunately is biggers chips, all else being equal.

Bob.