HDV or AVCHD?

StormMarc wrote on 7/22/2008, 11:29 AM

I have a client that needs a camera recomendation for shooting underwater footage that I will be editing together with my Sony Z1 footage. I was steering them towards the Canon HV30 (HDV camera). But someone at a local dive shop is trying to sell them a Canon HF-100 which uses the AVCHD format.

I seem to recall people having editing problems using AVCHD in Vegas, is that still the case?

Can I mix HDV and AVCHD without problems or am I in for trouble? Would I still use the HDV template?

Thank you, Marc

Comments

DavidMcKnight wrote on 7/22/2008, 11:37 AM

The dive shop might be making that recommendation based on price or size, not ease of editing. AVCHD is more taxing on the PC.

jabloomf1230 wrote on 7/22/2008, 11:48 AM

Or the dive shop may be making the recommendation, based on durability. The HV30 has tapes and a drive mechanism, both items that could be damaged by salt, water or sand. The HF100 uses memory cards. My guess is that this was the controlling factor in the "recommendation". The two camcorders have comparable picture quality. As David similarly stated, if the PC is a newer quad core machine, editing AVCHD with Vegas won't be a problem, else you should go with the HV30.

bsuratt wrote on 7/22/2008, 2:59 PM

You get saltwater, moisture, or sand in either one and you're in trouble.

HDV will simplify your work and probably provide slightly better quality. (You can then choose to smart render the clips from the FX1 and the HV30 for max quality)

farss wrote on 7/22/2008, 3:30 PM

We've got an Amphibico Dive Buddy for our HC7s. It gets used quite regularly by local broadcasters. Only thing that's a bit of a PIA with the combo is the cable for the rear LCD is a tight fit into the housing. Aside from that both the camera and the housing work very well, having the LCD on the rear and full access to all of the camera controls under your thumb makes it a winner. Housing has been in rough surf and down a long way to shoot a WWII Jap midget sub off Sydney Harbour.

Reality is if the housing were to leak it wouldn't matter if the camera used tape or not, it'd almost certainly be a throw away. The only way to prevent that happening is rigorous maintenance of the housing. If disaster did strike and the camera was submerged in water with a bit of work you could probably still play a HDV tape. A CF card however would almost certainly be ruined by electrolysis.

Bob.

StormMarc wrote on 7/23/2008, 6:18 PM

Thanks for the responses. So is it safe to say that mixing HDV and AVCHD on the same timeline is not a problem? Would I use an HDV template in Vegas?

Thanks, Marc

Former user wrote on 7/25/2008, 9:41 PM

I've actually used very vanilla settings for HD projects shooting with two SONY cameras: the CX7 (AVCHD) and the HDR-HC9 (HDV).

To be honest, dragging and dropping onto the timeline hasn't caused any issues when I mix/match the video. I have to say, though, that AVCHD is SO taxing on my system (a 2.6GHz quad core with 4 GB RAM) that I'm opting to reshoot a bunch of supporting footage in HDV (mostly because I have the luxury of doing so).

I've used a Canon H10 or whatever it was. It wasn't as solid as I would have liked, and frankly, with the SONY cameras I got phenomenal output when you switch to 32-bit video (yes, I'm putting HD on Blu-Ray).

In any case, no problem in my experience, but for your sanity (and speed of editing and rendering - just go with HDV). :-)