How to acquire HD footage??

JackW wrote on 3/11/2008, 10:36 PM

I run a company that in the course of a couple of weeks sees source material in VHS and S-VHS, 8mm and Hi-8, miniDV and DVCAM tapes, as well as still pictures on CD and material on DVD. We also do a great deal of 8mm, Super 8 and 16mm film transfer.

So far we've had no trouble acquiring this material. But within the past month or two we're starting to get inquiries about working with HD, in virtually every format imaginable and from every make of camera. For the most part these inquiries have come from consumers -- only a couple of corporate clients.

I really need suggestions regarding how best to acquire this HD material. We're running Vegas Pro 8, but have no HD cameras. Our production work is still in SD, but clearly we need to be able to acquire HD if we're to stay competitive.

Jack

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 3/11/2008, 10:43 PM

There are myriad downloads of HDV, AVCHD, XDCAM EX, XDCAM HD on the web. Maybe start there?
Not sure what you mean by "acquire." In our world, "acquire" means to shoot. But you're not quite suggesting you're shooting?

HD is exceptionally easy to work with, you just need to learn a few of the in's/outs of the various formats.
Vegas manages most of them very, very well.

JackW wrote on 3/11/2008, 11:01 PM

Hi Doug: Thanks for the quick reply. Quite right -- I'm using "acquire" in the sense of getting it into my computer.

Lets say a client brings in a tape shot in HD: can I play it in my DHR-1000 or a PD170 and capture it using Vegas? If not, then what?

Jack

johnmeyer wrote on 3/12/2008, 12:30 AM

You will certainly need a camera that can play back miniDV tapes that have recorded HDV format. The HV20 has gotten cheap, but perhaps the low-end Sony would be better (in terms of ability to play back tapes from many manufacturers camcorders). From what I've read in these forums, there may be some variations in how HDV is recorded, so I don't know if Canon HDV camcorders can playback Sony HDV. Someone else will have to tell you.

For the camcorders that record to hard drives, or recordable discs, or solid state memory, all you do is copy the files. You almost certainly have one of those all-in-one memory card readers that can read SD, CompactFlash, etc.

It sounds like you are dealing mostly with consumers, so I don't think you have to worry about the more exotic, high-end HD formats.

So, bottom line, if someone can suggest an HDV camcorder that can handle tapes from the largest number of camcorders from different manufacturers, that may be the only purchase you need to make.

I handle all the same formats you mentioned, although I don't have DVCAM, and I have had to borrow equipment to do Hi-8 and Digital 8 (I have a nice old 8mm deck for regular 8mm video). Someone just gave me a Beta video machine that worked perfectly (I did the transfer and they didn't want it back.

Now, can you do 78 rpm records? How about Audiograph dictation discs? Large format still photo negatives? Glass negatives? I've done some pretty old stuff.

farss wrote on 3/12/2008, 1:48 AM

Start with one of the Sony HDV VCRs, don't go below the M15 though.
That'll give you HDV, DV and DVCAM for both 50Hz and 60Hz (aka PAL and NTSC). Footage from some of the Canon cameras cannot be handled through any of the Sony VCRs though so a bottom end Canon HDV camera is your only option if you have to cover all the bases.
Those pieces of kit aren't expensive. The rest of the HD world is either on P2 or SxS cards, nothing expensive needed to handle them if they come along, certainly cheaper than anything tape. Once you get above the prosummer HDV / XDCAM systems prices escalate rather dramaticaly VCR wise.

Bob.

JJKizak wrote on 3/12/2008, 6:47 AM

Not sure but there was a company in Texas acquiring, purchasing and "Hoarding" tons of HD material only. Don't know the "Hows" or "rules of aquization".
JJK