Intermediate codec for HDV to SD?

nolonemo wrote on 4/12/2008, 9:03 AM
I am working on a project where I have to take HDV footage, apply pan/crop to get 4:3 A/R and render to 720x480 so I can provide the result to a collaborator for intercutting into an SD project being edited in FCP (which will be rendered to MPEG-2 for authoring). Should I just use the Vegas DV codec, or is there a another one that will give better PQ? I need to keep the length around DV size of 13GB per hour.

Thanks.

Comments

Laurence wrote on 4/12/2008, 9:12 AM
You can also use the Cineform codec at SD as well as HD resolutions. The advantage over the Vegas DV codec is that the color space is better and will keep the color intensity through to the mpeg2 DVD render. The Cineform codec is also available for the Mac so this would be a viable route.

Aside from the color space issue, the Vegas DV codec is very good: better than competing DV codecs by quite a ways IMHO. FCP will have no problem working with the Vegas (or any other) DV codec.
johnmeyer wrote on 4/12/2008, 10:14 AM
The DV codec is great when starting with DV, but with HDV, the reduction in colorspace is noticeable. I'd use the HuffYUV free codec. I haven't used Cineform at SD resolutions, so I don't know whether there are any hidden issues (probably aren't).
John_Cline wrote on 4/12/2008, 12:20 PM
I used HuffYUV all the time, but then I switched over to Lagarith. It makes lossless files up to half the size of HuffYUV, will use multiple cores for encoding, is available in both 32 and 64 bit versions, supports alpha and the codec is still being actively developed. The only downside is that it isn't quite as fast as HuffYUV on single core systems.

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nolonemo wrote on 4/12/2008, 12:34 PM
Thanks for the suggestions. One thing I forgot to mention is that whatever I give him has to be "plug and play" with his Mac and FCP - he is not at all technical, and I don't want to introduce problems arising from him having to download and install codecs. Does this affect any of the above recommendations?

Thanks again.
Seth wrote on 4/12/2008, 3:16 PM
Cineform is supported on both Mac OS and Windows.