Mix MiniDV & HDV in Vegas 9, can I? Should I.

DWhitevidman wrote on 12/21/2009, 1:11 PM
Admittingly I'm a part-time wedding videographer, only 5 this year, but I've done real nice work with my Sony VX2100 3ccd camera. Now I have a good friend, who's got to have HD.

I'm having to rent cameras to shoot in HD, but I'm courious if I could mix a wide shot using the standard def sony, with closeups using the HD.

Can I mix these in Vegas?

And more importantly should I.

Last, do I really need to purchase HD versions of the miniDV tapes?

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 12/21/2009, 1:35 PM
Can you? Certainly!

Should you? Well, only if you want to use the SD shots and can't get them any other way, which seems to be the case.

Dunno about the tapes, sorry.
TLF wrote on 12/21/2009, 1:54 PM
You can mix them, with little problem if your system is powerful enough to cope with HDV.

I mix HDV with standard def mov and avi files (from stills cameras) with absolutely no problem. I'm downsampling to SD, so I can mix formats and resolutions without impacting upon the final quality of my movie.

You do NOT have to purchase HD mini-DV tapes. No more than you need to purchase directional cable for your speakers. I'm happily using normal Mini DV tapes in both my Canon HV20 and Sony FX1. Not a single dropout in two years' use.
DWhitevidman wrote on 12/21/2009, 2:01 PM
Thanks to both of you, this is just what I was looking for.
CorTed wrote on 12/21/2009, 2:12 PM
I own both the VX2100 and the Canon HV20.
Last summer I did a project which used the HV20 mostly, and took my VX2100 (set up on widescreen mode) when I had inside (evening) shots.
As you know the VX2100 has great low light capabilities.
I mixed both footages on the timeline which worked just fine. My result was to be delivered in both Blu-ray and DVD. I have always praised my vx2100 for superior picture but was quite disappointed when you mix it with the HDV shots from the HV20. This was surely noticable on the blu ray version but less so on the DVD version.
So to answer your question:
Can I? Most definetely!
Should I? When you do, you WILL see the differences between the formats. Depends on how picky you are.

Ted