Editing enormous files.

[JimmyC]

I've got a Canon T2i and I'm thinking of getting a Black Magic Hyperdeck Shuttle with a 60GB SSD, to record uncompressed footage direct from the Canon's HDMI out.

I expect to use this setup only for recording short scenes that I will be adding chromakey and similar effects to, in After Effects. I hope to be able to then import that processed footage into Premiere or Final Cut Express and add it to the timeline of my movie.

My question is: will I need to instal a codec on my iMac to recognise the uncompressed footage from the SSD? And secondly, will such huge uncompressed files be virtually impossible to edit in a imac 3.06 Ghz Core 2 Duo, with only 16GB RAM?

Thanks.

[Steve Grisetti]

You won't get uncompressed footage from this camera, Jimmy. It records to H.264 MOVs (H.264 being the codec the cam uses to compress the video when it saves it). Although I don't know the cam, so I'll take your work for it that you can use it as a video cam to record directly to a computer via HDMI. (So does this mean you're going to carry your iMac around with you every time you go on a video shoot?)

In any event, your Mac should have everything you need to work with this video. Especially if you've got After Effects installed (which adds the Adobe Media Encoder and its codecs to your machine).

We'd love to hear of the results when you do a test drive of this direct-to-computer video shoot! (I'm eager to hear if the video comes in truly uncompressed.)

[Bob]

Steve, that's a standalone recorder. You plug an SSD into it like a memory stick and record off the HDMI connection on the camera.

[Chuck Engels]

That's similar to what we do at church for our live feed and internet broadcast. The Black Magic stuff is pretty awesome.

[sidd finch]

Hey Chuck I could not help but notice the irony of using a black magic product to capture heavenly services.

But as the story goes Good always wins.

Sidd

[Chuck Engels]

I'm not crazy about the name but you're right about the irony

[Bob]

My question is: will I need to instal a codec on my iMac to recognise the uncompressed footage from the SSD? And secondly, will such huge uncompressed files be virtually impossible to edit in a imac 3.06 Ghz Core 2 Duo, with only 16GB RAM?

You won't need to install any codecs. I looked at the specs and it records on the SSD as uncompressed Quicktime files. As long as you have Quicktime installed, you'll have the necessary codecs.

Uncompressed video is tough on most systems due to the large data bandwidth and processing requirements. SSD will definitely help. You will need an SSD dock to directly access the drive. USB will not be fast enough. With a windows PC, eSata SSD docks are available. I'm not a Mac user, so I don't follow what's available for the iMac. I understand the newer iMacs use Thunderbolt. I haven't heard that Thunderbolt SSD docks are available yet.

[JimmyC]

You won't need to install any codecs.
Uncompressed video is tough on most systems due to the large data bandwidth and processing requirements. SSD will definitely help.
You will need an SSD dock to directly access the drive.

Aah, thanks, Bob, that's exactly what I needed to know.

(Since asking that question, I've learned that when the 550D sends its HDMI signal out to an SSD, it includes the little white focussing square as well! Dang! That's alright, though, I'll use my Canon HV40 instead, with the Shuttle).

Thanks for the help, gents.

Cheers.

[Chuck Engels]

You can turn off the focusing square, can't you?

[JimmyC]

You can turn off the focusing square, can't you?

Not sure, Chuck. I think you can, but it requires a bit of fiddling which I'm not confident about. I think if you do the Magic Lantern hack for the T2i, it's easy. But I haven't worked up the gumption to try that hack.

But in any case, I've decided I'll use my HV40 for this kind of filming.

[Bob]

I forgot to mention that I'm not sure whether the dual core iMac will have enough processing power to handle editing uncompressed video smoothly. If it turns out that that is the case, you can convert the video to a lossless intermediate codec and that should edit easily.

[JimmyC]

I forgot to mention that I'm not sure whether the dual core iMac will have enough processing power to handle editing uncompressed video smoothly. If it turns out that that is the case, you can convert the video to a lossless intermediate codec and that should edit easily.

Yes, that was a concern of mine too, Bob. But as you say, if worse comes to worst I'll use ProRes or Lagarith or something. At least the footage will not have been initially compressed by the camera at the outset, so I'll still gain some image quality.