HV20,30 and 40 work flow?

[hpharley90]

Other members who are using these cameras could you be so kind as to tell and explain your work flow from capture, edit, and burn to disc.
I'm overwhelmed with all the different ways to go from capture to disc.
Whether HI DEF or SD.

[Steve Grisetti]

Are you ultimately looking to create a DVD or a BluRay disc from your video? Knowing where you ultimately want to end up helps you figure out how to begin.

[Chuck Engels]

Here is mine, pretty straight forward these days whether it is for personal use or a wedding.

Capture HDV with HDVSplit. Import files into Premire Pro CS3 or Premiere Elements 7.
Which program only depends on if I am at my office using my laptop, that doesn't have Premiere Pro on it or if it is less than 30 minutes of footage.

From there I will burn to Standard DVD, Blu Ray, or export various files for the web. I don't do any HDV projects longer than 30 minutes (generally less) in Premiere Elements. Premiere Pro has handled as much as 4 hours without it slowing down too much. But in Premiere Pro I will have as many as 6 sequences (separate timelines) so that helps I'm sure. In Premiere Elements it would be separate projects instead, too much work.

When I say 30 minutes vs 4 hours that means total length of video clips in the media panel, not the length of the project
My longest HDV project has been about 1 hour and 15 minutes in Premiere Pro, the longest project in Premiere Elements has been about 10 minutes.

Not sure what else you were looking for Richard but would be glad to answer any other questions you might have.

[Bobby]

I (now) always capture HD, using HDVSplit - resulting in .m2t files on disk, split by timecode.

I use the "HDV 1080i 30" preset in PRE7 and edit.

For standard definition DVDs, I output to standard definition AVI files using Share / Personal Computer / DV-AVI for input into DVD Architect Studio. I use DVDAS to create a menu system for the DVD, and output the DVD image to disc from there.

If I am going to output to another type, such as an image for Vimeo, I output to QuickTime (.mov files) and use a custom preset I made to the Vimeo specifications.

I now have a media player box (Patriot Box Office - PBO) and am experimenting with the correct file format for that.

Does that help?

[hpharley90]

Are you ultimately looking to create a DVD or a BluRay disc from your video

DVD Yes.

Not sure what else you were looking for Richard but would be glad to answer any other questions you might have.

This is good.

Does that help?

Oh yes.

I see that neither of you down convert in camera for SD.
Is it better to bring the mpeg file into editing software (PPRO CS3) then export clip as DV-AVI to burn to SD disc?

[Chuck Engels]

In Premiere Elements 3 and 4 it was best to down convert in the camera, but since version 7 things seem to have improved in that respect. The down conversion to SD in the software seems to be of excellent quality now, not sure what changed.

[Bobby]

I started off with my HV-30 downconverting in-camera. But I eventually came to the realization that in the future I may want to re-do an SD project in HD. There wasn't much difference in workflow either way, and this way I have an option in the future. Of course, you could just re-capture in HD, but that would be a duplication of effoert.

[Chuck Engels]

I think there was a lot of concern in earlier versions of Premiere Elements. It seemed like down converting in the camera gave better SD results. That isn't the case anymore but could still be an issue if you are using version 3 or 4 of Premiere Elements.

[Rockdoc]

I still downconvert in the camera with my HV20. This is primarily because I am working computers not up to editing HD. From your specs above, this doesn't look like it will be an issue for you, but I thought I'd chime in to answer your question.

[Chuck Engels]

Jennifer, do you have a dual core processor? If you do then it will handle HDV from the HV20, just not AVCHD from other High Definition cameras. You might want to give it a try sometime just to see.

[hpharley90]

In Premiere Elements 3 and 4 it was best to down convert in the camera, but since version 7 things seem to have improved in that respect. The down conversion to SD in the software seems to be of excellent quality now, not sure what changed.

Thanks for that info Chuck. I've never upgraded from PE2.0 and have since gotten PPro CS3.

I started off with my HV-30 downconverting in-camera. But I eventually came to the realization that in the future I may want to re-do an SD project in HD. There wasn't much difference in workflow either way, and this way I have an option in the future.

Excellent point Bobby. My first tape I have set for down converting in camera. I'm just shooting anything right now to get familiar with camera.
I will change setting rewind and continue.

This is primarily because I am working computers not up to editing HD. From your specs above, this doesn't look like it will be an issue for you,

Thanks for chiming in Jennifer.
I wondering about that and am glad to hear that I should have no problems.