HD downconversion to SD

[Maukka]

I don't know much about HD yet, so maybe I am mising the point completely, but here goes:

HD cameras have a function that allows you to downcovert HD footage to standard definition. I have undestood that in order to keep files sizes acceptable, the HD material is always MPEG compressed.
But what kind exactly then are the downconverted standard definition files? Are they also be MPEG compressed? Or are they uncompressed DV files, which you then edit as AVI files?

Are the settings for this downconversion defined in the camera itself or in MSP HD plug-in?

Anybody?

Thanks,
Maukka

[Devil]

I've no experience, but I have seen some cameras offer recording in SD DV format (which is NEVER uncompressed) or in MPEG HD. I could well imagine that others may do the SD in MPEG. Whether or not they convert from HD to SD on the fly (as a data stream) would be optional. It could always be done in the editor. However, there are precautions that need to be taken with conversions to obtain best results.

[Maukka]

Thanks for such a quick reply.

I am considering buying a Sony HDR-HC1 camera, which has this downcoonversion function. But before buying I wanted to make sure I don't end up, after such conversion, with MPG compresed SD files. The people in my local Sony store were unable to help...

Maukka

[Bignosetw]

I have one sitting here on my desk. It downconverts from the MPEG2 HDV to standard DV. Results look pretty good, although I must say if you want to do real production work, I'd save up the extra money and get a 3-chip Sony.

Either way, once you have captured the HDV in MediaStudio Pro 8, you can convert that to any other format. You can even mix and match formats on the timeline, and for that matter, you can UPconvert your DV footage to HD if you want. So I would suggest you capture HDV, do your edit and effects, THEN downconvert your entire project to SD- whether that would be DV or DVD compliant MPEG-2, whatever.

MSP 8 will control the camera and let you do batch capture and write-back to camcorder. And if you select the Downsample to DV option, you can even scan your tape and get a thumbnail album of all your shots.

Regards

Tobie

[Maukka]

THANKS!

That was a lot of help.

Maukka