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Canon HDV in Premiere 5.5; help me end the nightmare.

David.rhsc

David.rhsc

So,

I should have known better going into this project since I have had issues with HDV in Premiere on earlier versions. I just sidestepped it by using a Vegas demo at the time.

So, here I am again with some HDV tapes from XH-A1, with fancy new 5.5, and the sound drift issues are as bad as ever.

I'm currently attempting to capture with HDVSplit, but it seems that my desktop machine doesn't have to horsepower to do splits on the fly (causing the app to crash). Attempting a full tape capture now, and will probably attempt to split it with the app before testing in premiere for drift.

The material is videography from a "Teach In" session at a local law school by a refugee/asylum seeker advocacy group, and thus the 4 tapes basically just roll through. In my past experience with Canon HDV in Premiere (CS3 and CS4) even if I capture the clips in short pieces, the drift ultimately appears.

Anyone have some best practice recommendations for this kind of work flow?

The A1 represents the master shot, and while I asked that the operator shoot at 24p, I seem to recall that the footage from these cameras is interlaced no matter what? I'm mixing with footage from my GH2 in what will most likely be a 720/24p timeline for YT/Vimeo and internal network consumption.

Maybe I should not have bought all of Adobe's hype about not needing to transcode except at output - hypothetically one is supposed to be able to mix footage types in a given timeline without issues in 5.5 - but perhaps that takes more juice than my spiffy, if aging desktop machine. :rolleyes:

FWIW:

Windows 7 64Bit
E8400
4GB RAM
~1.75 TB storage
GT 7800 256MB
"NoName" Firewire card.
 
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Thanks Steve, I may look into that as another option. I'm finding claims around the internet that this sort of thing isn't supposed to happen in 5.5 any more if you use the Scene Split feature. Unfortunately these tapes have no split points that Premiere can find.

Also, HDVsplit created an empty file in my test run with scene split unselected. Looks like it's not the answer on that machine.
 
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Crap. I think I had that installed (the demo) a while back. May not be able to do the trial a second time on the same machine. I only played with it a little bit and seemed to get kinda crappy results. I chalked it up to operator error on my part though.

I did find info here:

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/828/cpsid_82848.html

Referencing in-camera settings that can cause the problem. Camera output signal was set to Auto (downsampling off, letterboxing off) which can allegedly cause the condition I've been experiencing.

I'll report back after this test capture has gone long enough for me to consider it a viable test.

Neoscene will probably be the answer though, it'll also get rid of that weird 1440 1:33 pixel ratio thing as well, right? (while doing the 24F to 24P conversion).

Sigh, this is the crap I know the least about. Transcoding, encoding, decoding, blah, blah blah.

I was really hoping that Adobe's promise that all of that was becoming extraneous was true. No really, I went to their Road Show in SF. They Promised!!! :lol:

Alternative scenario is that the Neoscene demo goes on the lady's machine and I do the captures there then transfer the files via lan. I'll try getting it back on my machine first though.

Edit:

In-camera setting may have been the problem the entire time. 18 minute clip captured in PP5.5 worked fine in source viewer, though I didn't test it in a mis-matched timeline yet.

Not convinced this will be the way I go completely. Testing a full length capture (well, the remainder of this tape anyway) now and will see how it behaves. Neoscene is probably still in my future.
 
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David.rhsc said:
Neoscene will probably be the answer though, it'll also get rid of that weird 1440 1:33 pixel ratio thing as well, right? (while doing the 24F to 24P conversion).
Click to expand...

Nope, you're stuck with that, but here's the good news. If you have mixed resolution clips, go with the higher in your project preferences and Premiere will let you insert HDV footage without you having to do anything.
 
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Okay, that reel seems to have captured okay. Initial test clip was fine, remainder of the reel works in:

-- Source Viewer.

-- Native sequence (HDV/24)

-- 1080 test sequence (AVCHD 1080p/24) - yellow bar, playback without render
-- 720 test sequence (again AVCHD) - red bar, playback after render.

This was the particular solution, so far:

Some other HDV devices have an AUTO option for the output format. AUTO isn't always reliable. If your device has such an option, then select DV or HDV instead of AUTO.
Click to expand...

I'm skeptical. Taking a short break, but doing more captures tonight. If this keeps working I may reserve testing neoscene, otoh while I have the hardware (ie the camera, not mine) I may want to do some neoscene side by side stuff.

Curious to know if people with 5.5 are still doing neoscene on .mts files (gh2 in particular) or if you've made the switch to the native editing route?
 
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If you're going to push and pull color, you still need the 4:2:2 that Neoscene gives you. Native is fine for YouTube.

I convert everything I can and save RAM for other stuff.
 
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CamVader said:
If you're going to push and pull color, you still need the 4:2:2 that Neoscene gives you. Native is fine for YouTube.

I convert everything I can and save RAM for other stuff.
Click to expand...

Oh ffs, of course I will want that. Not even certain why I asked that question. :P Oh I know, lack of food and computer frustration. *faceplam*

Hmm. It might have to go on another machine just to run a few clips through for a different project. It's not that spendy but I am rather broke atm and would want to play with it again before dropping $$ on it.
 
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