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High Definition Video for Independent Filmmakers
A How To Guide for Digital Filmmakers
Welcome all! This is my blog to share my latest research,
thoughts, etc. on utilizing HD for independent filmmaking.

YES, I am available for consulting
Contact me at mike@hdforindies.com

All content copyright 2004-2007 Mike Curtis.

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

HD For Indies Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Version 0.61 

MIKE CURTIS' HD FOR INDIES EDITING FAQ, version 0.61

OK, so here's my FAQ. If it isn't in here, I may not have caught up enough to the recent stuff. But this is a good place to start. If you don't find the answer to what you're looking for, and you can't find it using the search function, or if you just want me to walk you through it, I am available for consulting by emailing me at mike@hdforindies.com. I charge $150/hr, one hour minimum, additional time billed at fractions of an hour. Typically, you give me a call at a pre-arranged time, we chat on the phone to answer your questions, and then you drop a check in the mail to me and we're done until you might want some more assistance.

UPDATED AUGUST 20, 2005 - I've added links to BUNCH more articles I've written/linked to having to do with workflow, why HD, Digital Intermediates, etc. I've also added links to the tape formats section that offer much greater detail on the cameras/formats/resolution issues involved, especially the "what's missing here?" article.

UPDATED JUNE 13, 2005 - scroll to bottom, I've added links to some of my "Why DIY HD?" from when I started this blog.

UPDATED 5/9/05 - rearranged a few sections, tidied up the Table of Contents, inserted long bitching section on why high def H.264 won't play on your crappy old Mac, revised AJA vs Blackmagic section, started rough outline on tape formats section

UPDATED TWICE, LAST TIME 10/16/05 - added a bunch more articles of interest, including a 10/15/05 article comparing the currently interesting sub $10,000 US) HD camcorders either on the market or announced and shipping supposedly this year

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OK, this started as a simple note about four plus hours ago, and I'm still typing. So this is now a major posting to HD For Indies, and will probably be a reference point for months to come. This article covers what systems can edit what video formats, mostly centering on recent era machines, mostly centering on HD video formats (but DV is included).

This is a rough draft, I'll keep honing on it (I hope). it ain't purty, but there's lots of good info in here.

This covers the specs on the new Macs, and what models will and won't be able to edit which formats of video including DV, HDV, DVCPRO HD, and compressed and uncompressed HD video via HD-SDI. Also, playback of H.264 high definition content is addressed.

...and then more stuff is addressed, to the point I'm adding a Table of Contents, which must mean I'm getting serious about this stuff.


-----------------------

Frequently Asked Questions

Apple Announces New Macs (spring 2005)

Editing HD Content - What's Required?
(this is a whole section, broken down below)

Q: What if I want to edit my HD masterpiece at a standard definition offline resolution? Such as if you don't have the money/equipment for the full-on HD online thang

EDITING DVCPRO HD-What's required?

EDITING HDV-What's required? - includes discussions of iMovieHD, Final Cut Pro 4.5 (using LumiereHD or HDVxDV), Final Cut Pro 5

EDITING P2 based DVCPRO HD - What's required?

EDITING HDCAM, D-5, HDCAM SR or other HD-SDI based HD-What's required?

Editing Uncompressed HD - What's required?

SUMMARY OF WHICH MACS WILL EDIT WHAT KIND OF HD FOOTAGE - this is a whole section, with models below, for each below I answer:

What can I edit/play back on my:

iBook
PowerBook
eMac
iMac
PowerMac G4
PowerMac G5

APPLE'S PUBLISHED REQUIREMENTS SPECS FOR H.264, Final Cut Pro 5 AND Final Cut Express HD

High Definition H.264 Playback Requirements-updated 5/9/05


Apple's Final Cut Pro 5 System Requirements

Apple's Final Cut Express HD System Requirements

Tape Formats Defined in rough order of quality (this is a rough work in progress)
VHS
Digital8
DV
DVCPRO/DVCAM
DVCPRO50
IMX
BetaSP
Digibeta (Digital Betacam)
HDV
P2
DVCPRO HD
HDCAM
D-5
HDCAM SR 4:2:2
HDCAM SR 4:4:4
uncompressed to disk

Links to Articles, Editorials, Workflow Discussions, Etc. of Interest - there's LOTS of good stuff in here, dig around. I keep coming back and adding to it, I'm not even up to this year on catching up on good articles.

COMPROMISES AND WORKAROUNDS FOR THE POOR AND (financially) STARVING INDIE - this is another section, really the FAQ part.

Q: I've shot my opus on HDV, but Final Cut Pro 5 isn't out yet. What do I do?

Q: I've got this HD footage to edit, it's on a hard drive...now how do I edit & monitor it on my non-PCI-X computer?

Q: Ingest: "I've got footage from the following tape formats, how to I get it into my computer?"
This section includes HD-SDI ingest based formats (HDCAM, HDCAM SR, D-5), as well as the FireWire (aka IEEE 1394a, also called iLink by Sony) based ingest formats: HDV, DVCPRO HD, ProHD, and DV

Q: OK, I've shot on Format So & So which I now understand I can't edit on my current machine. What can I do?

Q: What are my HD monitoring options? How do I see my HD stuff on a video, not computer screen?

Q: DAMN! Those HD-SDI professional monitors are expensive! How can I save money and NOT buy one of those?

Q: What's better? AJA Kona2 or Blackmagic DeckLink HD Pro?

FireWire 800 - don't I need that for HD?

Q: OK then, what about storage for uncompressed HD?

end table of contents

NEW MACS ANNOUNCED

Apple announced more new computers today, new iMacs and eMacs. So it's time to go over what you can do with all of these new machines for HD purposes. If you just want the "yes/no" list for your computer, scroll to end of article.

New iMacs:

1.8 or 2.0 GHz G5, 600 or 667 MHz bus.
17 or 20 inch screen
512 MB RAM
ATI 9600 graphics w/128 MB VRAM
Combo or dual layer SuperDrive (SD on 20" model only)
-ships with Tiger and iLife 05
-Bluetooth 2.0+EDR & Airport Extreme
17" 1440-by-900 screen with 1.8 GHz Combo drive ($1299) or 20" 1650x1080 inch screen with 2.0 GHz SuperDrive (($1799)
intermediate model with 2.0 GHz, 17" screen, SuperDrive is $1499

New eMacs: $799 & $999
($799 model)
17-inch flat CRT display
1.42GHz PowerPC G4
256MB DDR333 SDRAM
80GB Ultra ATA drive
Combo drive
ATI Radeon 9600
64MB video memory
56k internal modem

An extra $200 gets you 512MB memory, a 160 GB drive, and a dual layer capable SuperDrive

OK, so here's the good stuff:

We'll start with the basics:

EDITING HD CONTENT-What's Required?



Let's start with the easy stuff and work our way up:
Q: What if I want to edit my HD masterpiece at a standard definition offline resolution since I don't have the money or a hoss enough system? Can I do that on my G3/G4 based system?

A: Maybe. Apple's stated specs for Final Cut Pro 5 (due in about a month) is an 867 MHz G4 or faster, or any G5. You can run it on slower hardware, but it may not do what you need it to do.

Final Cut Express HD's specs for DV require 500 MHz G4 desktop of 550 MHz G4 laptop.
EDITING DVCPRO HD-What's required?

Q: OK, let's start looking at real HD. What about that DVCPRO HD stuff Apple was crowing about last year? I heard there's a new camera coming out from Panasonic for $6000 that shoots this format later this year?

Panasonic's $65,000 Varicam shoots 720p at any frame rate from 4 to 60 fps. As for cheaper options, pep - the HVX200 from Panasonic will record 720p or 1080p or 1080i DVCPRO HD, and should be very impressive. Records onto P2 cards, but that's another topic.

As for editing it: a 1 GHz G4 or better is required (this includes any G5), single or dual processor. So no, your old dual 500 doesn't count, and I don't know about dual 867's, Apple is saying they aren't fast enough. And minimal specs are usually MINIMAL specs, so 1 GHz is the threshold that matters. Laptops count in this category though - I can edit Varicam footage on my 12" PowerBook (even if I can't see all the pixels in the video, even in full screen mode).

If you have a G3, you are apparently SOL in the modern world. Time to upgrade, big time.


EDITING HDV-What's required?

Q: OK, but that's either too expensive or not out yet. What about HDV? I hear it's Sliced Bread 2.0 combined with The Second Coming.

A: I consider HDV to be the Second Coming of DV. More pixels, still not full-on pro quality, but a helluva deal for the money.

HDV has two flavors at the moment, and will have a third later this year (sometime summertime, ProHD). There are two sizes/types of HDV - 720p and 1080i. At present, JVC makes a 720p camera, and it sucks rocks, so skip it. Then there's Sony's 1080i HDV cameras, the HDR-FX1 and the HVR-Z1U. They pretty much rock the house, especially for the money (about $3500 and $5000 each online). Get the Z1U if you can afford it.

There's a variant called ProHD coming out from JVC, first camera expected in July, it's 720p but can do 24fps. You'll need a third party tool like LumiereHD to assist in the 24p part, Final Cut Pro 5 can't handle it natively.

To edit HDV, you will need one of the following:

iMovieHD, part of iLife '05, $99, and a 1 GHz G4 (or faster) and 512MB RAM installed.

Pros: cheep.
Cons: transcodes to AIC (implies a quality loss), VERY limited editing/export capabilities. That article I wrote about using iMovieHD to get AIC into FCP? There are problems with it, doesn't quite work.

Final Cut Express HD with a 1GHz G4 (or any G5) or faster with 1 GB RAM installed.

Pros: light hardware requirements, low cost ($300)
Cons: transcodes to AIC, not native editing (implies a quality loss), reduced feature set as compared to Final Cut Pro HD

Final Cut Pro 4.5 - requires third party software to get HDV into it, such as LumiereHD or HDVxDV. iMovieHD trick doesn't quite work, so never you mind.

Pros: Hey, it works, and works now, and you can pick your editing codec of choice depending on desired workflow, amount of storage you have available, and capabilities of your Mac.
Cons: much more complex workflow. System requirements vary depending on working codec chosen. Search HDV, LumiereHD, or HDVxDV with the Google bar at top of webpage for lots more info.

Final Cut Pro 5: Ahhhh......now it's easy...in about a month. Native HDV editing, but more of a processor hit than DVCPRO HD or any standard definition format. Expect to see more progress bars, expect to wait for rendering if you're on the minimally spec'd machine, which is a 1 GHz processor (G4 or G5, single or dual will do) with 1GB of RAM installed (2GB recommended). So you'll be able to edit native HDV on a laptop if you wish. Rockin!

EDITING P2 based DVCPRO HD - What's required?

Q: What about this new P2 based, $6000 HD camera from Panasonic coming out (AG-HVX200, due Q4)?

A: There are three issues with it:
1.) Can your machine edit it?
2.) How can you get the footage in there in the first place?
3.) Can you see all of the resolution of the footage on your monitor, all at the same time?

Answer 1: It's DVCPRO HD codec, same as Varicam, so 1 GHz G4 or faster. No, sorry, your dual 500 G4 doesn't cut it.

Answer 2: If you have a laptop with a PC Card slot, you can pop it in there. Or an external one connected to a Mac. Drivers aren't perfect yet for that, but you can drag the files over. For direct integration into Final Cut Pro 5, you need the little P2 reader. The only one on the market is either $2000 or $2500, can't recall off the top of my head. Ouch. But it'll pull the footage into FCP with timecode etc. I expect a better driver and cheaper reading options by the time the camera ships.

Answer 3: For 720p work, you'll need a screen of at LEAST 1280x720 to see all of the image, full size, pixel for pixel, at the same time. For 1080 res work, 1920x1080 or bigger. As a practical matter, more pixels is better so you can have the image full size AND a menu bar and other stuff on screen. 15" PowerBook (no iBooks), 17" G5 iMac, minimum for 720p work to see it all at once. There are also broader issues of monitoring involved - if you don't have the AJ-1200A deck available whenever you want to do color critical work (like color correct), you'll HAVE to be on a dual 2.0 (older not newer), dual 2.3, dual 2.5, or dual 2.7 GHz G5 with an AJA Kona2 or Blackmagic Design DeckLink HD card (several variants), and some kind of video monitor (not computer monitor). More on this later.

EDITING HDCAM, D-5, or other HD-SDI based HD-What's required?

Q: OK, I'm ready to step up to the big leagues now - I want to edit HDCAM material, or work with 720p footage NOT coming over FireWire. This also includes D-5 and HDCAM SR. What do I do?

A: OK, now we're stepping up the requirements substantially. To edit HDCAM in ANY fashion, WHATSOEVER requires an AJA Kona2 or a card from the Blackmagic Design Decklink HD line (there are several). These are the relevant shipping products: there are older cards to be ignored, and CineWave has been cut off at the root by Avid's acquisition of Pinnacle. These two card lines are the two viably available, affordable, supported, smart-to-buy choices. I really wouldn't look at anything else.

To work with an AJA or BMD HD card, you HAVE to have PCI-X slots, and the vendors recommend dual processors. I've seen capture work on single processor G5's, but I don't know how well the other features would work. This is where it gets complicated. Over the past few years, there have been PowerMac G5s with single or dual 1.8 or 2.0 GHz processors. SOME of them have PCI-X, some of them don't. It used to be a safe bet that a dual 2.0 GHz G5 would work for any HD project. That is NOT the case with the new model. The only simple way to be sure is to verify it has PCI-X slots, and is a dual 2.0 GHz G5. The new ones, with dual layer DVD burners? No PCI-X, therefore these cards would only work in standard definition. Bummer. SO: just be sure.

To continue: a PCI-X enabled dual 2.0 GHz or faster G5, AJA Kona2 or BMD DeckLink HD (or HD Plus or HD Pro) card.

If you can only afford a non-RAID hard drive solution, you're stuck working at compressed HD resolutions. DVCPRO HD, PhotoJPEG, and the like.

Editing Uncompressed HD - What's required?

DO YOU WANT TO DO UNCOMPRESED HD? Then you need very fast storage, on the order of 200 MB/sec for 1080i work. If you're just doing 720p24 work, you can get by with under 80 MB/sec under certain circumstances, carefully prepped, etc. etc. disclaimer disclaimer. Read up on SATA RAID (using the Google bar at top of page), I've written tons on this stuff. SATA cards from Sonnet, Firmtek, Highpoint (beware that one for now!) and others coming to market make it possible to do uncompressed HD work, albeit with RAID 0, which means if any one drive fails the whole RAID volume goes down with it. But it's cheap, in the $1-$2/GB range. Fault tolerant storage is out there and works, but is much more expensive - see Apple's XServe RAID, and products from Huge and Medea. These solutions are in the $4-$8/GB range. Again, I've written extensively on the blog before about these issues.

So, finally, the summary, which is what you probably wanted in the first place:

SUMMARY OF WHICH MACS WILL EDIT WHAT KIND OF HD FOOTAGE



iBooks - what can I edit/play back on these?

12"

500 MHz G4 or faster: DV only

1 GHz G4 of faster: DV, HDV, DVCPRO HD
no HD pixel for pixel - screen too small
no P2 card support built in
no high def H.264 playback

14"

500 MHz G4 or faster: DV only

1 GHz G4 of faster: DV, HDV, DVCPRO HD
no HD pixel for pixel - screen too small
no P2 card support built in
no high def H.264 playback

PowerBooks - what can I edit/play back on these?

12" - if 1GHz or faster G4, DV, HDV, DVCPRO HD - but can't see ANY HD pixel for pixel, screen too small. NO P2 card usage built in for upcoming Panasonic camera. no high def H.264 playback. No HDCAM unless working with compressed (DVCPRO HD) or downconverted compressed material.
If less than 1 GHz, DV only.

15" - if 1GHz or faster G4, DV, HDV, DVCPRO HD - CAN see 720p pixel for pixel (screen's big enough), CAN'T for 1080 res. Will be able to read P2 cards in the field (for new Panasonic HD $6000 camera). No high def H.264 playback. No HDCAM unless working with compressed (DVCPRO HD) or downconverted compressed material.
If less than 1 GHz, DV only.


17" - if 1GHz or faster (think they all have been) - DV, HDV, DVCPRO HD - same screen limits as 15" - NOT enough res for 1920x1080 footage (only 1650 pixel wide screen). Will be able to read P2 card, has slot. No high def H.264 playback. No HDCAM unless working with compressed (DVCPRO HD) or downconverted compressed material.
If less than 1 GHz, DV only.

eMacs - what can I edit/play back on these?

500 MHz or faster G4 - you can work with DV downconverts only. No high def H.264 playback. No HDCAM at all, unless working with compressed downconverted material. No built in P2 card support.

1 GHz or faster G4 - you can work with DV, HDV, and DVCPRO HD. You can capture HDV and DVCPRO HD and store it on your internal hard drive, you are likely to have trouble trying to capture these formats and record onto an external hard drive at the same time; is one reason (among many) I don't recommend these machines, especially with their limited internal capacity. No high def H.264 playback. No HDCAM at all, unless working with compressed or downconverted material. No built in P2 card support.

iMacs - what can I edit/play back on these?

G4 iMacs

less than 1 GHz G4: DV only

1GHz G4 or faster: 1 GHz or faster G4 - you can work with DV, HDV, and DVCPRO HD. You can capture HDV and DVCPRO HD and store it on your internal hard drive, you are likely to have trouble trying to capture these formats and record onto an external hard drive at the same time; is one reason (among many) I don't recommend these machines, especially with their limited internal capacity. No high def H.264 playback. No HDCAM at all, unless working with compressed or downconverted material.
No built in P2 card support.

G5 iMacs

slower than 1.8 GHz - DV, HDV, DVCPRO HD native editing. No high def H.264 playback. No HDCAM at all, unless working with compressed or downconverted material. No uncompressed SD, either (same is true for all PowerBooks, iBooks, eMacs, iMacs; all but G4/G5 towers)
No built in P2 card support.

1.8 GHz or faster - DV, HDV, DVCPRO HD native editing. MAYBE high def H.264 playback (needs to be tested). No HDCAM at all, unless working with compressed or downconverted material. No uncompressed SD, either (same is true for all PowerBooks, iBooks, eMacs, iMacs; all but G4/G5 towers)
No built in P2 card support.

PowerMac G4s - what can I edit/play back on these?

500 MHz or faster, single or dual - DV or compressed/uncompressed standard definition video only
No built in P2 card support.

1 GHz or faster, single or dual processor - DV, HDV, DVCPRO HD native editing. No high def H.264 playback. No HDCAM at all, unless working with compressed or downconverted material (I'm intentionally excluding CineWave HD & Kona 1- gets cost prohibitive, gets dumb with other costs involved).
No built in P2 card support.
NO PRACTICAL MEANS OF MONITORING HD other than IF using DVCPRO HD, and IF have Panasonic AJ-HD1200A deck plugged into FireWire on Mac and to a video monitor via HD-SDI or analog connections AT ALL TIMES. This is a huge gotcha - means all G4s are useless for color correction unless the deck is sitting next to you the whole time. Two weeks rental would pay for a high end HD card.

PowerMac G5s - what can I edit/play back on these?

Single/dual 1.8 GHz - DV, HDV, DVCPRO HD yes. NO uncompressed HD or monitoring (officially supported). High def H.264 playback YES, but 720p only - this is the entry point for that according to Apple. If you've captured your compressed HD elsewhere, you could edit, but not preview/monitor on this system. (Well, you MIGHT be able to edit with downconverted output, but getting the drive throughput? Maybe.)
No built in P2 card support.

Dual 2.0 (new) - same as the single/dual 1.8 G5 above, with the exception that these will play back 1080 res (1920x1080) HD content compressed with H.264.

Dual 2.0 (old), and Dual 2.3/2.5/2.7 - DV, HDV, DVCPRO HD yes, all via included FireWire. These machines have PCI-X, so can use Kona2 or DeckLink HD line (DeckLink HD, HD Plus, HD Pro single & dual link) and use native SATA arrays fast enough for uncompressed HD, and can connect to SCSI (ugh) or fiber channel (mo bettah) for uncompressed HD. (A used dual 2.5 GHz box might be a sweet deal right now, certainly the OLD dual 2.0. I say this on May 3, 2005). These are the only option to work with D-5, HDCAM, HDCAM SR formatted media, and require a large, multi-disk RAID to handle the enormous file sizes and throughput requirements of these tape formats.
No built in P2 card support, but can add it via USB 2.0 or FireWire.
But these are the only systems that can capture via HD-SDI, the easiest systems to get uncompressed HD disk throughput from, and the only systems that will let you monitor an HD video signal without a $25,000+ deck right there all the time. These are the machines to buy to edit HD seriously. Period. The end. Otherwise you spend more, get less, or can't at all.


High Definition H.264 Playback Requirements

H.264 content:

Apple has clearly state on their QuickTime tech specs web page:

For 1280x720 (720p) video at 24-30 frames per second:
1.8 GHz PowerMac G5 or faster Macintosh computer
At least 256 MB of RAM
64 MB or greater video card

For 1920x1080 (1080p) video at 24-30 frames per second:
Dual 2.0 GHz PowerMac G5 or faster Macintosh computer
At least 512 MB of RAM
128 MB or greater video card


So that clearly rules out all iMacs and eMacs right off the bat for playing these formats back. You can encode them (more slowly than their faster brethren), but you can't play them back in real time. H.264 is a VERY processor intensive codec - that's one of the reasons the data rate is so small, it requires a LOT of horsepower to do it's thing.

Q: "Well, what about the new iMac? It's 2.0 GHz, and that thing says 1.8 GHz is required!"

A: It SAYS PowerMac G5. There are differences between the two machines above and beyond processor speed, such as bus speed. That said, real world testing (and I'll be doing some) will verify this, but in terms of stated stats, gotta go G5. Maybe the top end iMac will work, maybe it won't...wait and see.

Warning: flaming vitriol from Mike below, beware:

Q: Well dammit, this looks like a conspiracy - my 600 Mhz G3 iBook should run OS X Tiger (after I get install CDs from Apple instead of DVD), so why won't these HD trailers play back smoothly, dammit!

A: Because, nitshit, you have an ancient machine. DEAL WITH IT. This new H.2
Related searches:
dvcpro faster editing screen required
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