Real Time HD Capturing

[VaTech03]

I've been capturing/editing video taken with my Sony HC3 with a PowerBook G4 (1.67 GHz, 1GB RAM), and it's been a painful process because the PB can't capture HDV any quicker than 1/2 real time (but most often at 1/4 speed).

So, I've been considering upgrading to satisfy my impatient tendencies. Does anyone know if a dual 2GHz+ PowerMac G5 or an iMac Intel CD 2GHz will capture HDV at 1x?

Thanks in advance...

[Nuc]

What are you using to capture the HDV. FCP will capture in full time even on your computer. I used to have FCP installed and it captured in full time on my PB with my Sony HC1. iMovie won't capture in full time because apple made it this way (limitation)...

Nuc

[LethalWolfe]

What are you using to capture the HDV. FCP will capture in full time even on your computer. I used to have FCP installed and it captured in full time on my PB with my Sony HC1. iMovie won't capture in full time because apple made it this way (limitation)...

Nuc

Nuc is right. iMovie transcodes the footage into the Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC) which is why it takes longer than real time to capture the footage. FCP 5, however, works w/HDV natively so there is no transcoding that takes place.


Lethal

[FF_productions]

What do you mean by 1/2 speed?? Is it dropping frames? Get a external hard drive and store your video there. You should never capture your video to the same drive that has OSX on it. Also, the requirements for HD is 1 ghz, and you have a 1.67 ghz powerbook with plenty enough ram. If you can't even capture your video then something is obviously wrong.

If you are willing to get a new machine, and if you are serious about making videos, get a Dual 2 PowerMac G5, or wait for the Mac Pro's. I don't like the iMac just because of the lack of expansion, they just aren't video editing computers in my opinion.

[Nuc]

Nuc is right. iMovie transcodes the footage into the Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC) which is why it takes longer than real time to capture the footage. FCP 5, however, works w/HDV natively so there is no transcoding that takes place.


Lethal
Yes this is a better explanation.

Also FF_productions I think what he meant by 1/2 speed is that the video is captured from the video camera at half the speed of realtime. Therefore if the clip is 10 minutes total it takes 20 minutes (@ 1/2 speed) to transfer it to the computer or 40 minutes if it captures at 1/4 speed. In iMovie it tells you the speed at which it is capturing and converting the clip.

Nuc

[VaTech03]

Excellent. Thanks for the input. You guys are exactly right...at 1/4 speed, a half hour of video was taking 2 hours to capture (and often being forced to stop recording randomly as caching resources would fill up). I was using iMovie to capture, but I've since gotten Final Cut Express HD loaded on my PB--yet haven't had time to play around with it too much. Anyone know if FCE will capture in real time?

[FF_productions]

Woops, I overlooked that little detail. With Final Cut Pro 5, you can capture in Real-Time, iMovie does stuff differently...

[Nuc]

Excellent. Thanks for the input. You guys are exactly right...at 1/4 speed, a half hour of video was taking 2 hours to capture (and often being forced to stop recording randomly as caching resources would fill up). I was using iMovie to capture, but I've since gotten Final Cut Express HD loaded on my PB--yet haven't had time to play around with it too much. Anyone know if FCE will capture in real time?
I asked the same question to one of the sales reps at the apple store and they had no clue as to what I was talking about... Don't shoot me if I'm wrong but I don't think FCE captures in realtime... If I remember correctly I never saw this mentioned for the FCE specs on the apple site. You could call them or search on the apple discussion boards.

Nuc

Edit: upon further inspection you will most likely get better capture speeds with FCE but I think it actually depends on your computer specs. Someone on the apple discussion boards reported that the captured the video at about 90% of real-time (they had an iMac G5). Let us know what speeds you get once you've tried it out...

[franzenjb]

What cable and what connection do you use to connect the HC3 to the PB or my G5? I want to capture HD.

[LethalWolfe]

What cable and what connection do you use to connect the HC3 to the PB or my G5? I want to capture HD.
Firewire.


Lethal