Pro video blog…Produced by Philip Johnston DoP/Editor

hm100_hand-web-3b

I must emphasise that although JVC claim that the HM700 and HM100 produce quicktime files that will sit on your Final Cut Pro timeline with no rendering…that’s perfectly true but there is a compromise and that is the way the file is brought in.

MPEG-2 is directed at broadcast formats at higher data rates; it provides extra algorithmic ‘tools’ for efficiently coding interlaced video, supports a wide range of bit rates and provides for multichannel surround sound coding. That’s the official line…

How does it affect you…I have been forced to use Final Cut Studio 3 without my AJA io HD therefore forcing me to ingest footage via the SDHC card itself, I soon discovered a very dark side to editing without my trusty AJA Pro-Rez box. My first serious filming with the HM100 was at my sons wedding in Italy and as I knew I was going to be busy I decided to edit a 2min sequence to upload onto Exposure Room.

Everything went fine till I used a program called “Looks” this is a program from Noise Industries that gives your footage a certain look…I added Looks to my footage and pressed render all…to my amazement I got a box telling me that my MPEG2 footage was conforming, the two minute sequence took almost one hour to render.

Since then I have re-installed my Leopard/FCP-2 hard drive to use the AJA box again and hey presto as if by magic my HM100 footage is now ingested via Apple Pro-Rez and no more MPEG2. As an aside I was filming a theatre show using a Sony EX-3 and a JVC HM100 at 1080 50i and you cannot tell the cameras apart, except for one tel-tail sign…the EX-3 suffers from IR discolouration on the blacks turning them a brownie red, the HM100 having a CCD gives me perfect blacks. Fortunately the HM100 is on wide and the EX-3 is tight so the problem is minor.

The moral of the story is do not be fooled by the hype …you can edit MPEG2 on a FCP timeline as long as you do nothing to it…and don’t expect to be able to use 2 HM100/700s ingest via the SDHC and try to edit a two camera multicam edit…IT WON’T WORK (WRONG IT DOES). The only way to ingest HM100/700 for two camera editing is via an AJA io HD, Express or a Matrox MX02.

Although I would still advise ingesting via a Matrox or AJA as Pro-Rez I was mistaken by telling you not to use HM100/700 as a multicam edit….

SEE HERE… http://www.hdwarrior.co.uk/2009/10/15/multicam-indeed-works-with-jvc-hm100-mpeg-2-file/

author

Having been working in the video business since 1988 I have amassed a great amount of knowledge of both the kit and production values over the last 30 years.

2 thoughts on “JVC HM700 & HM100 Editing Update

  1. You mentioned no multicam edits with the HM100. Do you mean they don’t sync well when you line them up to create a multicam clip? Or does FCP throw a wobbly at 2 playing back 2 MPEG’s simultaneously? I was about to suggest HM100’s and FCS to someone as a fast, quick multicam workflow. No go? What if you set your timeline to ProRes or other iFrame format?

    Tel

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