تعامل السوني فيغاس مع كاميرات HVR-V1U camcorder and 24p

Sony Vegas 7 is a great tool for working with 24p; Vegas was the first NLE to support low-cost 24p at any point with the release of Vegas 4 several years ago. Vegas 7 provides support for 24p acquired with the HVR-V1U camcorder, automatically removing pulldown from the media recorded in the camcorder. View the workflow for Apple Final Cut Pro by clicking HERE.{http://www.vasst.com/resource.aspx?id=fa3ddf80-ae14-464e-8a2c-8b9c16742785}

The V1U offers two 24p modes. The first is a 24p mode with pulldown inserted into the 60i stream, which is editable as 60i or 24p on the Vegas timeline. The second is the 24scnA (Scan A) mode. This mode is the mode that most Vegas users will likely prefer, but not supported at this time in some NLE systems.

You'll connect the camcorder to the computer using 1394/Firewire connection in the same manner as DV camcorders are connected. However, when launching the capture application, Vegas provides a dialog box asking which capture application you'd prefer to launch.

You'll want to choose the "HDV or SDI" option. Otherwise, Vegas won't recognize the device properly. Incidentally, if you're using a capture card with component input such as the Black Magic Design/Decklink or AJA video card connected to the analog outputs of the V1U, you'll still be selecting this capture mode. If you're only capturing HDV, you might want to tick the "Always use the selected format" checkbox, so that each time you open the capture application, the correct application will open, and you won't need to see this dialog again. It can always be reset in the Options/Preferences dialog.

The HDV capture utility will open. In the Capture Preferences, select the disk where the captured media should be stored. This should be a disk separate from your operating system/boot drive.

You may wish to verify that the connected HDV camcorder is showing up in the Preferences/Prefs Device menu, but it is not necessary.

Point captured media to a folder (new or existing) in the Capture Folder dialog. I generally send each tape to its own capture folder. Start capture and you'll  note that Vegas' capture app doesn't provide any feedback about the framerate or other aspect of the media. This is because the media is a direct transfer from the tape to the hard drive. The stream from the tape is always 50i/60i from the camcorder. Pulldown removal to 24p is accomplished in the NLE side of the workflow, not in the capture stage.

The Cineform NEO application also has options for non-Vegas users to remove pulldown from the HVR V1U stream. Using the Cineform tool will generate an avi file, converting the HDV to a 4:2:2 colorspace. Aside from removing the pulldown, one of the primary benefits of the Cineform applications is that it provides a codec that can be opened in most any NLE system, including FCP (Cineform codecs for Apple are now in Beta-testing). This is an easy way of shuffling files from place to place. Additionally, Cineform offers .DPX conversion in an announced future version, simplifying cross application/platform transfers.

Once all the media has been captured, you'll open up a Vegas project in which you'll be editing the 24p media. Be sure the Project Properties are set to the HDV 1080/24p preset as shown below.

In the Project Media window, clicking on media shows the media properties. Frames shot in the 24p mode will show as being 60i in the project media window as the below image demonstrates. Frames shot in the 24scnA mode (Scan A) will present as being 23.976 in the same project, as seen below.

Edit the project as normal. Having a 24p project property/setting is important, as it instructs Vegas how to manage titles, fades, and some filters. It's a good idea to set properties per project, before beginning the editing process.

Once you're done editing, you'll need to render for final output. There are several output formats in which HD can be delivered.

HDV can serve as an acquisition source to be edited in HD formats, and output to several master formats.

High Definition Delivery:

Master formats for delivery of 24p HD include:
~HDCAM (Common HD delivery format for festival, broadcast, and archive)
~XDCAM (may be transferred over FTP or SAN at DV-like bitrates)
~DVCProHD
~Blu-ray
~HD DVD
~Windows Media HD 24p
~AVCHD for web delivery
~RealNetworks HD for web delivery
~Flash HD (Flash 9)
~Film transfer

If you wish to print back to HDV tape, the 24p flags will not be incorporated, thus allowing for pulldown removal if you wish to recapture the media. With current file-based transfers and delivery, there is no reason to print back to tape, as replicators, broadcasters, and transfer houses prefer one of the above formats for delivery/transfer. However, you may wish to archive back to HDV tape. The tape will print as a 60i stream to the V1U or other 1080 HDV deck/camcorder.

To print to tape, select the OPTIONS/Print Video to HDV Tape menu selection.

The dialog seen below will open. This shows which units may be printed to, and which formats are available for printing to tape. Note that 1080 50i and 1080 60i are available. If a different print device is preferred, select the desired device in the dropdown menu.

Another dialog opens; this dialog allows you to use a previously rendered file, or render the current timeline to a print-compatible format, even if it's a 24p timeline.

Selecting the Next button after the file properties or an existing file have been selected will cause a new dialog box to open, as seen below. Options for Manual printing to tape (you'll have to start the record process in the camera), or Crash Recording (the deck will begin printing from current tape position) are available.

If by chance you attempt to print a 24p or a 24p with 2:3:3:2 pulldown inserted, the camcorder will return with an "invalid stream" message.

Printing to XDCAM is very easy; simply choose the Export to XDCAM option in the Tools menu.

This will open the below dialog box, where the current XDCAM device is selected. The XDCAM device may also be found on the internet. The benefit of this option is that even if you don't own an XDCAM deck, you may send the files to a broadcaster or service bureau that offers print to XDCAM services.

If the XDCAM device is present, this same dialog may be accessed via the XDCAM explorer in the VIEW option/tabbed windows.

In the below window, you can see the FAM G:\clip path. This indicates the device is present, but does not mean the XDCAM device is ready to accept printed video. If the device isn't configured to the same settings, ie; the XDCAM HD device must be prepared to accept 24p/in a 24p mode.

Printing 24p to HDCAM is also quite easy; you'll need a Decklink card or AJA card in order to print. Print to HDCAM requires an HDSDI card, and an HDCAM deck. If you don't have an HDCAM deck you can render to an HDCAM file format on a hard disk system and ship it to a service bureau for printing. Some film transfer houses actually prefer this option.

If you'll be delivering to Blu-ray/BD, this is no different than the workflow currently used for DVD delivery. Simply select the BluPrint option in the MPEG rendering menu, render the file, and open in your DVD authoring app that supports Blu-ray.

Rendering to 720p formats for either web or HD DVD delivery is easy as well, simply customize the various WMV templates. For gorgeous 720p video output, render using the 6Mbps template found in the WMV template options.

Don't forget options for AVCHD, Nero, and other high end formats for delivery to Xbox, PlayStation3, and various media-station devices.

Standard Def Delivery

~BetaCAM (Common SD delivery format for festival, broadcast, and archive)
~XDCAM SD (may be transferred over FTP or SAN at DV-like bitrates)
~DVCPro
~VCD
~DVD
~Windows Media
~RealNetworks SD
~DV/DVCAM
~Flash

If standard def is the preferred format output, here are a few tips:
Choose NTSC DVD Architect Widescreen output for best results. Using Pan/Crop, you can match the aspect ratio of the HDV to the DVD Widescreen frame, or you can simply select the "Stretch Video to fill frame (do not letterbox) option.

This will generate a widescreen file for DVD delivery. Choosing the 24p template will provide 24p with 2:3:3:2 pulldown for DVD delivery.

Using the Pan/Crop tools found in Vegas, you can also crop the widescreen file to a 4:3 file, or you can use the Match Project Aspect Ratio tools found in the Ultimate S plugin for Sony Vegas 5/6/7. This will match all of your content to the project aspect ratio. You'll need to first set the project aspect ratio to a standard NTSC DV template, and then run the Ultimate S plugin.

This should answer any questions about ingest/editing/output of media from the Sony HVR V1U. Please drop me a note if there are questions related to this topic that are not answered in this tutorial.