Most of the time color correcting HDV was no different to SD video in my experience, except when using FCP's desaturate black controls: One should put them BEFORE any primary correction, not after everything like you usually would. Otherwise you'll end up with horrible block artifacts on darker colored parts that you try to mute. Using desat. black before 3-way gives sharp and smooth blacks, oddly.

I think the reason why broadcasters and producers are using HDV, is the fact that most television market is still SD, and you can get away with pretty rough motion compression and artifacts when the material is downscaled to regular NTSC & PAL size eventually.

Change the pixel information fast enough and you break every Long-GOP compression.

As Shane mentioned there are compelling reasons why some shows have gone w/HDV. It might not be their first choice in terms of image quality but other budgetary and/or logistical factors have to be considered as well.

From what I’ve heard most of the cameras on DEADLIEST CATCH don’t come back alive so it makes since that Discovery doesn’t want to throw away tons of money on cameras that most likely won’t last a season, and some ’storming the beach’ shots from FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS were shot w/HDV cameras. They originally wanted to use the HVX200 but the recording times were too short at the time.

-Andrew

Curious as to your take, Shane, on the HPX300 with the CMOS sensor. 20 bit processor to help correct for the sensor artifacts?

Survivorman I get…it is one guy with 4 cameras, no crew. So they want HD, small that he can carry many cameras, and easy swapping of tapes. Deadliest Catch…well, they could shoot something else, like XDCAM to disk. But again, circumstances dictate the shooting format. Small boat, tossing and turning. Not much room, need to go into tight spaces.

But on the show I am on, this format makes ZERO sense. Controlled environment, shooting recreations and interviews. For that we should be shooting a better format. HDV should be an option, I can see. But one used sparingly…and only when the circumstances dictate.

He said, “A client will always be willing to pay a little less to get a little less.”

This is especially true when the “little less” is in an area the client does not understand.

So because something has more pixels it is perceived to be better (at least on paper). But not many people think about the sacrifices necessary to fit HD footage onto DV tape.

And Shane, I don’t think HDV has any fans – I’ve certainly never heard it defended in the professional world.

I recently turned down a DP job where the producer wanted to shoot with the new Ikonoskop camera (a camera I might add that has great potential and which I am waiting for with great anticipation) which is for all practical purposes still vaporware. But because it has a certain “BUZZ” the producer wants to commit a production (three months,sixteen countries)to an untried and untested format and camera.

Madness…

R.L. Wise SOC

I get that XDCam is better than HDV, but I personally wouldn’t want to take any chances.

This is something you don’t see in static shots or ones with slow moves. So in those cases the format looks great. Really good. Unless you start pushing things in Color Correction (ProRes capture or no, there is just a lot of information missing).

Rob, don’t knock the EX cameras. The rolling shutter on them isn’t all that bad. I have seen worse. But yeah, I won’t personally use them for that reason. Yeah, the images are sharp as HELL, and look great. But movement looks odd when you do fast pans and zooms. If you don’t…that is a fantastic camera.

Now, get an HV30 and you are in a world of hurt. Rolling shutter and HDV…BAD rolling shutter. I returned my HV20 after owning it for 8 hours. I hated that focus knob! WAY consumer.

Those screenshots look worse than my miniDV footage. I feel like everyone thinks HDV is OK because we’ve all been looking at SD for so long. Since HDV is a higher res people think it looks nice even though it looks like crap. Does that make sense? It’s like comparing a crappy, hardly-working sports car to a Honda Civic and thinking the sports car is better just because it’s a sports car.

And when the Sony EX1 first came out, I was really excited – really, really excited. It seemed perfect. But then I read about the effects of the rolling shutter, and now I would never buy an EX1 or EX3.

I just hope that when I get a real job, I won’t have to work with HDV.