Reviewing HDV footage in the field

Hi Guys,

I'm looking at some reasonably cheap way of reviewing HDV footage in the field. I would appreciate a few of you posting what hardfware you use and would recommend. I don't need to edit, just review. I can connect with Firewire, component or HDMI leads.

Thanks for your help.

Cheers

Roger

You have several options whether you are land based or on a live aboard. You can connect your cam directly via RGB cables or the preferred HDMI connection to the television that most boats and resorts have. You can also import the footage directly into your laptop's NLE and review it there. I find that just looking at the cams lcd screen is too small of a view for checking critical focus or even some of what may be going on within the frame.

Steve

So far I haven't found an Egyptian liveaboard where the television isn't fixed solidly to a bulkhead. They always seem to choose TVs where the HD connections are at the back, and they are just wired up for watching DVDs! Hotels seem to have low quality screens, and they only allow DV connections. Also the remotes seem to be disabled so you cannot change the aspect.

Looks like it will have to be a new laptop. Fortunately my wife (still photographer) seems to be looking at a Macbook. I will just have to make sure she gets one with a Firewire port. As I am unlikely to edit in the field, I should be able to review the footage direct from the camera with i_whatever it is . The only problem could be the sneaking away with the laptop.

Cheers

Roger

Roger,

I'm leading a trip to the Red Sea and Egypt on Oct. 28th (still a couple of open spots) aboard the Emperor Elite of the Emperor Divers fleet. Not sure what their monitor situation is but I have heard no complaints. I usually bring my Mac Book Pro, not necessarily to edit footage, but to help the guests advance their editing skills and be able to really take a good look at their footage. I usually wait for a few weeks after I get home before I even look at it all so I can see things with fresh eyes.

Turn off the lights as you sneak your wife's laptop into your bag. She'll think you're getting some massage oil for her.

Steve

Steve,

Macbook Pro is on its way from Shanghai so I should be OK for monitoring. We are back to the Red Sea at the end of June. Hoping to find the pelagics shoals of Ras Mohammad. I have dived from one or two of the Emperor Fleet but not the Elite so I cannot give you any info. What diving itinerary are you following. I hope the video connections are accessible for you. It is a longhaul from California to Egypt, just 5+ hours from us in the UK I won't comment on the massage oil

Roger

Hey Roger,

While I have never dove the Red Sea, my partner has. Here is the itinerary, minus the pictures, I've sent out to guests and potential guests.

. We will board the plane at JFK in New York and start our adventures in Cairo. After a nights rest at the Concorde El Salam in Cairo, we will fly to Luxor for our first land tour.

During our two day stay in Luxor at the Steigenberger Nile Palace Hotel, we will visit the Valley of the Kings, Hatchepsut, Karnak (including the Light Show), and the Colossi of Memnon.

The following morning, we will caravan to Marsa Ghailb Port and board the Emperor Divers boat the Elite for a week of Red Sea diving.

We will be diving the dive route called “Simplity the Best” which quite literally provides the very finest of diving itineraries and locations. After our 5 days of diving, we will transfer to a Hotel in Hurghada for the night.

The next morning, we will fly back to Cairo to continue our touring. After checking into the Nile Hilton Hotel, we will have the afternoon free. During our full two days in Cairo, we will visit the Great Pyramids, the Solar Boat,

the Sphinx, Sakkara, Egyptian Museum, Ali Mosque, Citadelle, and the Khan El Khalili Bazaar. We will have a Nile Dinner Cruise including Tanoura show and belly dancing.

We fly out of Cairo in the morning for our return to JFK. We will land in JFK in the early afternoon where you will be able to continue on home.

Wow you should have a great time it looks awesome.

With the Red Sea being the closest tropical reefs to the UK, and some of the clearest water & constant sunshine, it is very popular with the Brits and other Europeans. The "Simply the Best" intinerary is brilliant, it is a good mixture of what the Red Sea has to offer.

I have lost count of the number of times I have dived the Red Sea including from Jordan and Israel, it is certainly >35 times, BUT I have yet to see a Pyramid (except from the air). One of these days my wife and I will do a two centre holiday

As a retired doc I should warn you to be careful with the food and water in the Cairo & Nile areas. You don't want your party getting "Gyppy" tummies and spoiling the diving. You will have no problems with the Liveaboard as the standards of food hygeine will be first class. Make sure someone has a supply of Ciprofloxacin as most of the gastro-enteritis is bacterial.

Having said that we have only had one episode in all our trips to the Red Sea.

The Macbook has arrived safely via Warsaw and Cologne

Cheers

Roger

I was going to ask something similar to Roger. Will a 15inch macbook pro screen give me enough resolution to judge focus and other issues at full 1080 HD? When I checked the specs it didn't look like there were enough pixels on the LCD screen. What is the experience of the 15inch users out there? I don't really want to spend the extra for a 17inch model if I don't have to as editing on it will probably only be limited to cataloguing clips and checking for problems.

Cheers, Simon

I was going to ask something similar to Roger. Will a 15inch macbook pro screen give me enough resolution to judge focus and other issues at full 1080 HD? When I checked the specs it didn't look like there were enough pixels on the LCD screen. What is the experience of the 15inch users out there? I don't really want to spend the extra for a 17inch model if I don't have to as editing on it will probably only be limited to cataloguing clips and checking for problems.

 

Cheers, Simon

I have worked with an iBook 12", Titanium 15", MacBook Pro 15" (my current one I carry) and the 17" MackBook Pro (1st Generation) and they all work, but keep in mind for color correction not great, though you start getting used to it to see generally if you are in the ballpark and using scopes you get and idea of what you have. I have done rough CC in the field, but need to final tweaks later. Sometimes I will put the footage on a DVD or iPod and take on a look on a tv if available.

The 17 inch is nice for screen real estate, but the 15 inch works also and is alot more portable. Lately I carry the 15 inch for ease of portabilty. The new MacBook Pros can get a good amount of RAM in them and I have done editing on them. The new models have FW 800 ports, so depending on the camera, you may need a FW mini to FW 800 (and carry a back up ). Also a card for the express slot is a good idea to hook up externals, including external Sata drives.

So a 15inch MacBookPro would be more than adequate for even for an extended time in the field, maybe 3-4 months? It would probably be the only decent screen I'd be able to use for examining any of the footage captured. That's great if that's the case as it will certainly save me a few £'s!

Cheers, Simon

I've been editing on my 15" MBP and plugging it into my 26" sony bravia to check colour (well as much as i can)... I may even connect it to my 42" and check it again later...

Dive safe

DeanB

So a 15inch MacBookPro would be more than adequate for even for an extended time in the field, maybe 3-4 months? It would probably be the only decent screen I'd be able to use for examining any of the footage captured. That's great if that's the case as it will certainly save me a few £'s!

 

Cheers, Simon

For some reason when you say "in the field" I have a vision of you charging your batteries via solar power or something, things going bad and you hunting me down to beat me over the head with whatever machine you buy Joking aside, I guess like many around here, have been to places where things are not quite easy to get, so be ready for the unexpected no matter which way you go (I think that is a photographer/videographers mantra ) Things that you can take for granted, such as an extra cable or extra drive space, can be a nightmare and the thing you don't bring will be the one thing you need. Could be it just happened to me a couple of times.

So as a matter of course (depending on space permitting/exacty where I will be)

1.) Extra clone of the laptop drive with all repair utilities and other items, incuding disc images if needed for reinstalls of software and drives if you need them. (I will usually carry some of the larger capacity small drives partitioned out to hold these things.)

2.) Cables, and doubles/triples, such as to hook up cameras to computers, drives to hard drives.

3.) Discs of the repair utilities such as Diskwarrior.

4.) Hard drives and tape. Calculate what you need then budget over.

5.) If you use a mouse or trackpad, bring it if you can if it makes things easier to work with.

Anyway the 15 inch would work, but for 3-4 months at some point you may want more screen real estate. I have worked on my 15 inch for trips of 3-4 weeks and it has been fine for capturing HDV off my cameras (not sure which one you are shooting), scrubbing through clips, putting together rough edits, viewing things (stills and video), sending email and the rest. When I get the opportunity though to plug into a external, even a bad one, to move pallettes and then rest I do it though. If it is something where you think you may need to get further along in a project (meaning color correction in the field for a deadline), there are options such as the Matrox to let you use things to monitor more effectively. For video playback from the timeline you can playback the timeline so it is goes to "Main" which should be okay to give you an idea of what you have.

Not sure what your time frame is before the trip, or if you are near an Apple Store or someone who has a 15 inch to try, but if you are able to test some small samples of your footage you have it probably would be worthwhile to do so ahead of time to get a feel of how it will look/handle. Also take a look at the screens, the 15 inch only come in glossy now, while the 17 inch has a non-glossy option. I would guess you are looking at the mid-priced 15 inch due to more graphics card memory? The price (US) difference between the 15 and 17 at that point is $300. But the 17 inch does not have a user replaceable battery.....

If it is a budget concern and there is a choice between a 15 inch with upgraded RAM (and maybe hard drive) or stock 17inch, then I would lean to the 15 inch, with 3rd party (not Apple) upgrades. Another things is that the 17 inch is heavier by about a pound or so. Does not sound like much, but when lugging things around it can add up. When I do bring the 17 inch I am happy with the extra screen size once I get where I am going, and if it is somewhere where it is going to be placed down for a bit of time and not being lugged around I will bring it. But when portability/do not want to be bothered comes into play, the 15 inch is fine. (In fact I have used my old G4 15 inch in the past to edit/watch movies and have been fine with it.)

I guess the bottom line, for me, is that I did pick up the 15 inch (older model) for my dive trips of 1-3 weeks or so and it has been fine. I have not yet upgraded the RAM which I will do (I stil have 2 Gigs in it and would like more RAM.) Would have also liked to have a larger internal HD for virtual memory. Mine is non-glossy which I like, but Sandrah has a glossy iMac which really is not bad to look at. When I get home I do the final work on the tower with calibrated monitor and a couple of displays hooked up. Get used to how things look on the laptop vs you main production machine so you have a sense what things should reasonably look like on the laptop (plus get an idea of the scopes) and you should be okay... I think

Well I'm not sure that I'd need solar panels - I think they have electricity at least some of the time

Thanks for the info guys, it helped a lot.

Cheers, Simon

I second that, thanks for your help.

Wendy's Mac pro looks good and I will only be using it for reviewing. It does have a FW800, but the 400->800 cable works perfectly well.

I shall be using it in 3/52 on a Red Sea Liveaboard, so will report back on my return.

Cheers

Roger

A little late to butt in but I have a 17" and a I reckon it's a bit big to travel with. I actually wish I had the 15" as I have a couple of decent screens for my desktop.