HDV - Editing

Editing

Because HDV video is recorded in digital form, original content can be copied onto another tape or captured to a computer for editing without quality degradation. Depending on capturing software and computer's file system, either a whole tape is captured into one contiguous file, or the video is split in smaller 4 GB or 2 GB segments, or a separate file is created for each take. The way files are named depends on capturing software. Some systems convert HDV video into proprietary intermediate format on the fly while capturing, so original format is not preserved.

HDV footage can be natively edited by most non-linear editors, with real-time playback being possible on modern mainstream personal computers. Slower computers may exhibit reduced performance compared to other formats such as DV because of high resolution and interframe compression of HDV video.

Editing performance can be improved by converting HDV to intermediate format prior to editing. These include various Cineform products, Edius HQ, Avid DNxHD, Apple Intermediate Codec and Apple ProRes 422, among others. Usage of an intermediate codec adds one more generation to the video, potentially degrading its quality. On another hand, an intermediate codec can reduce blockiness and fix other issues in the original video, like interlaced chroma in progressive recordings.

Depending on the non-linear editing system (NLE), it is possible to minimize generation losses by editing native HDV video using straight cuts only, with no effects, and rendering back to HDV. Up to 15 frames per each cut may be re-encoded because of the long-GOP nature of HDV video.