Conversion Advice

Sorry guys, I had posted this a bit back, but might have fallen by the wayside :).

At present I have 20 tapes of videos to digitise and edit from a SONY Hi-Fi 8 camera. Just wondering what is the best approach to initially bringing the footage into FCPX.
I will be using Blackmagic Media Express to bring in the footage. As I am using Blackmagic's Ultrastudio 4K Box.
Obviously the original footage on the tapes bas been recorded in SD PAL / 25fps.

I see there seems to be the option to convert on the fly to HD - but not sure if I should use this feature......

Or do I just bring it in as SD PAL (original footage from the camera) and then change to 16:9 during the final export?

Any help would be greatly appreciated indeed!.

Cheers everyone,

Pete

Hi Pete,

Hi8 is an analog format. The best method is to capture the tapes in their original frame size. Unless this is absolutely required, I would not upscale the footage to HD as this will lead to considerable loss of quality. But if you need to do this, FCP X has excellent scaling algorithms that are better than dedicated conversion hardware such as the Ultrastudio or even Terranex.

BM's Ultrastudio allows you to capture in ProRes. I would use LT for this kind of footage as it will give you the right balance between image quality and file size. If storage is no issue, you can even capture in ProRes 422. But I don't think you will notice any difference.

If you capture the footage in its original aspect ratio, which is 4:3, you can easily switch it to 16:9 in FCP X.

Best wishes,

Ronny

Excellent Ronny,

Thanks for the advice. Thought that might be the case. I was intrigued by the option within Media Express to 'change the format', but I shall bring it a;; in as SD PAL, and go from there......

I guess I was thinking of just making sure the video is still SD - but wide, for 16:9 tv display.

Thanks again,

kind regards,

Pete.