time lapse hv30: a good software is WinDV but not HD! How to do HD time lapse?

[fredmartini]

Hello (my first post!).
I searched the forum and the internet but I didn't found a solution.

I tested WinDV http://windv.mourek.cz/
It's very good to do dv standard time lapse, and very easy to use:
I plug the canon hv30, i set the frame interval (for example 1 frame / second)
and the software record an avi dv file on my hard disc.
Note: I want to avoid the minidv tape, for many reasons!
The problem is that WinDV doesn't accept the hdv camera mode.

Does anyone knows a HDV software for pc that is as easy as Windv to record time lapse footage directly on the hard disc?

Thank you very much.

[racer-x]

HDVSplit will capture your HDV directly to your HDD via 1394 firewire. No need for tapes........

[fredmartini]

thank you, but I can't do 'time lapse' with hdvsplit! I mean, how can I record one frame per second or 1 frame per minute instead of standard 25frames per second? I cannot find this setting on hdvsplit.

What I want to do is to plug the hv30 to the computer and let it record over 2 hours but have a footage of only few minutes on the hard disc. Each second the computer shoud record only 1 frame instead of 25.

I could record real time footage with hdvsplit (11giga for an hour!), then covert the file with a codec that allows me to edit in premiere (a very very heavy file! like 100giga) then speed it up to make a footage of few minutes... too much complicated, too much hard disc space needed!

Any suggestion?

thank you very much

[lobstaman]

I could record real time footage with hdvsplit (11giga for an hour!), then covert the file with a codec that allows me to edit in premiere (a very very heavy file! like 100giga) then speed it up to make a footage of few minutes... too much complicated, too much hard disc space needed!

Why would you have to convert the file to a 100gig file to edit in premiere? I capture with HDVsplit and drop directly into premiere and then adjust speed. Render out and delete the captured files if hard drive space is needed.

[fredmartini]

Why would you have to convert the file to a 100gig file to edit in premiere? I capture with HDVsplit and drop directly into premiere

in fact my Premiere (1.5pro) et my laptop pc are not capable to edit mpeg,
anyway I have to shot melting ice and for 1kg ice bloc it may take 4 hours,
that means 40 giga... I have 6 hard discs but they are all full! I shoot a glass of ice and it took 55 minutes to melt.

I'm sure that it's possible to find a software that allows me to shoot hd time lapse, still I didn't find it!

Help, please!

[racer-x]

My, my.......aren't we being fussy? There are so many ways you can capture 1 fps. You need to open your imagination.........

Assuming your version of Premiere doesn't handle m2t, you can convert your footage to 1 fps using lots of free s/w like:

1) Avisynth
2) Avidemux
3) Virtualdub
4) MpegStreamclip

Or if you're lazy.......you can use HDVdatamon to diplay live camera feed and set up a screen capture utiliy to record an image every second.

[ncusa367]

I dont know if this works in hd but windows webcam timershot worked well for me with dv

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/D...powertoys.mspx

[fredmartini]

Maybe I' asking too much, but I'm positive that there's a simple software that do what I need, just like winDV that allows me to do beautiful timelapse in dv standard.

The softwares you mention I think that they use m2t files that are already on the hard disc, or I'm wrong? This is not what I'm looking for.

Finally, a screen capture tool that capture HDVdatamon is clever but would I be able to record the full hd frame?

Besides, I'm not really lazy , I spend all my nights and week ends on video projects. Now I'm working on this time lapse video, I need to record many ice melting. I can't shoot, speed up using the softwares you mention, render, than shoot again another 1kg ice cube... i need to do all the shooting with the lights in the proper position, etc, I'm sorry I can't explain why I can't record m2t in real time and speed up in a second time, it's a kind of workflow that is not proper to the way I planned the shooting, but please believe me when I say that I can't and it's not just about being lazy. And If a new hard disc would solve the probleme I would buy it, believe me!

help help

[jmorton]

If you use Adobe products then you can use OnLocation and record timelapse directly to disk. I'm pretty sure. 99% positive.

JM

[justastranger]

Did u ever found some software that did the trick?
I want an interval recording aka time laps, since there is no such function on this camera, I tought looking around for a piece of software,...

[paoloboom]

Maybe I' asking too much, but I'm positive that there's a simple software that do what I need, just like winDV that allows me to do beautiful timelapse in dv standard.

The softwares you mention I think that they use m2t files that are already on the hard disc, or I'm wrong? This is not what I'm looking for.

Finally, a screen capture tool that capture HDVdatamon is clever but would I be able to record the full hd frame?

Besides, I'm not really lazy , I spend all my nights and week ends on video projects. Now I'm working on this time lapse video, I need to record many ice melting. I can't shoot, speed up using the softwares you mention, render, than shoot again another 1kg ice cube... i need to do all the shooting with the lights in the proper position, etc, I'm sorry I can't explain why I can't record m2t in real time and speed up in a second time, it's a kind of workflow that is not proper to the way I planned the shooting, but please believe me when I say that I can't and it's not just about being lazy. And If a new hard disc would solve the probleme I would buy it, believe me!

help help

Hi Fred, I've the same problem... have you solved?

[ejolson]

Hi Fred, I've the same problem... have you solved?

This sounds like it will work.

you can use HDVdatamon to diplay live camera feed and set up a screen capture utiliy to record an image every second.

Since HDV contains two I-frames per second, the software could read from the firewire port and and write every other I-frame to a file. No reencoding or screen capturing necessary.

[paoloboom]

How can I write in HDV full resoluion? I can't with a screen capture utility. Please, explain better. Thank you

[ejolson]

How can I write in HDV full resoluion? I can't with a screen capture utility. Please, explain better. Thank you

If the resolution of your video screen is less than 1920x1080, you are right. It won't be full resolution.

[paoloboom]

Yes, my video screen is an HDready Thanks anyway

[finalfantasy7]

Hey guy I am going to do my first timelapse with my HV20 in 2 days. I am. Curious if any of the vets had suggestions. I am unsure what mode to shoot in or what shutter speed to use etc

I plan to do night time traffic time lapse with the lights streaming... Any shutter speed suggesting? Thanks!

[badhairdude]

i haven't done it myself but I've heard you should lock your exposure so that if things go infront of the camera, exposure isn't drastically changed. night time shoot in spotlight so there's no gain

[Halsu]

I plan to do night time traffic time lapse with the lights streaming... Any shutter speed suggesting? Thanks!

If you want streaming lights, use as slow a shutter speed as possible (the same as frame rate - i.e. 1/25 for 25p), and lock exposure. When you speed up the footage, you will need to blend the frames together to see the streaks, and this can be a bit tricky: when frames are averaged, the bright streaks will blend with the dark background.

There's ways to migitate this, but they're a bit complicated, i can try to explain the procedure later though... What editing software do you have? After effects, Vegas?

[Video Frank]

Like others, I shoot with the exposure locked. I shoot 30p and capture to Vegas. I use Vegas Pro 8 and export at 4x using the Cineform HD codec (not available in Vegas 9) at 60 fps. I repeat the process until the speed looks right. For clouds it's usually 256x, which means 4 passes.

[Atnas]

I would consider using a digital camera, because you'd get higher resolution and less noise

[finalfantasy7]

If you want streaming lights, use as slow a shutter speed as possible (the same as frame rate - i.e. 1/25 for 25p), and lock exposure. When you speed up the footage, you will need to blend the frames together to see the streaks, and this can be a bit tricky: when frames are averaged, the bright streaks will blend with the dark background.

There's ways to migitate this, but they're a bit complicated, i can try to explain the procedure later though... What editing software do you have? After effects, Vegas?

I was planning on using Premiere Pro 3. I have access to Final Cut Pro at school if that helps. Let me know if there is a guide online or something.

SLR is not an option for me...

Thanks guys.

[CycleWriter]

This is why we ask members to do a search first. Thread merged with existing related thread in the proper subforum.

[Halsu]

I was planning on using Premiere Pro 3. I have access to Final Cut Pro at school if that helps. Let me know if there is a guide online or something.

Premiere should work OK. The basic idea for retaining the streaks is to have multiple copies of the footage laid on top of each other, each offset by one frame (1 frame offset, 2 frame offset, 3 frame offset etc.), in lighten mode: this will make the streaks from multiple frames to merge together, without crossfading them to BG. This blending will also have the side effect of reducing out some of the noise from your video, which is often desirable.

As far as the number of copies goes, try having half the number of speed up factor (i.e. for 10X speed, use 5 layers). This will result in natural looking motion blur. If you want a more fluid feel, increase the number of copies.

After you have this thingy setup, you can render it out, bring back to edit, speed it up. If you wish to have a very big speedup factor, you may want to render out intermediate files and repeate the process with them.

The methos will probably work using nested compositions instead of rendering intermediate files (it works that way in Vegas and After Effects at least), but the resulting timeline will render pretty darn slow due to having a load of layers on top of each other - also, it takes a lot of memory so a pretty spiffy computer is needed.

[finalfantasy7]

Thanks Halsu. I am going to try doing the recording tommrow night. Regarding the 1 frame offset, is there a specific way to do it or do I somehow just figure it out by the way I place them on the timeline?

Thanks again, that actually makes sense. I just need to figure out how to do the offsets now...

[Halsu]

Thanks Halsu. I am going to try doing the recording tommrow night. Regarding the 1 frame offset, is there a specific way to do it or do I somehow just figure it out by the way I place them on the timeline?

I just move the clips by hand - it's easy enough when you zoom in the timeline (well, at least in Vegas it is easy, that is).