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Intra frame vs. long gop mpeg2
Hi folks,
I’m trying to determine what HD option will work best with the Media100 HDe system I have. I’m considering the purchase of a low-end HD camera either the Panasonic AG-HVX200 or the new Sony XDCAM-EX1. I’m wondering what people’s experiences have been with HD material in these formats.
Is XDCAM HD material easier to work with than DVCPro HD on a P2 card? Does one stand up better when compositing? Does the XDCAM HD transfer faster than the panasonic codecs? Any workflow issues you’ve encountered?
I’m really torn over what system to choose and obviously a lot depends on the ease of workflow between these formats. I look forward to your responses.
Cheers,
Jim
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1 Reply
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Right now the P2/DVCProHD solution is better integrated into Media 100. You can import the P2 files directly, and they stay in their native DVCProHD codec, they only have to be rewrapped. This means import is without recompression or quality loss, and it is pretty fast.
XDCam EX (which is based on MPEG2/HDV, but with a better quality and higher data rate than “regular” HDV) is currently not supported as a native import format in Media 100.
But from what I know (I am not a camera-person), quality-wise I think the Sony XDCam EX is the more up-to-date solution. Panasonic already has announced that DVCProHD is going to be replaced over time with AVC Intra, so with the HVX200 (that does not support AVC Intra) you are basically buying into an “old” codec. If I had to buy now I probably would tend to the Sony, although the integration with Media 100 is not really great.
If XDCam EX support in Media 100 HD would be important for you, I think you should send a mail to Media 100 and let them know. The guys there are very interested in customer feedback, and they need to know what their customers do want and use. Maybe we will get XDCam EX support with a future software release.
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