Age old Question – AVC-HD vs P2

[Walter Biscardi]

Well first off, P2 is just a flash drive, it’s not a format. So your question is really AVCHD vs. AVC Intra vs DVCPro HD.

For what you describe, I see no reason to spend any extra money beyond the AVCHD cameras. If you were doing broadcast work, then I would say step up to the AVC-Intra cameras if you can. As we’re developing a few original television series here, I’m looking at the Panasonic AG-HPX370 camera. AVC-Intra is just an amazing codec that’s much higher resolution than DVCPro-HD, yet still at the same 100mbps data rate.

But for your needs, the AVCHD cameras will definitely fit the bill.

As for the transcoding, that really depends on the speed of your computer system. For what you’re doing, I would probably just bring in all your footage as DVCPro HD as the file sizes are smaller and they are less processor intensive than ProRes. For Television, BluRay or DVD output, then I would suggest ProRes.

You can also look at something like MXF 4 Mac which allows you to bring the original MXF files directly into FCP for editing. Not sure if AVCHD is supported, but you can easily research that and find out.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media

“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” featuring Sigourney Weaver coming soon.

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[Shane Ross]

AVCHD is compressed MPEG-4…4:2:0 color space. But that being said, the HMC-150 is a great camera. Import/transcode time depends on your machine, but I have gotten faster than realtime…not much faster, but faster

But DVCPRO HD P2 is 8-bit, and 4:2:2 color space. 1280×1080 anamorphic at 1080…so pretty compressed. But I always use it at 720p…good enough for PLANET EARTH. And there is no transcode, just re-wrap and it is a LOT faster than real time.

AVCIntra P2 is full raster, 10-bit 4:2:2…gorgeous. Transcode to ProRes is about realtime for me, a tad faster.

But I’m guessing you are thinking between the HMC-150 and the HPX-170… Both are great. HMC is cheaper and has cheaper media…P2 is still expensive. But I like both.

Shane

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[John Christie]

All I would add to this is that some users have had problems with SDHC cards in Panasonic HMC-150 cameras (usually cheap no name cards, but also some of the name brand ones)

That said, I’ve got an HMC150 and love it. I’ve never had a problem with a card, being able to travel with 8 16 GB cards is huge, I don’t have to travel with a computer to download the cards.

I haven’t heard of many problems with P2 cards, they seem to be more robust.

Cheers

John Chrisie

[Mark Laslo]

Thank you all for the quick responses.

I am indeed looking at either the HMC-150 or the HPX-170 and am glad to hear favorable things about both.

John – I think the HMC-150 is the route we will end up going due to the cost. Do you use Final Cut Pro and if so what is your feelings on the transcode time and file size. Do you have an external raid setup or are you working off of an internal SATA drive? Are there any issues you can think of with the camera or the workflow? Finally have you ever down greenscreen/chroma key with this camera? A friend has told me that with the 4:2:0 it is almost impossible to Key with.

Let me know what you all think and I look forward to your input.

Cheers
Mark

[John Christie]

Hi Mark

I’m very happy with the transcode quality and speed. I don’t have to turn things around ASAP and you can set up files to transcode overnight.

At home I have an OWC 4 drive raid connected via firewire 800 to a two year old iMac. I have no problems editing Pro Res with that setup.

At work I deal with a 40 TB Xsan installation with 12 edit suites attached. We edit SxS, DVCproHD and Pro Res. Pro Res has the largest files, but the least issues of any of the other codecs.

As to greenscreen, in thirty years of editing, my number one rule has always been: Don’t!

I haven’t tried greenscreen from the HMC150 so I can’t comment on it.

I am impressed with how much I can colour correct AVCHD converted to Pro Res though, there’s lots of information in their to work with.

Hope this helps

John C

[Mark Laslo]

Thanks John for the info.

Right now we are not really in the market to be looking at a RAID situation unless absolutely necessary. Do you think editing off of a 7200 RPM SATA 3.0 drive would be fast enough or do you think I’m going to run into lag issues?

Thanks,

Mark