Considering Sony EX?

[Don Greening]

[Craig Seeman] “I’m going on the assumption that most of my clients are going to (still are) using SD only delivery. “

Agree totally with that. What do you think, Craig? Another 1-2 years before HD delivery finally outstrips SD? *My crystal ball is around here somewhere. I just saw it*

Most of our clients are newlyweds. Our most recent trade show was just last week and only one couple out of the 80 some-odd that we talked to said they now have a high def TV and a Blu-Ray player.

– Don

[Craig Seeman]

Keep in mind the market penetration of HDTV is higher than that of players.

I’ve heard a number quoted that said in any given year 20% of the households buy a TV. Given that nearly all TVs being sold are now HDTV that’s about 5 years for a full conversion. I’d say HDTV might be in the majority by the end of 2008 (within 15 months) or maybe mid 2009.

Players, especially due to the HD “war” may take longer. So here’s the directions I’m thinking.

Corporate presentation might be very quick. That’s a video displayed in a meeting. That can be done right now. A good H.264 or VC-1 file can be played back from a fast computer to an HDTV.

Wedding market. If the client has an HDTV put no playback one might build into the package delivery on an AppleTV at 720p24. Build in the cost of the AppleTV ($299) and the client will get the feeling they’re getting a “gift” with the wedding.

If the client has an HDDVD player (as low as $399) you can burn a “short form” MPEG2 HD version on a standard (or dual layer?) DVD and that’ll work. If the client has a Blu-Ray player (Play Station 3 amongst them) then you have to get a Blu-Ray burner (down to around $650 now).

Offering the AppleTV package seems to be the best way to market HD delivery at the moment in my opinion. I do think it’ll take a good 2 years for the player market to work itself out though.

I think SD delivery will dominate for another 2 years or so. Taking SI out of SDI of the EX1 should result in great quality 16×9 SD delivery. I don’t want my HD to SD workflow to be a time burden (money loser) so I’m looking for realtime downconvert.

As I mention above HD delivery for the “boardroom” corporate meeting may be there already given you just need to play the file back to an HDTV which I suspect corporate boardrooms with budgets may move to quickly. This means the EX1 may be in a good position to jump into that market and for various reasons is MUCH better than dealing with HDV.

[Accountclosedduetopolicyviolations]

I just wish Sony built into EX1 Digi Beta codec as well and perhaps HDCAM too…:-)

[Don Greening]

Craig,

I belong to a videographers’ association in my area and it would seem that your viewpoints and projected time tables are theirs as well. I guess it doesn’t matter where in North America one lives. I hadn’t thought about Apple TV, however. I’ll have to bring up that idea at the next meeting at the end of the month. Don’t worry, I’ll give you full credit. Even if half of our membership uses PCs Apple TV still makes sense for a high end client. At least it’s another option to think about.

I just wish Apple Inc. fully supported Blu-Ray right now.

Thanks for sharing.

– Don

[Scorpionz]

Hi guys. Maybe some of you have now seen one in the flesh, but specs aside (and we all do get very carried away with numbers and chips) but I’ve used one here in lil ol NZ and out of all the camera guys I spoke with and myself included, it wasn’t what we expected operationally… its somewhat awkward to actually hold on to. Great features like the switchable focus ring and wotnot, but the balance is very off centre and we all got a sore hand/wrist within 5 minutes.

So try before you buy….at the end of the day, you’ve actually got to use the camera, no matter what you think it looks like.

And be prepared for data wrangling….its not as straight forward as you might think.

Cheers

Scorpio NZ – Production & Post

[Craig Seeman]

AppleTV is PC compatible. Basically you’d need a compression program to make 720p24 h.264 file compatible with it. QuickTimePro ($29) and that’s available for PC too, is all one would need to compress the file.

It’s just a wild hunch but I suspect a sequence of events, Leopard’s release, a DVDStudioPro and a Blu-Ray build to order option on the next MacPro, Apple will be supporting Blu-Ray. May own wild uninformed (but reasoned) guess is that the last two parts (Leopard being the first in a few weeks) will be complete by MacWorld in January (about 12 weeks away in case that sounds like a long time).

[Craig Seeman]

[jiri vrozina] “I just wish Sony built into EX1 Digi Beta codec as well and perhaps HDCAM too…:-) “
Of course the EX1 would cost over $50,000 at that point.

[Don Greening]

Celia,

Thanks for your feedback on the EX. I guess I’ll have to do some wrist strengthening exercises to prepare. Thankfully, most of my shooting is done from a shoulder brace or a tripod. But it’s good to know in advance about the balance issue. Perhaps having that optional heavy looking Sony wide angle lens on the front of the EX will help.

– Don

[Don Greening]

[Craig Seeman] “Of course the EX1 would cost over $50,000 at that point.”

You read my mind. As soon as I saw Jiri’s post I’m thinking: “Really,really expensive HD recording heads. Not what I want” 🙂

– Don

[Craig Seeman]

I’ve heard the rotating wrist strap really helps though.

Get a set of 10lb weights and do some wrist curls.

I’d be skeptical about assertions on codec wrangling since the NLEs (and/or Sony) may not have updated importers yet to handle MPEG2 wrapped in MP4 (rather than MXF).