HDCAM vs DVCPRO vs New Formats

[Shane Ross]

From a documentary television perspective in LA, the most common footage I am seeing is DVCPRO HD from the Varicam and HVX-200. Perhaps a smidgen of HDV when the budgets get REALLY low…and they aren’t getting much bigger.

Commercially and Narrative TV…I see HDCAM more often if the shoot is an HD one. But even there, Varicam is pretty prevalent.

Shane

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[Dylan Reeve]

In New Zealand there is not yet any demand for HD delivery as there is no HD broadcasters. However it is on the horizon with the two major networks announcing they will be rolling out HD broadcasts from early-mid 2008. At the moment that looks likely to be 720p50 – but that is still not quite confirmed officially.

DVCPRO HD quite good uptake, although given there are only 14 DVCPRO HD decks in the country (or there was when we bought ours a couple of months ago) it’s still a little tricky. Of the DVCPRO HD – Varicam is the most widely available camera here, but it a huge pain in the ass in 25/50 framerates. The HVX is very popular here, although many people shoot DV with it.

In the more run-and-gun reality market, HDV has pretty much replaced the ubiquitous PD-150 (or 170).

However a lot of what is shot in HD here still ends up being mastered in SD to Digi for delivery – a lot never actually exists in HD beyond the acquisition.

Rumour has it that NZ has more orders for RED, per capita, than anywhere else, so that seems likely to make an impact. Already there have been 2 music videos, a small handful of TVC and a short film shot on our one and only RED (#23).

While we had a big uptake of XDCAM here, there hasn’t been much of a rush on th HD variant, and I’m not sure how many EX-1s are in the market, and I certainly haven’t heard of anyone shooting it yet, but there were a lot of approving noises from industry sorts and the Sony launch even a few months ago.

HDCAM doesn’t get a lot of work as an acquisition format here, but HDCAM SR is a fairly popular mastering format. Networks at this stage are leaning toward HDCAM and SR for delivery it seems.

[David Roth weiss]

Here in L.A. I am suddenly seeing tons of HDV docos being shot–lots more than I ever imagined. Ans, a lot of the local news is being shot on Sony Z1s. The Sony EX is gonna be huge and all of the rental houses have gobs of them on order.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

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[Dylan Reeve]

HDV, for all it’s faults, actually stands up remarkably well.

EX certainly should make an impact. Aside from the drawback of being HDV-based (although with a significantly higher bitrate than regular HDV) it is a pretty good format. It is solid-state only, so that is something of a limitation for some applications, but with larger cards and more manufacturers likely to come along soon, that will be less of a problem. Support is somewhat limited (no native Avid support yet, and I’ve heard mixed reports about workflow in FCP). But the camera itself is fantastic. It has all the right features and a fantastic lense!

I think there will be an instinctual backlash from the P2-faithful, but I think the EX1 is a HVX-killer, but the HVX users are quite vocal so it may be a while before the EX1 is accepted more widely. In NZ the HVX userbase is pretty big, so I think Sony has to overcome that first. Then we’ll see.

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Bill,
I think this is just the beginning. After the EXDCAM EX I think will appear something with similar size but 422. And after the Long Closed GOPs, there is still the way to the Short Open GOPs.
Will be difficult to think to invest in a format when you know that there is something better comming soon.
rafael

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[Walter Biscardi]

DVCPro HD is the workhorse here, though I much prefer the HDX-900 to the Varicam. It’s just a cleaner and sharper camera. We’ve been cutting DVCPro HD over three years now and I love the format.

HDV as an acquisition source we get primarily on international documentaries where they don’t want to take the larger cameras into the field. We convert all HDV material to DVCPro HD or ProRes for Post, we never edit in the format.

I do have one client who has asked me to assist them in testing both the RED camera and the Sony PMW-EX1 XDCAM EX workflows. That will most like happen in January or February.

For Mastering to the networks it’s still HDCAM, but DVCPro HD is definitely the format of choice around here.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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[Bob Flood]

BP

We are an independent marketing and production company doing work for many midwestern based corprorations

we have found that even though HD has not really become the ipso facto out here (tv stations are broadcasting HD, but its just the network feed, local stuff is still SD) 16×9 has, so even when we are shooting for SD release, like dvd or web, we use HDV to aquire, and we rent P2 for special effects, like ultimatte or motion tricks.

HDV is great to shoot in, but we edit either dvcpro50 16×9 or dvcprohd, we master on BetaSP or D1, and we archive on harddrives or 4.8 dvd. having hdv camera originals helps future proof a lot of assets for our clients

I would love to either upgrade my HDV deck (curently an M10U), or go to solid state aquisition.
I swear its like the early days of the interstate highway. your cruising along at 70 mph at least (shooting) then you have to detour into some hick town at 30 mph and traffic lights galore (capturing from tape) then you get back on the highway (editing).

FWIW lets keep tape for archiving, but gimme solid state or harddrives for shooting.

“I like video because its so fast!”

Bob Flood
Greer & Associates, Inc.

[Mark Maness]

[Sycophant] “Support is somewhat limited (no native Avid support yet, and I’ve heard mixed reports about workflow in FCP). But the camera itself is fantastic. It has all the right features and a fantastic “

Well, I’m gonna jump in…

Just yesterday, our equipment sale rep stopped by with his XDCAM EX demo. We put it trought its paces. Different frame rates, 1080 vs 720, different lighting conditions, and most importantly tested all of this with FCP 6.02.

Let me just say… Panasonic look out! This will kill the HVX series without a doubt. FCP handled all of the footage wonderfully. Yeah, there will be some rendering when mixing XDCAM HD and XDCAM EX unless you record in the SP mode (25 mbit).

But I can say that this camera is an awesome offering from Sony. Now, if they could just come up with something like the P2 Gear or P2 Store for field use. This is the ONLY thing that is keeping us from purchasing these cameras and replacing our Sony Z1U’s.

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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
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[Chris Borjis]

At our Facility in Oregon, its mainly XDCAM HD, DVCPRO-HD, HDV and HDCAM on rare occasions.

[Stuart Simpson]

We see a mixture of XDCAM HD and HDCAM, with lots of HDV. Sony have the UK market cornered it seems – renting Panasonic kit in Scotland is nigh-on impossible.

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