-
Is HDCAM *really* 135 Mb/sec, or is it 440 Mb/sec? How much storage do I need?
When you capture an hour of regular HDCAM, say from a JH-3, how much storage does it take up, in your experience?
See, the HDCAM specs say 135 Mb/sec, 8bit, 3:1:1 sampling (whatever that one is). BUT… does it really capture to a hard drives at 135 Mb/sec, or does it transcode via the SDI to 4:2:2 uncompressed 440 Mb/sec or higher? I have a movie coming up — gotta prepare.
Thanks for your help!
-
6 Replies
-
HDCAM is 135 Mb/s and 440 for HDCAM SR.
But this is MOOT. You cannot capture HDCAM in its native digital format. You can only take it via HD-SDI or SD downconvert. From there it is up to your NLE to decide which compression you want – like uncompress HD or recompress again to DVC Pro HD. -
Well thank you, that’s what I feared, that native was off limits. Funny, have you seen the HD Decision Matrix? It’s all over the web. There’s a typo on the storage entry, thus raising this whole question….
https://www.24p.com/HD_Profiles.htm
“THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA” –
-
If you’re cutting on anything but a Sony XPRI system, yes – it’s true that you cannot stay in the native HDCAM codec. If you are cutting on an XPRI, you can take the SDTI (Serial Data Transport Protocol) signal from an HDW-F500 into the XPRI and stay native HDCAM. Otherwise, you’re forced to come out of the HDSDI spigot at 1.3Gb/s and convert to the codec of your choice.
All the best,
Michael Buday
-
The numbers are reversed. I think the author or printer reversed the storage requirements of HDCAM and HDCAM SR. The data rate is correct however.
-
That’s fascinating, thanks for the education. I guess it’s rather like digibeta, compressed and off-limits. Likewise, HDCAM is like beta before beta SP — obsolete out of the gate, except in this case everybody still depends on it…. only because there are practically no HDCAM SR cameras yet. Cheers…
“THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA” –
-
[BRussell] “Funny, have you seen the HD Decision Matrix? It’s all over the web. There’s a typo on the storage entry, thus raising this whole question.”
That matrix is very avid centric, and there are more than a couple of typos.
DVCPROHD 1080 uses the very same PSF format that is the standard for HDCAM at 1080
the “decimation” does not take into account that the smaller native frame size extrapolates out to the same as HDCam when you take into account that the colorspace for DVCPROHD is 4:2:2 and HDCAM is 3:1:1Gary Adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation
Chicago, IL USA
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up