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Panasonics new HD Camera
OK, I’ve been waiting for someone to announce an affordable 4:2:2 HD Camera, and it seems that Panasonic has done it AG HVX200… $5,995.
But I have several basic workflow questions about these P2 capture cards. Would you simply dowload files from camera via firewire, without having to get any perpherals ? And with a video data rate of 100 Mbps , what kind of FCP drive configuration would you need ? Thanks 🙂 BW
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11 Replies
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Go to the P2 forum for all the anwers you need!
Steve Connor
Cardinal HD -
First off, the camera’s announced ship date is the fourth quarter of this year so you’ll be waiting a while.
Panasonic was vague on how we’ll get the P2 cards into the Mac but I’m expecting some sort of external Firewire device like you have for digital camera flash cards where you’ll just transfer the material from the P2 to your drives and start editing.
Firewire 800 drives are plenty fast enough for DVCPro HD.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Creative Genius, Biscardi Creative Media
https://www.biscardicreative.comNow in Production, “The Rough Cut,” https://www.theroughcutmovie.com
“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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They *have* announced the 60gig external hard drive storage (P2 Store?) with battery power. Apple has announced support for MXF. Sounds like all that’s needed is a cable from the drive to the Mac.
Ed[Walter Biscardi] “Panasonic was vague on how we’ll get the P2 cards into the Mac but I’m expecting some sort of external Firewire device like you have for digital camera flash cards where you’ll just transfer the material from the P2 to your drives and start editing. “
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Apple and Panasonic have recently worked very closely to get FCP and their DVCProHD systems to work seamlessly. I imagine they are at it again with respect to P2. The camera comes out in 6 months, plenty of time to get P2 and FCP5 up to speed.
Regarding drive speed, etc, I learned from the P2 forum that for some crazy reason the term megabytes has been supplanted with megabits. 8 bits to a byte. I have no idea why this has suddenly happened but there it is. For ever we have talk in megabytes now it has changed, it probably has something to do with a PR turn that some company thinks makes their equipment seem more capable. More taste less fat, etc. The short hand here is 100 Mbps is about 12.5 megabytes per second. Most any 7200 rpm drive will do that over Firewire.
Chris
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Things like FireWire and video codecs have often been described in bits, not bytes. For example FireWire 400 is so named because (in theory at least) it can move 400Mbs (MegaBits). DV25 is a 25MegaBit format, etc. The people who have interchanged bytes and bits are ill-informed, the industry terms have been constant.
Ed -
I think the advent of DV streams, MPEG, DVDs and the internet has created a world where bits are the norm for some and not so for others. I was (until a few days ago) uninformed not ill. I think my thoughts were helpful regarding the question.
Although I understand the use of bits vs. bytes I still regret both of them intermingling in post. The camera, DVD and internet people have their needs and uses, post (as in SD, HD) has a different bunch of needs, which I am more familiar with.
Chris
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Chris,
The terms have been around forever in computer stuff. People who do a lot of processing related stuff tend to describe that in bits as this is the level where an image is recorded or manipulated (think mpeg streams, color depth etc). Average users just moving stuff around talk more in bytes, as in chunks of data moved from here to there (think sustained data rates from drives). I’m sure there is a better computer history behind the usage of the terms, but programmers are bit-intensive guys because that is the unit they manipulate.
Aloha,
Ken
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Let me clear up a couple of Misconceptions I have heard about the HDX-200
The $6000.00 version of the camera is uses DV Tape, On the $9000.000 version with 720p 24 you get about 20 minutes per card and you can hot swap them. All you need to remove the contents from the card is to plug it into the PCA slot on a laptop and copy. it will take about 5 min, to copy the contents of the 8 gig card. Yes it does have a FW 400 connection.
you get VFR capture when using the P2 system, but it supports 24p 30p and 60i in 1080 / 720 / 480 when recording to tape. The tape and cards record DV25 / DV50 / DV100 —- NOT MPEG.
The Scene markers are seen by FCP’s DV Start / Stop detection.
Both SMTPE 601 and 709 bars and tone.
The camera Mic is actually usable in the P2 modes as there is no tape transport to generate noise.
Oh did I say it’s NOT MPEG ….
gary adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation -
What?! The camera is $6,000, has a tape drive and P2 slots. P2 cards cost you more (a lot more). You CANNOT record DV50 or DV100 to tape (P2 only).
Ed[gary adcock] “Let me clear up a couple of Misconceptions I have heard about the HDX-200
The $6000.00 version of the camera is uses DV Tape, On the $9000.000 version with 720p 24 you get about 20 minutes per card and you can hot swap them. All you need to remove the contents from the card is to plug it into the PCA slot on a laptop and copy. it will take about 5 min, to copy the contents of the 8 gig card. Yes it does have a FW 400 connection.
you get VFR capture when using the P2 system, but it supports 24p 30p and 60i in 1080 / 720 / 480 when recording to tape. The tape and cards record DV25 / DV50 / DV100 —- NOT MPEG.
The Scene markers are seen by FCP’s DV Start / Stop detection.
Both SMTPE 601 and 709 bars and tone.
The camera Mic is actually usable in the P2 modes as there is no tape transport to generate noise.
Oh did I say it’s NOT MPEG …. “
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[ed] ”
What?! The camera is $6,000, has a tape drive and P2 slots. P2 cards cost you more (a lot more). You CANNOT record DV50 or DV100 to tape (P2 only).
Ed “Sorry Ed but that is not correct, I spent a good deal of time with the product manager when she spoke at the FCPUG meeting at NAB and I checked
what I said against the Powerpoint shown to the group.
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