Panasonic’s opinion on HDX-900 used as playback deck?

[Tony]

John,

Disable the outputs by insert super glue into the port.

Then you never have to worry about some cheap client grinding your camera heads non stop during an all night digitizing session after they have shot all day hoping to use your camera for 24 hours straight.

Tony Salgado

[John Chater]

Hi Tony

Would super glue inhibit the cameras from going on the Tyler nose mount they didnt tell me about:-)

Im genuinely interested to hear from Panasonic about this. Much has been said about the low level wear and tear of the DVCPro transport mechanism.

Best
John chater

[Peter Steinman]

Rent them a Firestore FS-100 with the camera and hopefully they wont even use tape.

[Noah Kadner]

Same goes for *any* camera. They are not meant to be used as VCRs…

[John Chater]

>Same goes for *any* camera. They are not meant to be used as VCRs…

Noah

Exactly.I am assuming Panasonic are aware that the camera is absolutely going to get used this way. Saying your not meant to is not going to stop someone who thinks they can save $500 on a deck rental.

By the way the camera is a VCR. Im talking about playback 🙂

Best
John

[Dave Anderson – roscor]

I couldn’t agree more with everyone’s responses. Avoid using a professional camcorder such as the HDX900 as a VTR. Yes, it can playback the tape but it’s designed for reliable “lightweight” field recording, not as a workhorse studio VTR. I remember this same issue many years ago when Sony first put RS-422 on a portable Betacam deck (BVW-35) and everyone wanted to use it for playback in editing. Even that 15-pound VTR wasn’t designed for that kind of playback situation. The recommendation to not use a camcorder as a playback deck is based on the fact that most of today’s camcorders are tape-based and you don’t want to prematurely wear out the expensive heads and tape path.

Right or wrong, it’s common practice for many owners of small format camcorders (DV, HDV, HVX200) to use their one camcorder forshooting and playback. Not an ideal situation but it fits the budget. Projects that utilize a truly professional camcorder such as the HDX900 (or PDW-F350 or Varicam or HDW-F900, etc.) are more likely to have the budget to afford the most appropriate playback device: a studio deck.

Of course, all of this potentially changes as camcorder technology becomes tapeless and there are fewer or no moving parts left on a camcorder.

Dave Anderson
HD Cinematography Manager
Roscor – HD Sales & Rental
847-299-8080 Ext. 1354

[Tony]

John,

I highly doubt if Panasonic really cares about the wear and tear on the heads or else maybe they would have included a security lockout disabling the firewire port via a owner defined password. Just think of all the additional income they can receive via the service center from excessive wear and tear on the heads.

They don’t concern themselves with how a client will abuse your gear as they leave that up to you to enforce your set of company procedures however you want.

Steve Wargo another cow contributor had a great response to this issue awhile back. He has a clause in his rental contract which charges the client for excessive use on the camera heads due to digitizing. He simply keeps track of the head and camera hours to determine how much real shooting was done versus late night digitizing.

Just because the firewire port is there does not mean you have to offer it as a digitizing solution to cheap clients who have no regard for the long term implications on your job.

As far as the tyler mount is concerned I would be less concerned about that than I would be about clients grinding the heads down on an ongoing basis.

But seriously maybe there is a firewire port locking device that could be inserted into the port thereby disabling access to the port. Sort of like the security devices available for laptops.

Tony Salgado

[Jeff Merritt]

Hello All,

Thanks to everyone who responded to say don’t use the HDX900 as a source deck for dititizing.

The official Panasonic position is that we know users will use/abuse equipment as they see fit. And no, we are not interested in making more money by people abusing or mis-using the equipment. We do not recommend using any camcorder as a playback device since the tape portion is not designed for constant back and forth shuttling, still frame, and playing.

In the case of the HDX900, the IEEE 1394 is an output only, that is there is no control from an external devise such as an NLE. This is also not an input so even if material is digitized, it can’t be put back to tape on the HDX900 as in a regular VTR such as the HD1400/1200A via firewire.

As someone suggested, it’s fairly easy to determine unususal head wear and our Panasonic Service team members have years of experience with DVCPRO to know just what is typical. In short, excessive head wear may cause a question of warranty service if appropriate.

A camcorder’s purpose is to aquire picture content with an on-board recording device. It’s not intended to be a source deck for editing.

Thanks,

Jeff Merritt
Product Line Business Manager
High Definition Products
Panasonic Broadcast
323-436-3676

[John Chater]

Hi Jeff
Thanks for clarifying Panasonics position.
Im pleased to hear that the firewire doesnt allow deck control.
However Im still not sure how detective work on camera hours will clarify a clients actions unless its a flagrant abuse.

Best
John Chater

[Mark Shepherd]

How soon you forget. I remember about three years ago when everyone on these digital blogs were complaining about how evil Pansanonic was for not including a firewire on the SDX-900 , like Sony included on the DSR-500!! Now Panasonic includes the firewire out on the HDX 900 and people still find something to complain about. I think the firewire OUT is a great feature, and the only thing now that I have to complain about is why not firewire IN? Now I have to still spend $200 on a rental of a 1200 firewire deck if I have to output a sequence back to tape.