[Accountneedsrealnameupdate]

Hi Shane,

Thanks for the info. As I said, I have no first hand experience with them. I was just going off of this document: https://www.exn.ca/producersguide/HDSpec.logo.doc

Please let me know what you hear from them next time.

Thanks

[Accountneedsrealnameupdate]

But I thought the HVX-200 was not allowed as a primary full acquisition camera for Discovery HD Theater period. I know they want tape as the final deliverable, but that’s a separate issue. We have never worked them, so I don’t have any first hand knowledge of any of this, I have just heard the Varicam and HDX-900 are OK for full acquisition, but they both have higher res chips than the HPX-500.

[Accountneedsrealnameupdate]

Most of the variable frame rate settings in the HVX are standards that were developed for the Varicam, which records to tape. Rather than trying to change the speed at which the tape runs though the deck, the Varicam always runs at a constant frame rate of 60P, so when an off frame rate like 30 is selected it still records 60 FPS, but flags every other frame as being the ones you want. So even though you chose 60 FPS in the 30P mode, 30P still records 60 frames per second, thus it played back at normal speed, (BTW how/where did you play it back? In camera or in an editor). Since the HVX does not record to tape, they were able to add a few new Native modes to the camera. 30PN only records 30 frames, and thus doubles the recording time on the P2 cards. So recording 60 FPS in 30PN mode does what you think it should whereas any frame rate selected in a non-Native mode will still record 60 FPS to the cards. And if this is not confusing enough, all of the NLE packages seem to deal with flagged frames a little differently. I’m working in Avid, and as far as I know their is no variable frame rate support. I’ve heard Final Cut is better at this, but hopefully some one who knows a little more about this can help us both out, (Barry?)

[Accountneedsrealnameupdate]

You need to shoot in 30PN.

[Accountneedsrealnameupdate]

Oh, so it has happened to you too? We often use our 17″ Panasonic LCD monitor with the camera menus disabled, which means we have to constantly remember to look back at the firestore or the camera viewfinder to see if it’s still working. As I said before, the Firestore itself does do what it’s supposed to do, but any workflow that requires constantly checking to see if it’s still working is just fundamentally flawed. I frequently use the scopes in DV Rack but I never record with it for the exact same reason. That is why I was so exited about the Cineporter, no Firewire cables!! I understand them abandoning the product though. As far as I can tell, even Panasonic has no plans to update the P2 store, which as it stands can only hold one 32GB P2 card.

[Accountneedsrealnameupdate]

Hi Barry,

Ok, I’ll settle down now. I really want 32GB cards. At this point I think we are going to skip over the 16’s and save our money until the 32’s are available. I just hope I don’t live to regret that.

A couple of years ago we took on a two-camera 720 60P production that had a lot of shots with one the camera mounted inside a car, on a small jib, and in places that a 2/3″ camera doesn’t easily fit. The shoot was a few months after the HVX-200 was supposed to ship, (the end of the year), so we ordered one with the intent, (and budget) of using it for all of the car interiors and renting one Varicam as our primary for exteriors. As the shoot grew near, many more promises were broken and needless to say, we did not receive our HVX in time for the shoot. We ended up renting a second Varicam, which was a bit of a hit to the budget, and a bit of a rigging nightmare. Eventually, we did receive our HVX, and we did use it for a few pickup shots in that show, and in the end everything worked out fine.

I know what you’re thinking and you are right, it’s my fault. I should have known better, but I decided to gamble on a promised ship date and I lost. It’s a lesson learned with no harm done. But seeing the 16 GB cards six months late does not instill a great deal of confidence in anything Panasonic says. Mind you, the only reason I care is because I am so committed to the HVX and the whole P2 production pipeline. If I were not totally sold on this direction, I wouldn’t care.

[Accountneedsrealnameupdate]

We also have two of them, and do still use them out of necessity, and to be fair, when they work, they work fine. The truth is my complaint is not about the FS-100 itself, but the little 4-pin firewire cable that the whole world is dangling on. My main problem with them is that you can start recording and everything is fine, but at some point, you pan the camera or the wind blows or the moon moves or what ever and the FS-100 just quietly stop recording. Mind you, the cables still in the camera, it just giggled an imperceptible amount and everything just stops. So if you are paying attention to the action, exposure, focus or some other trivial thing instead of just watching your gear, you can easily end up with half a shot. The first shoot we used them on also created a great deal of corrupt audio files in Avid, but we eventually found a work around and the problem was fixed in the next version of firmware.

I have never had a problem with a P2 card, ever. My preferred way to shoot in the field is to record to the P2 cards, then use the camera as a firewire host and copy them to the Firestore in Disk Drive mode. This is much more time consuming, and will not work for long takes, but it’s bullet proof.

[Accountneedsrealnameupdate]

All three are Linear

[Accountneedsrealnameupdate]

Were the clips shot at different resolutions? You cannot play 720p clips if the camera is in 1080 and vice versa, so if you have different formats on the cards, you have to exit MCR mode, change the format setting in the camera, then go back into MCR mode to play those clips.

[Accountneedsrealnameupdate]

Have you ever used one? I cannot believe anyone would want them. I guess we might put them up on eBay, but that doesn’t sound like nearly as much fun. I was really hoping the Cineporter would save us all, but oh well.

BTW, was I the only one at NAB 2006 that heard them say 16 gig cards “by the end of the year”? It’s June now and they still are not easy to come by. Come to think of it, back in ’05 weren’t the HVX’s them selves supposed to ship in the fall, I mean before Christmas, oops, I mean “by the end of the year”. I think it was late Feb or early March that we finally took delivery on one ordered in December.