[Dan Brockett]

Your camera will probably require a firmware update to work with the larger cards. Read the directions carefully, if you do something stupid, you can mess up your camera.

https://eww.pavc.panasonic.co.jp/pro-av/support/desk/e/p2ecard.htm

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs

[Dan Brockett]

You can use a P2 Store as a card reader, just remember that it is as slow as Molasses, USB 1.1. If I recall my speed tests when the production company I was working for at the time bought a few of them, I seem to recall something like 45 minutes for an 8GB. Never tried a 16GB with them because the 16s weren’t out yet.

They definitely work but are so slow and only have enough space to hold a few cards.

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs

[Dan Brockett]

If you need something today, cheap, I highly advise that you buy a used PB G4 or a new cheap PC laptop. It is the only mobile, low cost P2 dumping solution short of using the camera.

Snow Leopard will never work with the Duel Adpater, it is a dead issue.

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs

[Dan Brockett]

Hi Nelson:

Not to be pednatic, but some of your terminology is confusing. Telecine is the transfer of film to video, you can’t telecine footage from the HVX200 because it already is video. What I surmise you are describing would be the opposite, a film out. This would be the process of outputting frames of video from your HVX to film. It is very expensive and a minute fraction, less than 1%, of people shooting video ever do this so it is almost a non-concern frankly. Everyone always discusses film outs like they are done all of the time when, in fact, they are becoming exceedingly rare and many of the companies that do them have gone under or are no longer doing them.

Also, you should describe Blu Ray as just Blu Ray, never as Blu Ray DVD, because DVD and Blu Ray are two separate and distinct formats, Blu Ray being a Hi-Definition optical disc format and DVD being an SD optical disc format. Two different and distinct formats that have totally different standards and requirements as far as production considerations. When discussing this specs, you should always use correct terminology so as to avoid costly and frustrating mis-communication.

The DVCPRO HD codec that your 200 shoots, assuming we are talking about a 59.94 camera, can record in 720 24Pn, 30Pn, 24p, 30p and 1080 24p over 1080i, 108024Pa over 1080i, 108030P ver 1080i and 1080i. The main difference is that 720 is always progressive, there is no such thing as 720i, while 1080, as a format, can be interlaced or progressive. The DVCPRO HD codec specifies that all 1080 formats are recorded within an interlaced 1080 signal. So to further clarify, the camera itself is always imaging a 1080 progressive signal. It derives all of these other formats by downrezzing or converting the 1080P signal to whatever format the user sets it to. If you shoot 108024P, you must load the footage into FCP or another editing program and use tools to extract the flagged 24 progressive frames from the 1080 interlaced stream, much as some people used to do with the 24p footage in the 480 interlaced signal when shooting the DVX100. Camera is imaging in 24 progressive frames, but is recording it into an interlaced recording, got it?

This massively confuses many people who think that the HVX200 cannot record 1080 24P. If you shoot 108024Pa, when you use the log and transfer tool in FCP, FCP only brings in the 24 progressive frames, doing all of the frame extraction work for you. If you want to shoot 1080, this would be the setting I would recommend to you, 108024Pa.

I would not recommend shooting 30P, that format can become a nightmare for film outs and typically, you need to worry more about how and if your show will ever be seen in 50Hz (PAL) markets. 24P is a pretty simple conversion to 25P, but 30P is not.

As far as will 720 suffice, you do gain about 15% more resolution by shooting 108024Pa over 720P. If you care about obtaining the ultimate in resolution, shoot 108024Pa. As a more practical outlook, most people cannot ever tell the difference between 720 and 1080 unless they are a video engineer or high end DP and even then few can tell the difference in a double blind test. If you are required to deliver a 1080 master, it is pretty easy to cross convert 720 to 1080. I use the Aja Kona 3 and it can do this in real time. I have used this workflow for years with all of the studios and the footage has always passed QC and the clients at all of the studios have always been happy with the results. IMHO, you only NEED 1080 if your show will be projected on large screens. For Blu Ray, DVD, web and broadcast, 720 is more than sufficient but many people are brainwashed that “bigger = better” so much of the production world has 1080 on the brain and thinks that 720 is substandard.

If I was shooting with the FS100, I would shoot 1080 simply because card space is not an issue so why not? But it would not be imperative.

Best of luck,

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs

[Dan Brockett]

So the 201 is not switchable from 50Hz to 59.94Hz like the 171 is? That’s too bad.

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs

[Dan Brockett]

Good luck Neil. All three cams are good tools, it is just a matter of you deciding which camera will best suit your situation. I did a shoot last year with my 170 and two HVX200s and when you are cutting between the two, the extra half stop and lower noise make a difference.

Let us know what you end up buying and how you like it.

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs

[Dan Brockett]

Neil:

Cheap is a relative term since you are not factoring in the cost of P2 cards.

1. How long at a time do you need to shoot?
2. Are you always shooting in situations where it is possible to dump P2 cards?

I owned the HVX200, one of the first ones. I sold it to buy the HPX170. The HPX170 is a better camera with a better looking picture and much better operational features but I can see your point if all the camera will generate will be web videos. With good lighting, the HVX200 can make fine pictures.

I also notice that you seem to want to shoot 1080. Shooting 1080 on the HVX200 requires 1GB per minute so if you are shooting long interviews or segments, you are going to burn through prodigious amounts of P2 storage at a time.

You can read about my direct comparison of the HVX200 and the HPX170 here https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/hpx_170_evolution_brockett.html

I agree with Steve, if you are worried about cost, go with the HMC150. Same camera physically as the 170 but shoots on cheap SD media but the codec is not as good as DVCPRO HD. But it can still look excellent if you know what you are doing.

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs

[Dan Brockett]

I know, I remember that prototype from NAB last year. Most of us think that this will be the initial model, then perhaps they will offer the model shown above using AVC Ultra at 200 or 220MBps data rate at NAB? Perhaps the first model will use two streams of AVCHD to SDXC cards?

That would be a good 1-2 punch against Sony, a cheap ($21k) AVCHD version, followed by a P2 version with a much better intraframe AVC Ultra codec and upgraded features (VFR in 3D?) at $35k or $40k?

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs

[Dan Brockett]

Many tried. None succeeded.

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs

[Dan Brockett]

Please, please don’t buy an Azden. I am not going to bad mouth them but just. Don’t.

I think the word you are looking for is Lectrosonics.
https://www.lectrosonics.com/hybrid/sr/sr.htm

You will never regret buying the best. Hands down the best in-slot system available.

Dan

Providing value added material to all of your favorite DVDs