[David Sallak]

Trying to bring clarity to the conversation, Jeremy…

> Also, a big (and quite possibly misunderstood) caveat of the 1200A, is that
> there is no deck control through the RS-422…

Whoops, I am happy to tell you the 1200a comes with 422 interface as standard.
Good ol’ serial deck control on every version of this deck.

> We might need decks to edit with P2, but we are sure going to need something
> to master to.

You could master to HDV because it exists on tape and is affordable, but you can only record to it via firewire 4:2:0 colorspace. You are re-compressing your edit to become a MPEG2 Long-GOP master. Not a method I would chose, but many will accept it.

> I work on a lot of live shows where tape is still very much in
> existence, be it HD or SD. I am preparing for a show in June with a 12 x 25
> foot screen all running HD. It’s not like I am going to hand over a wad of P2
> cards and tell the tape ops (or media ops in this case) to have at it.

Some of the more progressive facilities I work with are eliminating tape at the door, and choosing to manage their media in a purely digital format. A bit “out-there” for many, but it points the way to where the industry is trending. P2 is a part of this trend, and many will appreciate the flexibility of tapeless formats.

As H.264 (WMV HD) becomes known as a great HD presentation format, and more DVD players adopt it, I expect this will gain acceptance as the affordable presentation tool for approval and entertainment. After all, DVD player units with H.264 will be a helluva lot cheaper than the blu-ray players for at least a year, and you can export HD into this format from most edit systems for a much cheaper price than using your HDV camera or deck to show your project to friends.

David