[John Pipes]

Thanks all for your information. I think after further testing and consulting with Sony (we had an XDCAM specialist come out from New Jersey) that although the XDCAM HD 4:2:2 CODEC should be robust enough (it sure looks great!) to use with 8 core Macs as an editing Sequence CODEC-there are just too many crashes.

We can’t say for sure because the math does not add up (through-put, etc.) but we think as many of you that the long GOP nature of the CODEC is still an issue for editing. We did extensive testing on our hardware setup before we tried this as a group and actually found that render times in the XDCAM 4:2:2 CODEC were shorter than ProRes with our 8 core Macs and the amount of ram we have.

This approach was very appealing to us because the file size is so much smaller which means the demand on the storage is significantly less. XDCAM 4:2:2 is about a third of the file size of ProRes HQ. This is significant in a large multi-seat post house like ours (we have 14 edit suites on our Xsan) because it effectively tripples our storage.

Another reason this approach was appealing was the file based nature of ingesting with Sony’s USB XDCAM drives instead of as video through the Kona card. Ingesting as data is up to two times faster. However we don’t want to have to use Compressor to batch XDCAM files over to ProRes or drop XDCAM files into a ProRes sequence which forces major rendering issues-with a daily TV program this would just take too much time. So staying native XDCAM was appealing…

But stability has definately been compromised since we switched to the XDCAM 4:2:2 CODEC as our house CODEC. This has especially been the case with graphics in our sequences. So at this point we will continue to shoot on our F800s for EFP and aquire our multi cam footage to XDCAM 4:2:2 on the 1500 decks (again the CODEC looks amazing!) but we will go back to ingesting as video via HDSDI to ProRes.

I expect as time goes on for this to get better. Sony is really behind this format (see the IBC announcements this week) but for now sticking with Apple’s ProRes CODEC seems to make the most sense for stability on a large scale.

Any other thoughts are most welcome!
Thanks

John Pipes
Senior Producer
Joyce Meyer Ministries
http://www.joycemeyer.org

[John Pipes]

Will this work on a first gen Dual 2 gig G5? My machine is 3 years old but still going strong on an I/O. I am looking to add Kona power for HD work, can this work in my existing machine?

[John Pipes]

Noah, I think this is a valid question…how do you integrate footage acquired on P2 cards or a Firestore or like data drive from the HVX-200 (or other P2 cameras) into a standard definition uncompressed project or sequence? Creating a DVCPro 50 or DVCPro HD sequence is not always possible in some broadcast environments, as all work stations need to be the same, typically 8 or 10 bit standard definition uncompressed. In my world Digital Betacam is still the gold standard for broadcast delivery. I work with material acquired on many different tape or film formats but at some point they are down converted/transferred and/or frame size adapted (anamorphic/center cut/letterbox) to Digi Beta.

Or, with an HD originated tape or disc format that has a VTR or VTR like device for playback, those transport devices typically have hardware down conversion capabilities built in that can be used to output SD-SDI with the choice of center cut, anamorphic or letter box frames sizes to your SD uncompressed project. But how do you get this from a P2 card? Is it strictly a software render situation to get from the MXF file to SD uncompressed or does Panasonic have some VTR like box that gives this output in real time? If it is a software only solution is Apple’s Compressor what is used to down convert and frame adjust? Any help would be great as I think many of use in the broadcast world see this camera as a useful acquisition tool but are at a loss to figure out how to integrate it into an uncompressed standard definition workflow with out too much software based conversion.
Thanks in advance!

John Pipes
Producer/Director/Editor
http://www.homerunfilms.com

[John Pipes]

That’s good news. Please keep us posted here as new developments occur. Red is an intregal part of my workflow.
Thanks

John Pipes
Producer/Director/Editor
http://www.homerunfilms.com