[Michael Brennan]

[bchsiao] “Michael,

How does discovery HD know if you’re using a HDX900 if you’re delivering in 1080i? Did they require HDCam masters? What about images from the previous HDX400?”

The production company sign a contract detailing what camera will be used. DVCPROHD is acceptable as a delivery format, I’m not sure they have actually said that the 900 is OK yet, as they tend not to list cameras but codecs in their producers guide. The assumption has been the camera head is a “good match” for the compression and subsampling of the on board recorder, but the 900 is the first to turn this on its head and up res in camera so it will make waves.

The interesting point is that they don’t accept Varicam pics for 1080i delivery without “special permission”.ie you need to have lots of slow mo in a project to justify it.

At the current time DIscovery are only interested in the recording format so in theory the HDX400 and 900 is good to go for Discovery HD.. until they ratify or fine tune their spec.

If Disco HD do accept 900 but not Varicam, then Vari owners should be pissed, as editing Varicam and then upresing to DVCPROHD 1080i (or D5 ect) should look pretty similar to pics acquired on 900

Of course for SD work it is the best value pro camera available this week 🙂 and something BBC Scotland will benifit from on their SD transmissions.

Mike Brennan

[Michael Brennan]

There are three DVCPRO HD recording standards that are available int he 900.

DVCPRO HD Varicam 720 60p records 960×720 pixels 4:2:2 with 6:1 compression
DVCPRO HD 1080i 60i records 1280 x1080 pixels 4:2:2 with 6:1 compression
DVCPRO HD 1080i 50i records 1440×1080 pixels 4:2:2 with 6:1 compression

The 1080i 50i standard has the most pixels per frame and could be considered for 24p projects but bearing in mind that the camera head is 1280 x720 pixels.

Mike Brennan

[Michael Brennan]

Brave move Johann!
Yes shoot 50p palyback 25p and you have slomo.

But is 720 25p still not supported (native) by NLEs so you’ll have to go HDSDI?

The 1080i output from the 900 looks to be sharper than the Varicam, the camera is a excellent choice for PAL SD, but faces big competition from the Infinity in the low res HD market (if that market developes in Europe) Most post houses in Europe do not have Panasonic DVCPROHD decks, but the Infinity with its

[Michael Brennan]

[tony salgado] “I’ll give you five bucks and a lunch coupon at Subway for the test results.

I believe Michael Brennan would also donate a small token gift for the results also.”

I’ll offer a 1000 yen note recieved as a gift from a Japanese CCD manufacturer, who told me would buy 1500 yen worth of subways anywhere outside of Japan 🙂

Mike Brennan

[Michael Brennan]

opps I forgot.
Old habits an’ all that.

Mike Brennan

[Michael Brennan]

[Blake Calhoun] “As a matter of fact, I think when it goes down to NTSC (and then DVD) it will hardly be noticeable.”

As a matter of fact it may be more noticable with the noise being made prominant by encoding at the expense of resolution of the rest of the picture.
I have had this before, where a minor lens flare becomes an issue once encoded…..

Mike Brennan

[Michael Brennan]

Hi Steve,

I wondered when offset pixel technique would be be used on pro kit.
Will be very interesting to look at the results at IBC.

Can I read between the lines then that the 900 can create more than 1.1 million pixels (lets call them virtual pixels) at the A-D stage?

If so, is the 1440x 1080 sample taken directly from here or is there only ever a 1280×720 output from the AD?

Getting very difficult to discuss this end of the camera without falling over somewhat inadequate or redundent technical jargon!
Maybe the expression “virtual pixels” has its place?

Mike Brennan

[Michael Brennan]

[tony salgado] “1370 (H) x 744 V, effective 1280 (H) x 720 (V).”

My rule of thumb is that Panasonic doesn’t make a 1920×1080 progresive ccd, regardless of what the brouchers say the kit records or outputs.

I wonder if the internal “upconversion” to 1920x1080i will be from a 1280 x 720 4:2:2 signal? This would involove two passes of subsampling.
Would be nicer if it was direct from a 1280x720p 4:4:4 RGB signal to 1080i and then subsampled to 1280×1080.

Or maybe it could also be “cross sampled” new phrase?! direct from 1280×720 4:4:4 RGB to 4:2:2 1280x1080i?

If my maths are correct, there is enough pixels in the 1080i codecs so if they could be rearranged could create a 4:4:4 recording of the original 1280×720 ccd!
For 25p work (see below) there would be pixels to spare.

Note that there are two flavours of SMPTE 274
1080i 29.97 Y 1280x1080i Pb/Pr is 640x 1080
1080i 25p Y 1440x1080i Pb/Pr is 720×1080

Mike Brennan

[Michael Brennan]

Haven’t seen the 900, but tested 400 vs 750 on a shoot.

Based on that camera and experience with 14bit ADs, the 900 will be smoother and less plastic than 10bit head of 750.

750 will be sharper

In the progressive camera range, Panasonic only make 1280 x 720 imagers, Sony make 1920×1080 (1440×1080 in XDCAM)

Mike Brennan

[Michael Brennan]

Is the deliverable 23.98 or 60i?

If it is 60i then you have some hope of matching incamera recording speed with transmision frame rate, but the 23.98 stuff will look jerkier.
You may get away with it depending on subject, bit like mixing interlace and progressive pictures in same project.

Mike brennna