[Steve Mahrer]

James:

Colour correcting HD using an SD feed / monitor is not a good idea, as Noah pints out you have a much lower resolution images, thus may miss critical issue such as missed focus etc. Another important issue is that HD and SD have quite different colour gamuts, HD is usually Rec 709 and SD is usually “601”. Not only will they look different but you may not be able to reproduce certain “HD” colours in SD.

Cheers!

Steve Mahrer (Panasonic Broadcast)

[Steve Mahrer]

Hi Ray;

In conversations about this subject yeras ago with the VariCam design folks, I was informed that Raze (SP?) was a software app that provided the inter frame interpolation and consequent frame rate doubling. It worked quite well… but Rayz (or whomever) was apparently acquired by Apple… this was in about 2002 / 2003. I have heard nothing about it ever since….

Steve Mahrer (Panasonic Broadcast)

[Steve Mahrer]

Hello Ian;

The HDX900 is a High Def camera that is multiple-format capable. It records using the DVCPRO HD EX tape format and can be menu switched between 720p 24, 25, 30, 50 and 60fps. In 1080i it

[Steve Mahrer]

Mike:

The VariCam when shooting at any given frame rate, the camera has no direct relationship to the tape section. So, if you shoot at 50fps, the camera is acquiring at 50fps, the shutter can be adjusted from OFF (max of 350 degrees) down to minimum of 3 degrees. 50 fps at 350 degrees equates to a shutter time of 19.4444ms, very close to the full 20ms of 50fps. The pulldown cadence buffering prior to recording is done after capture in RAM and has no effect upon image capture in the camera.

Cheers!

Steve Mahrer (Panasonic Broadcast)

[Steve Mahrer]

Chris;

I think Jan

[Steve Mahrer]

Jeremy,

Actually both, but it depends on which VTR you use. The large 64EL tape will provide 64 minutes of HD recording in the newer DVCPRO HD EX format VTRs and cameras (HD1200A/HD1700/HDX400 and new HDX900 & HD1400). These models record using the DVCPRO HD EX format (9um tracks). The older gear (HD130 / HD150 decks and the VariCams all use the DVCPRO HD format with its wider 18um tracks, thus will only provide half the record time, e.g. 32 minutes. The newer tapes are labeled as such, eg 64/32 to show the reecord times.

Cheers!

Steve Mahrer (Panasonic Broadcast)

[Steve Mahrer]

Hi Langosta;

Yes, IEEE1394 is a data recording mode, no CODEC is used to compress / decompress the content, hence the video is the same quality as the original camera tape. The 1200 deck records exactly the same DVCPRO HD DIF file data as the older decks, the tape track width has no effect upon the video quality.

Steve Mahrer

[Steve Mahrer]

Hi Scott:

The HDV request certainly muddies the waters somewhat, as you know we do not support HDV. That said, if you’ve shot 720p 24/60 and wish to receord the footage on HDV there is a problem… HDV doesn’t support 720p 60, just 30 as yet.

One possible answer maybe to use one of our DVCPRO HD VTRs to play the VariCam tape, but convert it to 1080i, that can be recorded on the HDV “decks”… This is a mess as you’ll need to feed analogue component our of the 1200A into the HDV deck….. Audio will require patching seperately… and as for TC…. God Knows!

If your client just wants to log the footage, I’d suggest downconvert to Mini-DV and record the letterboxed output of the DVCPRO HD deck and make sure the TC is burnt below the video.

Just my $0.02

Good luck!

Steve Mahrer (Panasonic Broadcast)

[Steve Mahrer]

Hi Daniel;

Yes, the 1200 / 1700 and new 1400 will play ANY DV, DVCAM, DVCPRO 25 / 50 or DVCPRO HD tapes, even PAL stuff. The only caveat is that we cannot play the LP DV mode tapes as they uses really thin tracks. All three VTRs permit you to play the DV family tapes as “native” or allow easy conversion to other video formats. There is also the useful extraction modes that allow the decks to ouput 1080p 24 ot 25 when playing 480p 24/PA or 720p 24 / 25 tapes.

Cheers,

Steve Mahrer (Panasonic Broadcast)

[Steve Mahrer]

Folks:

Actually dubbing (not cloning) over HD-SDI will maintain the flags IF you set the record deck to EXT TC and also regenerate the TC UB which contain the frame rate flags.

On the record deck set the following menu items,

SET menu 505 to 0000 (TC & UB)
SET MENU 507 to either 0002 or 0003 ( SLTC or SVITC)

Now when you dub the tapes, the record deck will regenerate the TC and UB from the source deck and you will have the full frame rate flags etc on the new tape.

If you clone (IEEE1394) you get everything, Video/ Audio/ TC & UB all in the DVCPRO HD DIF stream over 1394.

Cheers!

Steve Mahrer (Panasonic Broadcast)