 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||
What is HDV?
Just like with DV, you capture the HDV footage into your computer via FireWire. That's the easy part. In order to edit and process the HDV footage you are going to need a very powerful machine. For true real-time editing plan on a dual processor system with 2GB of RAM, a SATA RAID0 or SCSI drives for the video storage and a powerfful graphics card that supports OpenDL. You will also require special HDV capable NLE software and/or plug-ins and/or hardware to edit the footage. So far Adobe, Canopus, Ulead, Sony, Hueris, Apple and Cineform are shipping products that edit HDV. High Def video editing is in your future, and I'm hoping to see evenmore HDV camcorders announced this Spring at NAB2005.
Videoguys - You can count on us!
Check it out! The VIdeoguys' Blog
Our goal is for the Videoguys Blog to become your information portal to the world of digital video editing & DVD production - including HDV &HD!! We'll be including press releases, links to on line reviews, first glimpses at new products and of course - the latest and greatest Videoguys specials, deals & promotions! Click here for the latest HDV articles on the Videoguys Blog http://www.videoguys.com/blog
Canon Launches the XL H1 (9/14/05)
High Definition’s Highest Expression
Whether you’re a broadcast ENG producer, or documentary, feature, or commercial videographer, the XL H1 is the affordable, lightweight HD camcorder you’ve been waiting for.
Its Superior Canon Optics and exceptional image processing give you a brilliant HD image. The XL H1 also features uncompressed HD-SDI (SMPTE 292M) and SD-SDI (SMPTE 259M) output, as well as Genlock input and SMPTE time code input and output for multi-camera shoots. And, with its customizable open-architecture approach, selectable frame rates including 24F, and multiple output options, you’ve got exactly the right tool – every time.
The XL H1 features total Cine control, customizable settings and a well-balanced design – for the creative control, flexibility and advanced capability your video work demands.
The XL H1 ships in November 2005 and will sell for USD$9,000. Its top five features are:
For more info check out:
Adam Wilts' Quick notes from IBC:
- Canon's HDV mockup is in a glass case in their booth. It's basically an all-black (including lens) XL2, with no markings of any sort anywhere except for a chrome ring around the settings dial and bold chrome "HDV" letters. The Canon folks have nothing to say about it.
- Five Panasonic AG-HVX200 protos are around. They shoot 1080i (only) and record to P2 card; no other functions operate (no 720p, no 480 or 576i, no tape, no FireWire, no menus). Pix at the Panny booth are on Panny's nice 720p LCD display; it's not possible to make detailed image judgments, but the pix look nice. Jan Crittenden still won't say what the native chip resolution is (and, if she has her way, I'll never find out, she says with a smile), saying that the proof of the camera is in the pictures it makes. There's validity to that: as a fixed-lens camera it's really the overall system performance that counts. Jan will be carrying one of the protos with her on the Resfest tour, but it'll probably be displayed in a glass case as the cameras are too fragile for ham-handling. The cameras here are in the open air, but behind a wall to keep the punters off 'em. Still quoting a December ship date.
- There's also an AG-DVX100B (DV) model with a few minor tweaks, like 16x9 display on the LCD, FireWire transfer of system settings for multicam setup, and jam-syncing to timecode over FireWire (yes!). Basic image quality and performance are the same as the DVX100A. Shipping in October.
- Nice writeup on the JVC HD101 (Euro version of the HD100) in the UK magazine Showreel. Highly positive on the camera from an operator's perspective (which I fully agree with) but nothing about recorded picture quality. A second article discusses using the P+S Technic mini35 adapter vs. the stock lens; the stock lens is faulted for chromatic aberration but is otherwise rather good; the mini35 allows very filmic D0F control but soaks up 1.5-2 stops of light, making low-light work (interiors) difficult.
- HVR-Z1s are everywhere. Sony is featuring the A1 (the 1-chip CMOS) on their stand, along with a mockup of a larger HDV deck that appears to take full-size cassettes (and looks more like the JVC decks or the DSR-45 in overall layout) and the XDCAM HD camcorder and deck
- The mockup of Sony's "future" HDV deck (the standard-cassette-capable one) is in a plexi case bolted to the desk so you can't see the back of it. I wondered about the rear-panel connectors--would it record from analog component inputs, or HD-SDI?--so I stuck my DSC-T1 still cam blindly against the back wall of the booth behind the deck and took a picture. Clever, huh? What it showed was that there *is* no back panel on the machine, only a completely blank cover!
- AJA are showing a Kona card with analog component inputs (great for live capture of uncompressed HD from HDV cams), and with a hardware scaler for realtime playback of 1280-pixel DVCPROHD and 1440-pixel HDV as 1920-pixel-wide video, cleanly. US$1790, shipping now.
- AJA confirmed that the weird temporal jitter we're seeing playing 1080/50i on a Dell 2405FPW using the AJA HDP HDSDI/DVI adapter is to be expected. On all the 23" LCDs tested, only the Sony SDM-P234 truly locks to 50i material on the DVI input without doing any internal buffering and retiming.
- (shameless promo dept.) As Omneon announced HDV playback from its servers via FCP ingest, and I work for Omneon, I got to spend two hours the day before the show opened running around with a Z1 grabbing beauty shots in 1080/50i. I now have a couple of edited sequences running on the 24" displays, interspersed with some Z1 footage of South African lions (Dutch lions being a bit thin on the ground) kindly provided by Jan van der Meer of Global-DVC.org fame. People are generally very positive aboutthe quality of the footage and there's lots of head-shaking followed bycomments of, "this sort of thing cost tens of thousands of dollars / euros/ pounds to shoot just a year ago..."
Cheers,
Adam Wilt on the Omneon stand in Amsterdam
I get asked all the time which NLE is the best for HDV? This is not as simple to answer as you think. There are several good choices and they all have distinct features, performance and advantages. The following is pulled from a series of posts i made recently on the DV info Net Forums.
Some general notes on HDV editing solutions
With HDV you get the HDV footage into your computer via FireWire. All Video editing applications that support HDV can also be used to edit DV footage. Some of our HDV editing solutions will allow you to mix DV (Standard Definition Video), Analog (with a converter box or other hardware), HDV (multiple resolutions 720p, 1080i) and even DVC & DVC Pro footage.Today there is no single standard for delivering HD content that you can easily view on an HD TV. Twp differnt formats have emerged for high definition video on a DVD. Blu-Ray & HD DVD. So far there are no players or burners for either format. You can encode your video to WM9 HD and burn it on standard DVD-/+R media. Tehse disks will playback on a compuer with WM9 HD support and a fast enough graphics card. There are DVD players emerging that will support these WM9 discs.
If you start with HDV footage, you will end up with a superior looking standard definition DVDs. The reason is simplehere. The more information you initially start with, the bestter any encode will be. So all those extra HD pixels are used when converting your files to MPEG2 for DVD authoring.
I'm not very impressed with the native HDV support in Premeire Pro. It is slow and clunky. Unfortunately the chips on real-time cards like Matrox RTX100 and Canopus DV Storm can not support the higher resolutions. So what is a Premiere Pro editor to do to get real-time HDV performance?
Cineform Aspect HD is the solution! Think of AspectHD as a software accelerator for Premiere Pro. It works just like a real-time hardware accelerator but with this new technology - it's software only! Now you can get real-time tranisitions, filter sna dneffects with HDV footage in Premiere Pro. The new 3.1 version is the first to offer special support for the progressive CineFrame™ modes in Sony’s HDR-FX1 and HVR-Z1 HDV camcorders. Aspect HD (v3.1) for Adobe® Premiere® Pro can create a 24-frame progressive output file while ingesting footage shot in Sony’s CineFrame modes. Click here for more AspectHD info
The new verison 6 of Sony Vegas has full support for the new Sony HDV cams. You'll see that many folks refer to Vegas as the 'new kid on the block' or the 'best kept secret in video editing'. This is because it doesn't get near the publicity of these other well known apps. But vegas has a loyal and thriving and growing community of users. The interface will take getting used to - it's based on audio workstation software. but once you get the hang of it, it's truly remarkable how stable it is and how smooth the workflow is.
The audio toolset in vegas is by far and away the best of any NLE on the market. I also love how well Vegas handles photomotages. Vegas users can share scripts with eachother, so their is a vastcollection of low cost or affordable plug-ins that add additional functionality to Vegas. Click here for more Vegas 6 info
Avid Xpress Pro HD does not yet have support for HDV. Avid is working diligently on this and we hope tohave HDV available this summer. Avid will be combining native HDV support with their DNxHD CODEC.
DNxHD is Avid's biggest weapon in the upcoming HD race. How you edit, manage, store and move around all this beautiful HD footage is the biggest challenge ahead. Uncompressed HD files are MASSIVE. And they require not only enourmous storage solutions, but super fat pipes move it.
With DNxHD you get all of the great quality of HD (in every imaginable format) at a fraction of the bandwidth. Avid ran something they called the DNxHD challenge. They had HD images with a split somewhere inside it. Comparing uncompressed HD footage and DNxHD footage. No one can tell the difference. Including Hollywood professionals who had the test done privatley for them on the best glass available.
DNxHD technology is in every Avid HD product. On the more affordable Xpress ProHD level, you'll be able to ingest HDV via FireWire or DVCPRO50 via P2 cards and edit away. For heavy compositing, graphics, keying and animations you'll be able to use DNxHD for fantastic quality and efficient storage utilization.
For now you'll need Adreneline class hardware or better for SDI & uncompressed HD ingest, but given the competitive landscape I don't think Avid is going to be able to avoid giving us a MojoHD with SDI and uncompressed HD capabilities. [Note: pure speculation on my part - I have no actual knowledge of any such product being in developement]
While every NLE out there today has an HD path, I think Avid's is going to prove the winner. We don't need uncompressed HD editing with $10,000 external storage solutions. We need a manageable HD editing solution that takes advantage of the power, speed and performance of computer technology. DNxHD provides this capability.
The media management tools in Avid are second to none. It is the standard by which all other NLEs are judged, and no other NLE comes close here. The more clips/footage you have, and the more time you spend editing, the more important this becomes. Click here for more Xpress Pro HD info
The Edius 3.0 software will edit HDv files without any special hardware. Add the edius NX for HDV hardware and you've got a very nice real-time HDV workflow.
Edius NX for HDV gives you the same level of real-time performance and stability DV Storm users have had for years, only with HDV footage. We are running Edius NX for HDV on our new DIY3 machine and we are blown away by the real-time performance. What makes Edius NX for HDV different from the other HDV solutions is that you can view the HD footage in real-time, full resolution on an HD monitor via the component output. Click here for more Edius info
Background rendering allows you to keep editing while your computer renders whats needed in the background. you never have to wait, and when the background rendering is complete, you can immediately play your timeline in full resolution and speed. Actually you can even begin playing while background editing is working on later parts of the timeline.
The integrated DVD authoring form the timeline is limited compared to what you can do with EncoreDVD or even Sonis DVDit!, but it's a super cool feature. And for 90% of your projects I think you'll find it more than adequate.
Liquid Edition also leverages the GPU powwer of your graphics card to deliver addtional real-time perfomance.
LE6.1 now has excellent HDV support for the new Sony HDV cams. Click here for more Liquid Edition info
More new HDV camcorders announced by Sony!!
Sony announced the new HVR-A1U camcorder, based on a 1/3-inch, 3-megapixel Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) imager.
Sony says it has improved the key attributes of traditional CMOS sensors with proprietary technology, and this CMOS device is also accompanied by Sony’s Enhanced Imaging Processor. According to Sony, the EIP enables the high-speed processing required for capturing high-definition video images, and allows an HDV camcorder to record and playback high-quality still images. EIP technology is also included in a consumer counterpart, the Sony HDR-HC1 Handycam.
The new HVR-A1U HDV camcorder is intended to complement its HVR-Z1U introduced last fall. The HVR-A1U offers many of the same features as the HVR-Z1U but in a smaller unit. The HVR-A1U can record and playback HDV, DVCAM, and DV content, with the ability to downconvert footage into standard definition. The HVR-A1U HDV camcorder is expected to be available in early fall, at a suggested list price of less than $3,500.
Sony Announces Under $2,000 HDV HDR-HC1 High Def 1080i Camcorder
In an aggressive move, Sony has just announced the under $2,000 High Definition HDR-HC1 HDV camcorder through a simultaneous worldwide release. The new 1 chip CMOS camcorder is Sony's second consumer HD camcorder announcement, and drops the entry price for consumer HD much lower than any previous camcorder. The HDR-HC1 is also unique because it uses a CMOS chip for capturing the image, instead of CCD chips which have been standard in every digital camcorder for the past eight years. The HDR-HC1 includes a 3 Megapixel CMOS chip which records 1080 lines of interlaced HDV video, a 10x optical zoom, a hybrid focus / zoom ring and a widescreen 2.7 in. LCD.Still no word from Canon
| Videoguys HDV resources | |
| HDV Handbook On Line |
Your one stop source for all the latest and greatest information about HDV camcorders, HDV video editing and HDV technology! |
| Videoguys Top 10 products of 2004 | This past year will go down as the year that HDV emerged. Back in April 2004, at NAB, attendees got their first glance at the future - Sony's HDV camcorder. Almost all of the leading NLE companies began talking about planned support for this exciting *new* format - and many of them began shipping. HDV products dominated this years Top 10 list. |
| HDVinfo.net | Chris Hurds excellent site with very good forums |
| Adam Wilts HDV Format | HDV: High-definition video on DV tapes at DV prices |
| HD for Indies | High Definition Video for Independent Filmmakers |
| HDR-FX1 Sony HDV Info .com | Lots of links & good forums |
| HDV Cafe | Resource center for the new HDV Filmmaking Format |
| HDV Format Web Site | The official HDV format group website |
| Creative Cow HDV | A very active HDV user community |
| Vasst HDV FAQ | With HDV now being a ground-breaking format, here are some frequently asked questions about HDV, editing, shooting, and more. |
| Canopus HDV Education | High Definition is Not Just For the Future. It’s Here Right Now. |
| Videoguys Blog | Our goal is for the Videoguys Blog to become your information portal to the world of digital video editing & DVD production - including HDV & HD! |
|
Videoguys' Instant Product Locator
|
||||||
| RESEARCH | ||||||
| PRODUCTS | ||||||
| SHOP NOW! | ||||||
| Tech Support | ||||||
| Customer Service |
||||||
|
Videoguys.com • 800-323-2325 • Fax 516-671-3092 For sales inquires please email our Sales Team: sales@videoguys.com. Dealer inquiries welcomed. Copyright 1995-2005 TEM Trading Corp. The information on this site is provided and maintained by The Electronic Mailbox. Prices are updated regularly, but subject to hange without notice. Reproduction of articles for eductational / non-commercial use is encouraged. Any use of our content or graphics for commercial use must be approved by VIDEOGUYS.COM aka The Electronic Mailbox. Videoguys.com 10-12 Charles Street Glen Cove, NY 11542 |