Multimedia
Blogs
Forum
Affordable HD
Whitepapers
Newsletters
Events
Advertisers
DCP Directory
MillimeterPost NAB 2007: After All the Gifts Have Been Opened
May 14, 2007 6:00 PM
Many of us remember as a child sitting amongst our unwrapped Christmas gifts and doing a tally: What had been a total surprise? Did we get all we wanted? What didn’t we get that we really wanted? In the days following NAB, I do the same tally and usually wind up with the same mixed feelings I had as a child on Christmas night. This year was no different.
Apple Final Cut Studio 2 looks to be a great gift—although FCP 6 was not a total surprise. I expect the real surprises, both good and bad, will be found only when one begins to use FCP 6, Color, and SoundTrack. Those who read my HDV@Work stories in the fall that covered “open timelines” and creating 5.1 soundtracks should be ready for Apple’s second-generation Studio capabilities. I will be covering Studio 2 when it is released.
I’ll also be reporting on three other NLEs. Avid Media Composer 2.7 was recently released for both Mac and PC. There are many MC capabilities that do not exist in FCP—or they exist but they're integrated into MC and not integrated in FCP.
When Grass Valley Edius 4.5 is released, we’ll dig into it to discover the real-world editing capabilities that convinced NBC to buy 400 Edius seats for its stations. Last, but certainly not least, when Adobe ships Creative Suite 3 Production Premium we will examine the capabilities it offers the HDV editor.
The biggest and best surprise at NAB was Sony’s XDCAM EX camcorder. Not because it records on solid-state media—although the way Sony has implemented its EX system avoids the weaknesses of P2—but because it cuts the cost (and both size and weight) of XDCAM HD in half.
From Bob Ott, vice president of optical and networked systems for Sony, we know that the XDCAM EX camcorder will cost about $8,000. “[It] will be switchable between 1080/60i and 720/60p, and be capable of recording 1080/50i/25p/24p/30p plus 720/50p,” Ott says.
Nevertheless, there are many open issues: Are the 1/2in. chips CCD or CMOS? Are they 1920x1080 or 1440x1080 chips? Will 50Mbps XDCAM HD422 be supported? And can 1080p50 and 1080p60 be recorded?
CMOS chips, especially at 1/2in., are easily able to provide both high sensitivity and a native 1920x1080 resolution. The EIP used in the HVR-V1 runs at a 48Hz, 50Hz, and 60Hz clock rate with a resolution of 1920x1080. Were the V1’s EIP (or equivalent) used in the EX, it could output progressive video without discarding every other CMOS read-out. The output could be 50p and 60p—as well as 25p and 30p.
With solid-state memory, there are no limits on recorded resolution, frame rate, and color sampling. Thus, both 720p60 and 1080p60 become equally recordable. And Europe could get the 720p50 and 1080p50 formats it needs.
The “SxS” ExpressCard-34 cards from Sony and SanDisk are non-proprietary, relatively inexpensive, and will be subject to the rapid price decreases that apply to commodity products.
Thankfully Avid released Liquid 7.2 at NAB, and it supports all but Sony’s 1080i60/24p format. It even supports the new FullHD (1920x1080) MPEG-2 format recorded by JVC’s GY-HD7 consumer camcorder.
For those who cannot wait for Apple to deliver 1080i60/1080p24 native HDV support, the next installment of HDV@Work (the May 26 issue) will detail a workaround for you. I’ll also provide an alternate workaround for those of you editing with Media Composer or Xpress Pro.
