I am as excited about this Panasonic as anyone and can't wait for it to come out. However, I am wondering if we are getting a little ahead of ourselves about it.

First of all - as far as I know only Avid and FCP will support this DVCProHD codec. I would hope that both Vegas and Premiere would see the need for supporting it, but as of right now that is just a hope. Unless you are already using Avid/FCP or these companies decide to support this compression format - alot of people are looking at having to change NLE's.

Secondly, one of the main reasons I for one didn't jump on the HDV bandwagon was the immense processing power it takes to have any sort of DV-esque realtime editing. On this point I am also unsure what kind of processing requirements DVCProHD is going to require. I would like to think it wouldn't be as processor intensive since it is only using intraframe compression, but a 100mbit/second data rate leads me to believe otherwise. Is this codec going to require a system as fast as if not faster than a well-equipped HDV machine?

Third, comes HD monitoring. I for one don't even have a HDTV in my house yet- especially not one I would be comfortable doing my work on. There are several workarounds to this problem, a few of which Adam Wilt talks about on his website. Still the cheapest solution is going to be several hundred dollars.


This Panasonic camera sounds incredible for $6k and I know it will be. When the DVX came out we all HAD the capabilities to edit DV already. Most of us aren't setup to handle HD editing yet so we must factor in the ~$3k computer and the ~$700 cheap HDTV and maybe even the cost of a new NLE. This camera might be more reasonable for CineAlta and VariCam people moving down than DV people moving up.

Maybe I'm just being overly cynical or maybe most people are in the process of becoming setup for HD - I just feel that we are looking too much at a single piece in the HD puzzle and forgetting all that it will take to match it.

Excellent points there, Brandon. The camera is the most exciting part of the equation, so it tends to get the most attention. But while some other purchase decisions must be made (among those that you've pointed out I think the monitor is especially important), the HVX can still be used in a standard definition capacity thanks to its tape transport and its DV & DVCPro formats.

Editing from P2-originated material is mostly a question of MXF file compatibility.

Canopus is listed as a P2 partner, by the way.

Sounds like Canopus is eager to satisfy future HVX owners. My experience with Canopus products for the last couple of years has been excellent. Edius has been rock solid stable and the real time performance is sweet. Third party support is finally coming around. The only problem I see with a Canopus solution might be the necessity to jump to a dual processor 64 bit system, which are fairly expensive right now. The Canopus NX system requires this for real time HDV editing, and I imagine so will 1080P. Of course, this type of system might be necessary for any editing solution tossing around that much information. The NX system just recently came out, so perhaps prices will come down by the time the HVX comes out or maybe they'll have a something else put together specifically for this camera. It'll be more expensive than most NLE's, but I bet it'll be quite a package.

Agreed. I have to be careful when mentioning Canopus as many people already know that I have done extensive consulting for them in the past. Some folks therefore consider my enthusiasm for Canopus as biased, so usually I leave it to others to express what a wonderful company they are. Go Hiro!

Canopus Edius already natively supports DVCPRO-HD and DVCPRO-50.

On an FCP system, Apple was showing DVCPRO-HD editing with an unholy amount of real-time streams -- I think it was 12 streams at once, but hopefully someone else can confirm or clarify. And that's on systems available today. The camera won't be out for six months, and that's an eternity in computer processing power terms, so it's likely that the computers available in 4Q 2005 will be plentiful, cheap, and plenty powerful to easily deliver a DV-style editing experience even with the 4x larger DVCPRO-HD data.

FCP already supports DVCProHD and has for quite some time. It's the direct import off of the P2 card that is new with FCP5, but as you may (or may not) know, there are already P2 cameras out there so I'm betting we'll hear soon enough how it's working when "5" comes out.

Wow Apple must of had a pretty nice hard drive setup hooked up to get 12 streams of DVCpro HD.

I'm actually VERY interested in Edius for my next NLE, up from Premeire 6.5, simply because it offers realtime and wide format support. The only problem I have with it is that I don't know how supportive third party software is. I'm sure Adobe After Effects will work with it if you export your footage as a supported AE file and I'm pretty sure that other special effects software is like that as well. The other thing I like is that if I bit the bullet and went with Edius NX and SP (about $6k on its own), I'd be able to use the hardware for many years to come as it's only limited by computer power and Canopus has shown how dedicated they are to hardware support with the DVStorm which has been around for a long time.

hmm.... well this is something ive been contemplating since the arrival of the P2 format..

ive been cosidering Avid with a Mojo DNA unit which already handles HD quite well.. however im also keeping my eyes out for the Matrox Axio..

the whole point to DVCProHD is to retain image quality adn i relaly dont lke the idea of convertin HDV to avi wavelet then back to mpg2 for delivery.. to me, it just seems that the more advanced we get with out productions, the longer it will take process and deliver... and worst of all, as prices come down, theres alot more competition out there, so we need to make sure that our investments are worth our while in the decisions we make..