Luc,

Loud environment with a Rode VMP on the TM900 I would tend to go for AGC and set the mic to the -10dB setting as there will be no issues with the AGC pumping up quiet background noises and giving you hiss etc. Only use manual mic settings if you're good at knowing where you need to be on the meters (TEST, TEST...) and are ACTIVELY monitoring the result through headphones. Anything important, always have a second device recording sound (I use Fostex and/or Zooms). Also, make sure you use a good pair of monitoring headphones (i.e. ones with reasonable sound isolation) to check what you're getting (as best you can in a loud environment where the noise will bleed into the earphone cups).

Claire,

Interesting and very informative (if somewhat disappointing!) info on the X900. I forgot about the loss of those useful side LCD buttons. The LCD sounds like a step backwards as indeed does the Menu system. However, the killer sounds like the image quality is not the same with this re-jigged lens. What a shame. Can anyone else with a X900 comment on image quality?

OK back to Warp stabilising my project (I'm working on a much improved, highlights version of the Jubilee River Pageant film posted a couple of days ago!)

Andy, so what you're saying is that the problem was that I had to change the mic setting to -10. Therefore I should still keep the microphone in AUTO, AND enable AGC? I thought everyone stayed away from AGC. The camera likes to keep the sound level very close to the first red bar, no matter if i'm filming a concert or just people talking.

Also, do you ever change the bass level in the TM900's menu? I'm still suspecting that the powerful bass was somewhat responsible for what happened.

Luc, generally, yes keep away from AGC. However, in certain situations (such as when the sound pressure level is more or less constant) a sound recording with AGC is MUCH preferable to one that is full of distortion. If you are skilled and able to record reliably without AGC, then sure, that's a better option. It's all down to your skill level as a combined camera and sound man in an evolving live event/fast moving type situation.

Regarding the -10 dB cut. Yes, use it when you think it's needed. Only you can make a judgement on that depending on the situation you're dealing with. I've never needed it on my TM900 but I don't shoot live, loud music (much) or next to sub-woofers. Rode provided this useful feature, I imagine for the exact scenario you now need it for (and also perhaps to better match with some camcorders pre-amps) so test it out with your TM900 (preferably before the shoot!) and decide if it is the way to go or not.

Good Luck. Hope this helps!

Thank you sir, I do appreciate it and I'm sure this won't happen again :)

Thanks to those of you who replied on the differences between the X900 and TM900. I noticed the same issue with manually white balancing my two TM900's. They don't come out identical. However, I do get pretty good results when I use one of the white balance presets. I now usually use a preset rather than manual white balance when I can find one that seems pretty close to the correct colors. I can make tweaks in post if it is only slightly off, and apply the same tweak to the footage from both cameras. This seems to work pretty well at matching the two cameras I currently have.

With respect to getting the disk based version of the TM900 before they also become unavailable, I'd like to point out that one can record to SD card on them instead of using the disk. So one can have the reliability/convenience of an SD card even when using the disk model. The issues that I would perceive with the disk model would be the shorter battery life (the specs say battery life is shorter even when not using the disk to record) and potential disk rotation noise creeping into the audio. Does anyone have one of the HS900's? Is the disk audible?

Here's a question for Andy. What is the difference between "auto" audio and AGC audio on the TM900? I have been assuming that auto is equivalent to one of the AGC settings (probably=set AGC 0dB), as I don't see how a useful auto setting could be accomplished without incorporating AGC circuitry. I also have yet to figure out what exactly is accomplished by setting AGC to a different level than 0dB. A possible theory is that you can force the ceiling point of the AGC to be a lower level than 0dB, which would give you a bit more headroom for sudden changes in volume where the AGC can't keep up. Is that what is happening/intended? Some experiments that I performed a while back suggest that this is the case but I'm not sure. If you have figured out what is really going on with these audio settings then please instruct me as the manual is pretty confusing from my perspective.

Hi Alan,

Good question and one that reminded me of yet another feature about this amazing little cam that I had completely forgotten about. I agree the TM900 manual is very vague (pages 72, 73 and 74) on the audio settings but from my understanding of it/testing it out on the cam, this is what I think is happening.

Put the TM900 in Manual mode (mine lives in this mode!)
Then it's Menu>Record Setup>Mic Level (Page 7 of 9)
Once in Mic Level you then have 2 options, Auto or Set.
I assume Auto is AGC controlled

Now the Set option opens up some interesting features.

If the AGC button (bottom of screen) is not selected/activated (i.e. not highlighted in yellow for those that are new to the cam, just toggle on or off by pressing once each time) you can simply adjust the level up or down from 0dB (steps of - 3dB in the downward direction, steps of +2dB in the upward direction). When you have it where you want it (using the on screen noise bars and headphones to judge sound levels), then just press Enter. This is simply manually adjusting the sound level and is what I've been doing most of the time on my TM900. It will show as SET in the Menu.

Alternatively, if you adjust the level to say - 6dB and touch the AGC button to activate it (and then press Enter) the Mic Level is then displayed in the Menu system as being SET+AGC.

I believe this is exactly as you imply Alan, the ceiling for the AGC control is set at a lower level than 0dB (by whatever you have selected), in this case it would be - 6dB (to spell it out).

I have just checked all this in the cams menu (whilst awaiting for yet another render to finish!) and it seems to make sense.

This could be pretty useful now that you've reminded us all that this feature exusts on the TM900! I would stress that I've never used this SET+AGC function in anger, as I usually just shoot with Manual control on the sound level (or occasionally AGC, i.e. "Auto" Mic Level). This feature might be another very good option for Luc to use to stop overloading his cams sound pre-amp - so let's hope he reads this in time.

It would be great to hear from someone who uses this feature a lot in real live situations to confirm what you and now I think this does.

I use a Videomic Pro on mine, just turn the switch to -10. Works like a charm, but still and all, a bit of a hissy mic. I usually end up running a de-hisser on the footage. By the way, I always bring headphones to monitor my sound. It's one of the benefits to using a camcorder like this.

Al

Guys, I hate to be off-topic, but I would really need your words of wisdom for a gig tomorrow. It's about setting up the VideoMic Pro on the TM900. I filmed a concert last night with the mic on the 0db setting and the TM900 on auto microphone volume setting (AGC off). The display showed me that most of the time the level reached the first red bar, which I thought was fine (the 2nd red bar I thought to be the problem).

After a few hours of filming when I got home and reviewed my footage... utter disaster, the sound was heavily distorted :( I was filming right near the stage, a few meters from the subwoofers, maybe I should have lowered the bass volume? Or kept the camera on auto mic volume but set the VMP on -10db? Or just set a value for input in the TM900's menu that would be close-ish to the first red bar in the level meter and stick to that throughout the entire gig? Not sure which would have been the best way to go. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, thank you very much!

Andy,
It is a shame that the event couldn't have happened on a sunny day. It would have looked even more spectacular than it does.
Nice work,
Denny

TIme for some Magic Bullets Looks! (G)

No way Al!

A deep blue Thames and a sunny sky, "Californian style" would just not match the typical English weather (and the atmosphere that goes with it) that we often seem to get on these special occasions! Right now as I'm finishing the edit we are being battered by 70 mile hour winds and "European monsoon" rains here in the UK. Yep, this must be England in June then!

If I can get this Diamond Jubilee Thames River Pageant re-edit finished sometime today/tomorrow I'll post it on here this weekend. It's taking a lot of my 8 core Mac Pros resources in CS5.5 as I've now got nearly 80 clips dynamically linked between Premier Pro and After Effects (mostly for Warp Stabilisation - which it has done a fantastic job on). However, I've now decided that after this project I will be placing an order to max out the RAM in this thing!

Here you go!

I did a lot of work on the sound that the Rode VMP captured to help recreate the magical atmosphere. Lots of Warp Stabilisation too - you would think most of it was shot on a tripod now! I also repositioned, reselected and/or chopped/trimmed lots of shots so this one is 100 seconds shorter, and I hope a slicker edit. Further notes/details on the YouTube page. It is also now on Vimeo. Still no blue skies though....;-)

Jubilee River Pageant - St George's Wharf (Highlights) - YouTube

I still think it is amazing that one can get such good 1080p material in poor weather from something that is so small that it almost fits in a pocket - if you've got something unusual and a perfect spot to film it from!

Hi Andy,

A really great effort. Having suffered the travesty of the BBC's boring, totally uncoordinated live coverage of this event, with seemingly unlimited resources, I have to say, your coverage captured far more of the atmosphere. The Director General of the BBC is stepping down: would you kindly take his place please.

Thanks Guy for that great compliment!!! :-) I had heard the BBCs coverage was pretty bad on the day. You are the forth person to make this kind of comment about my little film. [The DG position was a bonus the others omitted!]

It was a nightmare re-edit so compliments like this are much appreciated! For those that want to know, I lost my Dynamic Link from After Effects about a day and a half into it (a worrying sea of red "Media Offline" all along my Premier Pro timeline). I had to do some serious head scratching/problem solving into the small hours to recover the project. Luckily, I have very regularly back-ups and managed to find a way to get it to all hang together again for a final render of this Highlights film. 12GB of RAM just ain't enough so 32GB here I come. Mind you, I'll need to spend some of that high salary the DG gets on something.... I suppose :-)

Back on topic, well sort of. Luc, when you're next on, how did the audio go with the TM900 and Rode VMP in that next gig?

Andy, could you have boosted the contrast/saturation just a bit on the river scenes? The cutaways are much more vibrant to my eyes, and with a bit of punch (but not magic bullets) I think the river scenes would have been more interesting. Awfully flat on my monitor.

All the best! Wish I was back over there again.

Yeah I did wonder about that - good suggestion - and a few other things I'd like to do to it.

A lot of the 20x zoom shots in particular are a bit flat - but of course it was pretty dismal, dull and misty day and that's all part of the history of it!

However, in view of the hiccups well into re-editing, my main aim then switched to get "something" completed and in the bag.

I'm archiving copies of the whole project on multiple external drives and when I've got the extra RAM installed on my Mac Pro I'll try and re-open the project and see if that speeds things up. [For the first time in 6 months of using CS5.5 this project brought my system to its knees with a few lock-ups, crashes etc. - up to now it's been wonderful and zippy fast, as indeed has been the project I've just completed today].

Failing that, I'm looking at a new Graphics card as well (all this is on a thread I started in the Adobe section on here) but that involves upgrading from Leopard to Snow Leopard and a few other things, all of which I'm reluctant to do in view of ongoing client projects right now. The RAM can be installed without any other changes - so will be done as soon as I can get it delivered!

Andrew, before you get too far down the road of computer upgrades, take a look at Premiere CS6. First reports are that there are improvements to the Mercury Engine and the camera stabilisation effect is integral to the editing program. This will prevent you running both Premiere and After Effects, which is eating up the RAM. Unfortunately I missed the preview in Brighton last month, but hopefully someone on this forum went and may enlighten you as to how much of an improvement the latest version is.

Thanks Guy. I'm following CS6 developments VERY closely. There seem to be a few serious bugs for Mac and AVCHD users (in particular) - which will get sorted soon I'm sure....and then I will be upgrading. CS Production Premium is such terrific software and the guys and gals at Adobe actually listen to what us professionals want and need so I have no doubts about this at all.

In the meantime, I figure that the RAM upgrade can only help my otherwise normally superbly stable and pretty fast system (I'm editing one of the films I shot in my wife's native Mauritius last year - family stuff - and it's flying through it!). I really need to upgrade the Graphics card - but that comes with some complications that I can't risk right now (I need FCS2 on my system as well). I'm hoping to get that done sometime in the next few months, important ongoing client projects permitting.

More details about the RAM and Graphics Card upgrade I'm considering in this thread in the Adobe section:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/adobe-creative-suite/508013-mac-pro-2-66ghz-8-core-nehalem-32gb-ram-upgrade-worth.html

Andy, as a long time Vegas Pro user, I'm really enjoying CS6! Also purchased and tried FCPX, but it didn't work for me or my MacAir. CS6 runs fine on the Air and for the first time with the cloud options, I can run on both Mac and my PC. I'm sold!

Back on topic, well sort of. Luc, when you're next on, how did the audio go with the TM900 and Rode VMP in that next gig?

Well... below is a sample. Unfortunately I did not read the SET+AGC trick in time for the event, so I just set the camera to AUTO mic volume and the VMP to -10dB. Compared to the last event I filmed, the sound is much better and cleaner. However, I am still hearing slightly distorted lows. I'm guessing it's because of the reason you mentioned earlier, the camera is always trying to stay on 0db, so the song beats surprise it and it doesn't have enough time to react and lower the input level. I just hope the SET+AGC setting doesn't lower the volume too much on every beat, then increase it when there's no beat, then lower it again on the next beat and so on. That would actually be worse. I can't wait to test it tomorrow, don't want to wake up the neighbours now :)

And thank you Andy! I wanted to come here and complain about how useless the sound settings are for this camera, but apparently it's a bit smarter than I thought. One thing that does disappoint me, however, is the low light picture quality. What you're seeing below was shot at 1/50 exposure and anywhere between +6 and +12db of gain (auto iris). Everyone praised this camera for its excellent low light capabilities, but in all honesty it's not that great.

Delia Dance - YouTube

Mkay, I did the test. Conclusion? Disappointment. Here's what I did:

Record Setup -> Microphone volume -> SET -> -6, AGC ON
VMP on -10dB

Now, from what I understood, the level meter was supposed to stay somewhere around the -6dB mark no matter the noise level. What I did to test this was just increase and decrease the volume on my 5.1 sound system while watching the level meter. Unfortunately, when at max volume, the level meter on the camera showed the sound to CONSTANTLY be on the first red bar, sometimes even hitting the second one. When I lowered the music volume, the level meter was somewhere in the middle. Unless I'm missing something, I seem to be looking at using fully manual mic volume from now on. Video below.

Sound quality test - YouTube

As a sidenote, I did a quick time lapse today to drain a battery. What in the world is going on with the quality of the footage? I know it's not in the 50p setting (HA mode used) but the footage just looks horrible in comparison.

Time lapse quality issue - YouTube

Hi Luc,

Thanks for the update. The AGC+SET thing at -6 dB test looks disappointing - I wonder how this is supposed to work then. Anyone know?

Cannot really tell from your video about the timelapse quality as I am out and about and only viewing on my Samsung Tablet. Last year I did try an extended timelapse with my TM900 and I will say that I was so unhappy with the quality of it when I got home that it never even made it into a family video. I ONLY ever use it in 1080p50 now. Each camera has strengths and weaknesses - get to learn them well and use them to play to their strengths whenever possible!

Sure, low light performance on the TM900 is not stella. What do you expect with 3 small chips! This kind of thing is all relative. I can tell you it trounces my old Sony HC1 and a friends Sony V1 that were my main tools a few years ago. If you need good low light get a Canon 5D Mkiii.

Hi Luc,

Thanks for the update. The AGC+SET thing at -6 dB test looks disappointing - I wonder how this is supposed to work then. Anyone know?

Cannot really tell from your video about the temelapse quality as I am out and about and only viewing on my Samsung Tablet. ILast year I did try an extended timelapse with my TM900 and I will say that I was so unhappy with the quality of it when I got home that it never even made it into a family video. I ONLY ever use it in 1080p50 now. Each camera has strengths and weaknesses - get to learn them well and use the best tool.

Sure, low light performance on the TM900 is not stella. What do you expect with 3 small chips! This kind of thing is all relative. I can tell you it trounces my old Sony HC1 and a friends Sony V1 that were my main tools a few years ago. If you need good low light get a Canon 5D Mkiii.

Put 32GB of RAM into my Mac Pro this morning. Should be interesting to see how that helps things get along!

The AGC/Set thing is definitely strange. I did a few quick tests myself after reading the prior posts. My conclusion is that the AGC button on the Set screen has virtually no effect. When one enters the SET screen, picks a value for manual recording, then whether or not one hits the AGC button on that screen before exiting does not seem to make much if any difference. The camera appears to basically stay in manual recording mode whether the AGC button is enabled or not. I thought maybe the AGC set function might not work with an external microphone but work with the internal mic. But you get basically the same results if you use the internal mic or an external mic.

BTW, there are some differences in the way that the camera is reporting levels in dB and the way in which the Rode VMP does. The 10dB cut setting on the VMP is equivalent to reducing the manual volume setting on the TM900 by 20dB. The Rode must be a voltage based measurement whereas the TM900 is a power measurement.

In some ways the VMP isn't a particularly good match for the TM900. The VMP's sensitivity is ~20dB(TM900 reference dB) greater than the internal microphone. This causes it to be much too hot for the TM-900 electronics when the Rode is in the 0dB position. (With the VMP in 0dB position and the TM900 set to manual @ 0dB, a whisper at 6 feet will cause the TM-900 to clip.) You could set the TM900 to -21dB to make the Rode similar to the internal microphone at 0dB, but this won't allow you to go into loud environments and the TM900 electronics may not be distortionless when applying this much attenuation. Consequently my thought is that the Rode should always be used in the -10dB position with the TM-900.

I've also had problems with the Rode being boomy. It seems to overemphasize the lows in many situations. Note that the Rode is very directional for the midrange and high frequencies. It is not directional with respect to the lows. Consequently it is possible to get attenuation of the midrange relative to the lows if the microphone is not pointed directly at the single source of all the sound. I find the Rode to work much better with the low filter applied.

I am often frustrated by situations where I set up my primary microphone to record at a level that optimizes what is happening in a stage performance. But later I'll discover that loud clapping or other loud events caused the audio to end up clipping, thereby making some of the audio unusable. When shooting with my PD-170 in the past I often used two microphones. One was set to AGC and the other was set to the manual setting that I thought would work well. That way I always ended up with something that was usable. Of course on the TM-900 the audio level controls are very limited, so this setup isn't possible. The solution that I am exploring now is to use a second microphone besides the VMC. The second microphone will be a much less sensitive microphone or connected through an old Beachtek unit that I happen to have so that I can reduce the amplitude of its signal by 10-15dB relative to the VMC. I'll use a splitter to run the two microphone signals into the TM-900 external microphone connector (the splitter has to be the right type to split the mini stereo plug into 2 separate mono channels). In theory this should work well for me as one of the two microphones should capture good audio. I'll let you know how my experiments come out and maybe what my final setup looks like. (Beachtek + special bracket to hold 2nd microphone).

Put 32GB of RAM into my Mac Pro this morning. Should be interesting to see how that helps things get along!

Right. I use 4GB. Uhm...

I've done some time-lapse using the SD900 (50i) and it looks fine. To be fair though I simply film in real time and decide the speed I need, and more importantly the changes in speed, when it's all on the timeline. Of course this method uses lots of battery and card space, but works well for a lot of projects.

Timelapse, opening shot, (in camera TM900), here. Panasonic TM-900 Wedding Natalie & Matt - YouTube

Awesome video Colin! :)

I do have one question - were you using a steadycam @ 0:32? I'm loving that smooth motion.

Thanks Luc. The shot of the church was taken with the camera on a 26 inch Igus slider.

Andy,

Just curious, how does all that extra RAM help you? Here's a screenshot of my PC doing a render, the CPU is not even going past 80-85%! Any idea why this is happening? It's also telling me I have 1.29GB of free RAM (out of the 4!). So why you would need 32GB is beyond me! :) to be fair, I did not have any After Effects dynamic links in this one, maybe that counts as well.

CPU Usage (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/526/cpuusagen.png/)

Though I've been using a GH2 instead of my TM700 for the last year or so, I've enjoyed watching what's happening with the TM900/X900 here. Your videos, and a recent update making Final Cut Pro X compatible with Panasonic's 60P files, inspired me to dust off the TM700 for this project.

In summer, following a dry Winter, the low deserts of Arizona present very muted colors. This, and harsh sun can result in less than interesting images. This project is an attempt to use the "Picture Adjust" settings of the Panasonic HDC-TM700 to improve color, exposure and white balance for these conditions.

Panasonic HDC-TM700
Polarizer
Gitzo GT0531 tripod and G2180 fluid head
White Balance for sun
Picture Adjust settings
- Sharpness +1
- Color +3
- Exposure -3
- WB Adjust +1 to Red

Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden on Vimeo

It was a pleasure to watch that video Dan, great work :) there was a bit too much sharpness for my taste (I go for the setting recommended in this thread, -1). the polarizer combined with -3 exposure made the sky really dark, but I like it. speaking of which, what polarizer did you use? I'm looking to buy one myself. is it a 46mm screw-on? someone said you might get some vignetting at full wide, in which case your video clearly proves them wrong.

thank you!

Luc, if you are worried about vignetting you could try using a larger filter in combination with a stepping ring. I find 58mm a useful size.

It was a pleasure to watch that video Dan, great work :) there was a bit too much sharpness for my taste (I go for the setting recommended in this thread, -1). the polarizer combined with -3 exposure made the sky really dark, but I like it. speaking of which, what polarizer did you use? I'm looking to buy one myself. is it a 46mm screw-on? someone said you might get some vignetting at full wide, in which case your video clearly proves them wrong.

thank you!

Thank you for the kind words Luc. Happy to hear you enjoyed the project. I typically prefer a B+W polarizer, but used a 46mm screw-on Tiffen here. No vignetting full-wide with the TM700.

Thanks for watching.

Question!

Take this camera:

Sony NEX-VG20 (AVCHD 1080 50p camera) - about 3x the cost of the TM900, has a big CMOS sensor, and yet minimum illumination = 9 lux.

TM900 Minimum Illumination = 1.6 lux.

Are you telling me the Sony is 5 times worse in the dark than the cheap Pana? Or is it the other way around? I would just like to understand these concepts once and for all, and a big thank you to the person who is willing to explain it to me :)

Luc.
I would imagine the 1.6 lux rating applies when using the TM900 in the low light scene mode, useless for anything usable.
The VG20 with its bigger sensor would be better in low light, when used with a fast lens

So that number is basically cheating... also, what do you mean by fast lens?

1. More misleading, I think
2. A lens with a wide aperture, f2.8 or lower, preferably f1.8 or f1.4

Ok, gotcha, thank you :)

Mark, as you have a Western digital disk for "outputting to a television" you can keep the full frame rate 50P output from Edius for this, thus enjoying it's fabulous full quality! That's what I do with my personal stuff, I make a 1080P/50 project in Edius 6, edit the film and export to mpeg2 to put on my WD TV® Live Hub™ for viewing on my HDTV or taking to friends and showing on theirs.

You can make a 50P project in Edius quite easily, here's my project settings..

Video
Frame Size : 1920 x 1080
Frame Rate : 50.00
Aspect Ratio : 1.0000
Field order : Progressive
Quantization Bit Rate : 8Bit
Audio
Sampling Rate : 48000Hz
Quantization Bit Rate : 24 Bit
Channel : 2
Setup
Render format : Canopus HQ Standard
Over Scan Size : 0 %
Audio Reference Level : -12.0dB

When you have completed the edit go to "Print to File" and in the left pane of this screen highlight "MPEG", then in the r/h pane double click "MPEG2 Program Stream". The MPEG settings window will open.

For the Basic settings tab leave Size at "Current Setting", Quality/Speed choose "SuperFine", Bitrate use CBR 35000000 and for Audio choose AC3. In the Extended settings tab, Field order should be "Progressive", Chroma Format 4:2:0, Profile MP@HL, GOP IBBP, Picture count 15 (for PAL) and put a tick in the Closed GOP checkbox.

This will produce a single file, video and audio combined, just what you need for the media box and the quality is amazing because you have not thrown out half the pixel information by converting to 25P (50i actually I believe which is what you would need to put on Blu ray or DVD).

Roll on the day when we might be able to put 1080P/50 or 60 on Blu ray...

Hi

"Roll on the day when we might be able to put 1080P/50 or 60 on Blu ray"

I have authored all my Panasonic HDC-SD700 1080P/50 HD footage since 2010
to Blu-ray using the free MultiAVCHD.

"I have authored all my Panasonic HDC-SD700 1080P/50 HD footage since 2010
to Blu-ray using the free MultiAVCHD."

Hi, are such discs playable on most BD players or just certain ones?

Hi,

You can use multiAVCHD to author 1080 50p/60p blu-ray disc with full Menus & Chapters.
Newer 3D Blu-ray players now support “AVCHD V2.0” which now includes 1920x1080 @ 50P or 60P
My Sony PS3 and Samsung BD-C6900 plays MultiAVCHD authored 1080/50p Blu-ray discs without any problems.

A bit of an off-topic question: how do you guys CLEAN your TM900? Especially the lens. I tried using cotton swabs, but felt as if there are more efficient ways of doing it... had to apply pressure to get the dust particles off the lens, hopefully I didn't scratch it... thank you!

Impregnated lens/LCD cleaning tissue, followed by dry lens cleaning cloth. Dont worry about scratching the lens, modern day lens coatings are very tough. If my normal cleaning cloths are not to hand, a breath on the lens and buff with a clean handkerchief more than suffices

Thank you Colin, was actually worried about scratches, so good to know that.

In seeing my footage in HDMI out to my monitor, it is clearly superior to what I am getting from the AVCHD format I'm putting into my NLE from this camera. Is anyone trying to capture this stuff uncompressed directly from the camera? Or even running the captured footage out the HDMI port into something like a Matrox device to capture it uncompressed that way? If I can get the uncompressed footage like what I'm seeing on my 48" home monitor through HDMI, I'd be thrilled. Seems it could easily then match the 4:2:2 I'm getting out of my Canon XF305.

It appears from the fact that if I capture it in camera (before writing to the SD card), that I'm getting the uncompressed footage going out the HDMI port prior to conversion to AVCHD. Or am I wrong? Is AVCHD going directly to HDMI really that high quality? Putting this same footage into my NLE as AVCHD destroys so much of the latitude, and I can't get it back no matter what I do in rendering. I assume that's what the Matrox and other boxes will do for me. But will they work with this camera?

"It appears from the fact that if I capture it in camera (before writing to the SD card), that I'm getting the uncompressed footage going out the HDMI port prior to conversion to AVCHD. Or am I wrong?"

I believe that you're right, I mean, not wrong.

I am also very curious about this. If anyone is capturing to a Ninja or nanoFlash or whatever please share your results.

TIA

Hi Mark,

I tried unsuccessfully to use a nanoFlash with the TM 900 set at 1080p50. When I asked Convergent Design about the problem I was told that "there was too much information" for thenF to process. For further information I would suggest asking your question on the Convergent Design site.

Assuming you are using full quality 50/60P mode while viewing live output and the same for the recording, how did you manage to compare them? I don't see an easy way to do this, not without a studio, consistent lighting and preferably a monitor with built in scopes.

I did this test with my EX1R but that was easy, I used SDI out into Edius via my Storm 3G card. The 3G card has HDMI output to my HDTV and I have live scopes in Edius.

Personally I don't recall observing any difference between live and recordings using my TM900 but then I have to rely on memory as I switch between the two and with the time gap the light changes, it's simply not the same as instant switch overs.

Hi

"Roll on the day when we might be able to put 1080P/50 or 60 on Blu ray"

I have authored all my Panasonic HDC-SD700 1080P/50 HD footage since 2010
to Blu-ray using the free MultiAVCHD.

Authoring AVCHD 2.0 onto Blu-ray media that play only on AVCHD 2.0 supported Blu-ray players is not the same as authoring actual 1080/50p/60p compliant Blu-ray disks. The latter do not exist. It's a step in the right direction, but some Blu-ray players have discontinued AVCHD 2.0 suppport and some that had it have even rolled back to unsupport it with firmware "upgrades," Oppo being noted for this.

I've been using the TM900 for almost a year, and still quite impressed at how well it has done. Tomorrow I should receive the new HM-X900M. Can't wait to see the differences.

Did I kill this thread or something?
Anyway, the new has some differences in operation, but performs very well.