Hi guys,

I’ve been out of loop for the last 48 hours, but I am at the NAB WiFi Restaurant right now using their free WiFi to update you on what I saw yesterday at the JVC booth. I apologize if this is all “old news” and has already been in a press release on the JVC site, or someone else may have already posted the info.

I finally met a bunch of people from dvinfo.net in person yesterday. Chris Hurd and Nate Weaver hung out with me for a couple of hours, but I also ran into Steve Mullen, Andrew Young and Charles Papart. It’s nice to put a face to the names. I also met many of the U.S. JVC guys: Craig Yanagi, Edgar Shane, Ken Freed, Carl Hicks, Paul Kasparian and of course the very friendly Bob Mueller.

So here’s the info on the new stuff shipping in the fall:

HZ-CA13U PL mount adapter. – This is more than just an adapter – it is a re-imager. The end result is a field-of-view of Super-16 using PL mount lenses. The image will be inverted and flipped, but the two new cameras will unflip the image ON TAPE. This is a BIG DEAL and something that was on my wishlist for ages. My goal today is to find out how this thing actually works since it supposedly does not have a ground glass/focusing screen. There is not alot of information on this thing... not even a MSRP.
http://www.timdashwood.com/.Pictures/NAB2006/HD200-PL_B.JPG
http://www.timdashwood.com/.Pictures/NAB2006/HD200-PL_C.JPG

GY-HD200 - $7995 with stock lens
-All the features of the HD100 plus:
-New encoder
-720P60 to HDV tape
-Image Flip for new HZ-CA13U PL Mount adapter
-Cosmetically the same as the HD100 except that the little metallic stripe on the side is gold.

GY-HD250 - $8995 body only
-Same features included with HD200
-HD/SD SDI OUT
-TC IN/OUT
-Built-In Anton bauer Mount
-Pool Feed input
-optional studio configuration.
-The RCA jacks are now composite video, auidio left/right.

The new encoder built into HD200 & 250 uses 12-frame GOP for 60P. Still 19.2Mbps
http://www.timdashwood.com/.Pictures/NAB2006/HD250_A.JPG
http://www.timdashwood.com/.Pictures/NAB2006/HD250_B.JPG
http://www.timdashwood.com/.Pictures/NAB2006/HD250_C.JPG

SA-HD50 Encoder/decoder
-HD SDI IN/OUT
-1394 IN/OUT
-Less than 300ms latency

Forthcoming update to Final Cut Pro 5.1 that will support 720P24 natively. No ETA yet.
The one macbook Pro running the 720P24 demo had a special NAB preview version. When I looked at the version number it just said “FCP 5.1+” so it isn’t even an official beta. The Apple guy told me that previewing software this way at NAB is highly unusual for Apple. The oddest thing is that the big sign read “Final Cut Studio 5.1 – Native HDV 24P.” Hopefully this update is released soon as a download.
http://www.timdashwood.com/.Pictures/NAB2006/FCP-Demo.JPG


Lenses:
Canon Prototype lens – KT20x5BKRS HDGC
20x5 (5mm to 100mm)
T 1.4 – minimum focus 3 feet.

Fuji T17x5 BRM lens and a Motorized version (BMD) for studio configuration.
There is apparently another lens, but only these three were on display.
NOTE: I just looked at the photo I took of the HD250 and it had a lens I can't identify, although it looks similar to the Th13x3.5.)
http://www.timdashwood.com/.Pictures/NAB2006/New_Lenses.JPG

JVC was also demoing direct to microwave transmission of 19.2Mbps stream for broadcast.
http://www.timdashwood.com/.Pictures/NAB2006/Microwave1.JPG
http://www.timdashwood.com/.Pictures/NAB2006/Microwave2.JPG

The DR-HD100 Firestore seems to be working with quicktime transcoding, but all of the sample clips I played with were 720P30. I'll see if I can test 720P24 workflow with it this afternoon.


Today I’m going to check out the Ultra High Definition theatre with 8x HD resolution. I will attempt to attend Nate's conference, but I’m also going to try to visit the rest of the booths on my hitlist before I fly out tonight. Two days is not enough time!

I’ll check back in Thursday night.

Ultra HD theatre:
http://www.timdashwood.com/.Pictures/NAB2006/8K-Cam1.JPG
http://www.timdashwood.com/.Pictures/NAB2006/8K-Cam2.JPG
http://www.timdashwood.com/.Pictures/NAB2006/UltraHD1.JPG
http://www.timdashwood.com/.Pictures/NAB2006/UltraHD2.JPG
http://www.timdashwood.com/.Pictures/NAB2006/UltraHD3.JPG
http://www.timdashwood.com/.Pictures/NAB2006/UltraHD4.JPG

The mysterious RED Booth:
http://www.timdashwood.com/.Pictures/NAB2006/Red-Booth.JPG

Hi Tim,

Thanks for the summary.

Can you try and find out whether FCP 5.1+ will support 720p25 please?

Cheers!

Hi Tim,

Thanks for the summary.

Can you try and find out whether FCP 5.1+ will support 720p25 please?

Cheers!
I asked yesterday and no one knew. My plan today is to shoot some footage in 24 and 25 and see if they'll let me ingest it. I also want to test the DR-HD100 while I'm here.

Are they re-engineering the CCD capture to avoid the split screen for 200/250?

I hope they redo it some other way - the market wont digest another 'send the camera to re-calibrate' idea again...

Hi Tim,
It was a pleasure to bump into you at the JVC booth on Tuesday afternoon. Thanks for all the info (both here and through our conversation). I'm pretty much sold on the HD100, so it's just a matter of financing at this point.

Some very nice stuff there and things that a few years ago would have seemed too much to hope for. My one complaint though is that if you've got HD-SDI out on the 250, you should have (or at least be working on) a portable way to record at higher bit rates than HDV. I know someone's working on a harddrive 'deck' for uncompressed capture from HD-SDI and has posted about it in the General HD / HDV Acquisition forum. Just thought this would be an area JVC might go to complete more with Sony's XDCAM line, especially once you put on a nice super 16mm lens!
With their work on things like the SA-HD50U, wouldn't this be a better direction to go?

I was told at the JVC booth that the 16mm lens adapter will be $1200 MSRP.
And it will work on the 100 model too.
Ultra high def WOW. Got a little nasuead when the camera panned. The basketball clip was amazing, not only did the game seem as if you were there but you can observe a guy on the top seats of the arena picjing his nose crystal clear.
Ffrom what I have seen is there is SOOOOOOOOO much going on in the picture that one can tell a story without moving the camera because you can see something going on in the corner and look down to see something else going on.
I can see numerous scenes going on at the same time from one shot. A new way of telling a story.

I asked yesterday and no one knew. My plan today is to shoot some footage in 24 and 25 and see if they'll let me ingest it. I also want to test the DR-HD100 while I'm here.

I am really concerned with the DR-HD100. I am going to be buying either the HD100 or the HVX200 very soon and I want a tapeless workflow. Please let us know if it works. Thanks.

I'm in a similar boat. -Between the HD-100 and HVX. My IDEAL camera would no doubt be the 100/200 with a hard drive & switchable formats (choosing from DVCProHD to uncompressed) - much like the HVX. I feel like I'm choosing between a superior camera or a superior capture method/codec.

Forthcoming update to Final Cut Pro 5.1 that will support 720P24 natively.

Thank you Tim. That was the most important information for me. Love Apple's products but sometimes they put us under a lot of stress :)
Makes you wonder how long it will take for the industry to support the new codec of the HD200/250

I'm in a similar boat. -Between the HD-100 and HVX. My IDEAL camera would no doubt be the 100/200 with a hard drive & switchable formats (choosing from DVCProHD to uncompressed) - much like the HVX. I feel like I'm choosing between a superior camera or a superior capture method/codec.

if you're looking for reasons NOT to buy the hvx200, the ones I used were price of P2 media and short record times.

I read a post from a guy who used a hvx to record a wedding, he used about 9000 dollars in P2 and P2 Store. Maybe he could have used less, I really don't know. Most reports say the cameras produce similar images but factoring in media costs, the hvx is about double the overall cost.

Steve / Chad:

The DRHD100 works well. I've used it personally. Many file format choices in SD. In HD mode: So far, only the native .m2t. But, plans are to add the .mov file format soon with a firmware update. For now, if you edit on FCP, then you can use a converter tool to change files from .m2t to .mov

See this thread for other good reports.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=64956

Regards, Carl

I'm sitting here at McCarren Airport waiting for my plane and they actually have free wifi.

Anyway, I found out a bit more on the DR-HD100 Firestore drive. Carl Hicks and I tried it in all modes. The unit attached at the JVC booth was running preview software that was able to wrap 720P30 HDV into a Quicktime .mov for direct editing in FCP 5. This is not transcoding, it is essentially the same way FCP handles native 720P30 HDV.
We couldn't get the Quicktimes to replay in the viewfinder. One of the focus guys told me they are working on this aspect for QT wrapped files, but the issue is that the stream is demuxed for quicktime and needs to be re-muxed for playback review in the HD100.

In 720P24 and 720P25 mode the DR-HD100 only gave us the option of m2t recording. A Focus guy told me tonight that they are working on this and that it will be offered as an update (probably via CD in the mail) for $39.

Timecode seemed to be maintained in all modes, but I'm uncertain how the m2t manages it, or if Lumiere HD or HDVxDV would be able to read it.

I spoke to a couple of Apple guys about the ETA of the 24P HDv update to FCP and they had no idea when the update would be released, but the consensus seemed to be that it would be a downloadable auto-update. No one could tell me if 720P25 would also be supported in that same update.

In the afternoon I swung by the Serious Magic booth to inquire about ProHD 24/25 support. I didn't really get any answers today, but I'll let you guys know if they email anything to me. The funny thing was that as soon as I walked up to the DVRack presentation Windows crashed on the presenter and he had to reboot. I didn't have time to wait around so I didn't really see the presentation.

I hit the RED booth today and met Graeme Nattress and Jarred Land in person (finally.) This is a very cool project. We have a forum (http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/forumdisplay.php?f=110) dedicated to it.

The Ultra High Resolution Theatre presentation was awesome. 8K and 22.2 surround sound! I took pictures of the camera and the spec sheet - I'll upload tomorrow.

I ran into Barry Green at the Panasonic booth. Some of that 60P HVX footage looks awesome. Pixel shifting or not, the end result in those samples were definitely impressive.

I attended the FCP User'sGroup Supermeet tonight at the Rio. Chris Hurd, Nate Weaver, Rob Lohman, Dylan Couper, Greg Boston, Robert Kirkpatrick & Mike Teutsch were all there. We took a photo - I'll upload it tomorrow, along with my numerous photos of other stuff at NAB..

uploaded: http://www.timdashwood.com/.Pictures/NAB2006/DVINFO-GUYS.JPG

My flight is boarding now.... more tomorrow.

Sounds great, Tim. Can't wait to see all your pics. Hopefully I'll be able to go next year.

I was wondering something. What would be the chances of the DR-HD100 firestore drive eventually being able to record in say Apple Intermediate Codec or even DVCProHD eventually? I know it's a stretch, but the main reason I'm not falling for the HD100 completely is the HDV compression is good, but not great -or even great but not perfect. I've noticed a lot of smearing in the lower tones (below 30%). Sometimes it results in actual trails as seen in the sticky "Extensive HD100/Mini35 Hands on test" at the top of this board:
http://video.terpstar.com/extra/JVC-HD-100_Capture.jpg

I saw this in the "Nightwalk Left" clip. And yes, it jumped out at me the first play through.

I know it's probably not possible to bypass the MPEG encoder for HD on this camera, but if you could, I'd be sold.

In the afternoon I swung by the Serious Magic booth to inquire about ProHD 24/25 support. I didn't really get any answers today, but I'll let you guys know if they email anything to me.

Tim, I'm not sure if you mean support of the HD100 24p in DVRack. I used DVRack with the HDV power pack in 24p for a few months. I saw on the SM forum, before NAB, that they have implemented 709 color space and that will be part of the next update of DVRack.

Tim, I'm not sure if you mean support of the HD100 24p in DVRack. I used DVRack with the HDV power pack in 24p for a few months. I saw on the SM forum, before NAB, that they have implemented 709 color space and that will be part of the next update of DVRack.
Hi Paulo,

I know that DvRack can capture a m2t stream just like CapVHS or similar apps. My main questions (and you might be able to answer these since you have it) are:
1. Can DVRack be triggered by the HD100?
2. Can DVRack remove the pulldown and transcode into an avi or mov wrapper?
3. Can DVRack maintain tape original TC?

Hey Tim.

Hi Paulo,
My main questions (and you might be able to answer these since you have it) are:
1. Can DVRack be triggered by the HD100?


Yes, you press Rec on the camera and it records both on tape on on DVRack. The software shows a big red recording thumbnail in the DVR, just for piece of mind :)


2. Can DVRack remove the pulldown and transcode into an avi or mov wrapper?


Yes about wrapper for DV no for HDV. For HDV the resulting files are .m2t, straight from the camera. I load those into HDVxDV, or MPEG Streamclip, and convert them to .mov


3. Can DVRack maintain tape original TC?

Yes, but I'm not 100% sure. I can see the timecode in HDVxDV, can't find a way of displaying it in MPEG Streamclip. I didn't compare it with the tape because I never had the need to use the tapes but it looks consistent.

HZ-CA13U PL mount adapter. – This is more than just an adapter – it is a re-imager. The end result is a field-of-view of Super-16 using PL mount lenses. The image will be inverted and flipped, but the two new cameras will unflip the image ON TAPE. This is a BIG DEAL and something that was on my wishlist for ages. My goal today is to find out how this thing actually works since it supposedly does not have a ground glass/focusing screen. There is not alot of information on this thing... not even a MSRP.

OMG, this is fantastic news Tim. I hope that there will be a way so that we can upgrade our cameras (JVC 100/101) so that we can at least flip the image in the viewfinder or the LCD. Some say $1300 for the mount, that is a great price...blows all competition away right there!

Im a little bit jealous for the 50/60p function in the new cameras, but I can already see the Super-16 PL mount on my camera running in 24p...oh man!! =)

It was nice to meet Tim and Carl (I met Ken many years ago in FL). The JVC booth was a hoppin place. Now gotta start shooting with my new HD-100.
The PL mount is great news for the 24p crowd.

The JVC booth was a hoppin place.

Yeah, it really was wasn't it? Everytime I swung by the booth I ran into someone from this forum!

I just added some photos of some stuff I found interesting at the show. Check the top post.

I just added some photos of some stuff I found interesting at the show. Check the top post.

Thanks again Tim.