Looks like Panasonic has a bunch of new press releases about new products. One is the HPX2100 -- curious, as I thought they were announcing an HPC2000. Looks like the HPC either got replaced or upgraded to an HPX. 2/3", 5 P2 slots, and 1080 @ 24p, 25p, 30p, 50i & 60i, and 720p @ 24, 25, 30, 50 and 60, in both DVCPRO-HD and also AVC-Intra! And, unlike the HDX900, it also does standard-def in DV, DVCPRO, and DVCPRO50, in both NTSC and PAL, in 24p, 25p, 30p, 50i, and 60i.

Availability is 1Q 2007, with a suggested retail price of $29,990 Euros.

More info, and the full package of press releases, on www.panasonic-broadcast.com.

They've also announced AVC-Intra, an intraframe-only codec based on H.264/AVC. They introduced two bitrates, 50 megabits and 100 megabits. At 50 megabits they say it's equivalent in quality to DVCPRO-HD but at half the bandwidth (or, put another way, the effective recording time on P2 cards is now doubled). But in the 100 megabits mode it's higher quality than DVCPRO-HD and records the full 1920x1080 raster.

They also announced a "P2 Mobile", which they describe as a P2-based laptop-style field editor with six slots and an LCD screen, speakers & a jog-shuttle controller, with built-in upconvert/downconvert capabilities. Supports P2 in DVCPRO-HD and AVC-Intra as well as all the SD formats; MSRP = 12,000 Euros.

Also announced the AV-HS300, a live HD/SD switcher, 7000 Euros.

Barry,

I've been anxiously awaiting this news. Unfortunately I'm running into dead links on that site. Do you have any other links or reference to the announcement, including any information pages, photos, etc?

I also searched on the USA broadcast site, and couldn't find anything.

I heard a few weeks ago that it was going to have 24p, so I'm very glad that they listened to the customers and actually put it in there (amongst everything else).

I'm also anxious to confirm the native chip size, and the light sensitivity. I currently have the SPX800, and it's fabulous... So far, this is top of the list for next year.

PS - got your book on the 200 in the mail from Panny last week as well. Thanks again for your great work.

Thanks,
Shawn

The Good: Awesome Cam!

The Bad: 30k!!

The AVC intra codec looks great. Any nle's support it? Is it "different" from H.264?

So theoretically one could download this new codec to the camera?

Translated from Japanese:

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://panasonic.biz/sav/p2/aj-hpx2100/index.html&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dpanasonic%2BHPX2100%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG

The AVC intra codec looks great. Any nle's support it? Is it "different" from H.264?I believe that AVC-Intra is a subset of the full H.264 standard. If so, any NLE that currently supports native H.264 editing would support AVC-Intra. I have no idea if any nle's support native H.264 today.

The good news is that H.264 is somewhat politically neutral, so support should become widespread. Note that Sony Vegas doesn't currently support DVCPro; however, Sony has announced corporate support for AVC-Intra, so Vegas should support it in version 7, or at most 8.

The bad news? AVC-Intra is unlikely to be had in a simple firmware upgrade for the HVX. The camera likley needs a new encoder chip. The good news? Apparently the chip exists and will ship in the HPX2100. Let's hope that this migrates to the HVX200a, or whatever they will call the next iteration...