News posts from 2003 Q4

[Rob Lohman]

There not visiting The Netherlands (as usual).... Too bad.

[Chris Hurd]

Indeed it is... Sony owns that domain name... too bad hdv-info.com and .net weren't available.

;-)

[Ignacio Rodriguez]

Yes. But at least I got hdv.cl :-)

[Chris Hurd]

Thought I'd share a press release that was forwarded to me:

ROCKETCLIPS RELEASES FOUR NEW VIDEO COLLECTIONS

Stock Footage Supplier Captures Adventure Sports Up Close and Personal

Long Beach, California (October 7, 2003) -- Rocketclips, a leading
web-based, royalty-free stock footage supplier, expands its outdoor category to include adventure sports titles. The newly released 20-video clip collections are "Adventure Kayaking", "Adventure Climbing", "Adventure Biking", and "Adventure Sports." This introduction brings Rocketclips' library of people and lifestyle clips to nearly 3,000.

Producing some of the best quality imagery in the stock footage industry today, Rocketclips is leading a trend by utilizing released talent and shooting digital video with film-like production values. Created with broadcast usage in mind, the Adventure Sports Collections are suitable for many purposes -- from television commercials to web-based advertising.

"By shooting our own footage, we create each scene and scenario with our customers in mind," explains Rocketclips founder, Mark Adams. "Our adventure titles capture the adrenalin of the moment which a savvy editor can easily translate into a compelling commercial."

Every clip in the Rocketclips library can be viewed, purchased, and
downloaded online, anytime day or night. Reflecting its commitment to providing inexpensive options for web-based usage, multimedia clips are only $25.00. For usages where the highest quality is required, full resolution DV NTSC clips are $150.00. All CD-ROM collections with 18-20 clips are full resolution DV NTSC and priced at $500.00 each.

Based in Long Beach, California, Rocketclips is a leader in the emerging royalty-free stock footage marketplace, providing a "new school" approach to viewing and purchasing video clips on the web. Footage is available 24 hours a day as downloadable clips, or overnight on CD-ROM, Mini DV or BETA tape.

For more information on Rocketclips or its products, media professionals can log onto www.rocketclips.com.

[Mike Zorger]

So these cams arne't coming out for a long time are they?

[Chris Hurd]

Sometime next year, I'll bet. Should be an exciting NAB.

[Martin Munthe]

Sonys new XDCAM records both IMX and DVCAM to DVD using blue laser. It's completely non linear with loads of cool metadata possibilities.

Does anyone know anything of price ranges on these babys?

http://pro.sony.com.hk/pr20030826h.html

[Ignacio Rodriguez]

Do you really think they will let JVC lead the crowd for so long? I don't think that is a good idea for Sony, Canon... it just would not make sense... If they are not carefull JVC will do it again with a 3CCD HDV and that would be a tough blow to beat.

I'll bet both Sony and Canon are running HDV encoding cams right now in the labs.

Canon could really blow everybody away if they make an HDV cam with a 35mm-like CCD and interchangeable lenses... imagine being able to use EOS wide angles for digital stills, DV and HDV... that would be everybody's next cam.

Sony can't do such a thing because they would kill their broadcast line too fast. Canon has no such problem.

[Steven-Marc Couchouron]

PDW510- Optical Disc Camcorder with DVCAM Recording
$19,900.00

PDW530- Optical Disc Camcorder with MPEG IMX/DVCAM Recording
$34,000.00

http://bssc.sel.sony.com/Professiona...&sm=0&s=&cpos=

The discs themselves are going to cost between €25-30 per disc.

Here is the link to the XDCAM format homepage with some interesting info:
http://www.sonybiz.net/xdcam


Not exactly cheap. The Panasonic AJ-SDX900 with the new FireWire connectivity and native editing DVCPRO-50 seems more appealing...

[Steven-Marc Couchouron]

Synthetic Aperture has jsut released the new version of it's excellent Color Finesse plugin.

This new version is now available for Windows 2000 and XP, and works with After Effects, Premiere Pro and Combustion (and FCP on MacOS).

There is a demo download if you like to check it out. It is considered by many to be one of the best tools available for color correcting and creating that "special look" (see the examples on the website).

Full version costs $595.

www.synthetic-ap.com

[Zac Stein]

You say native editing dvcpro-50, what can natively edit that?

I use vegas video, can i just capture and edit dvcpro-50 without addition hardware or codecs?

Zac

[Chris Hurd]

Actually though, Canon supplies the leading market share of broadcast video lenses (including high-def) to that high-end arena, so yes they do have that problem. They could hurt their own sales much the same as Sony.

[Steven-Marc Couchouron]

I believe currently only FCP 4 can capture and print to tape DVCPRO-50 thru FireWire.

You can however use the Matrox (free) DVCRO-50 codecs to read/write DVCPRO-50 files in Vegas.


http://www.matrox.com/video/support/...codec/home.cfm

[Ignacio Rodriguez]

Oh but I understand 25 Mbps MPEG2 is no match for HDCAM, DVCPROHD, D-9HD and even less for HD-D5 and CineAlta, so there would continue to be a market for high end lenses, cameras and media... similar to the way there is market today for Digital Betacam, D1, DVCPRO50, despite DV. However much we get to like HDV, it will allways be poor man's HD in the light of other formats with higher bandwidth, resolution, frame rate and better color sampling.

I just feel that Canon might have less to lose with (no high end ENG cams) and more on which to build (XL1) a pro HDV product with interchangeable lenses. Especially if they go for a non-Sony CCD.

Actually the more I think about it, the more sense it makes even for Sony and JVC to go HDV. HDV is crippled, it has a very high compression ratio, it does not have full HD resolution, the MPEG2 that comes out of the JVC HD10 doesn't even have time code, so it is no match for real pro HD. Much less so than DV compared to analog pro formats that were (and in some places still are) commonplace like Betacam SP. So in the 'worst' case scenario (from manufacterers point of view), an interchangeable lens HDV cam with a 35mm CCD might totally cannibalize SD aquisition, but not HD.

[Daniel Broadway]

I didn't know if you guys knew this or not, but the Sony VX-2100 is here. It reaplaces the 2000.

Here is some more info...

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content...t-10_07_03.htm