Apples to Apples?

[Coco Bermudez]

Ok...so I am ashamed that admit that I have waited and eternity to jump on the bandwagon of HD shooting. I am desperately trying to catch up with all the info out there and purchase a camera within in a week or so. It is truly humbling. My comfort zone? I have been shooting with a DVX100 for so long...I am sad to just drop it. I hear the HVX200 is the way to go if you shoot with a DVX100.

My question is this. Everywhere I look, I see that the other HDV cameras shoot high-definition 1920x1080 resolution images while recording to inexpensive miniDV tapes. Now HDV uses higher compression so I hear that the image quality can suffer. So what about the HVX200? When it shoots to a P2 card does it shoot uncompressed? If it doesn't shoot uncompressed, how does it stack up to HDV's compression?

I realize that this subject might have already been butchered to death...anyone can point me out to another post that touches on this subject?

Thanks

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Coco Bermudez

I am desperately trying to catch up with all the info out there ...

You're in the right place. Simply roll up your sleeves and start reading through the early history of this forum.

I see that the other HDV cameras shoot high-definition 1920x1080 resolution images while recording to inexpensive miniDV tapes.

You're describing the HDV tape format. The HVX200 is not an HDV format camcorder. Instead it records a variety of other formats, which are DV, DVCPRO, DVCPRO 50 and DVCPRO HD, all of which are recorded to P2 flash memory cards.

So what about the HVX200? When it shoots to a P2 card does it shoot uncompressed?

No, all P2 recording is compressed. All of the formats which the HVX200 is capable of recording are compressed. But they're compressed using codecs that are completely different from HDV.

If it doesn't shoot uncompressed, how does it stack up to HDV's compression?

The difference is that the HDV format is compressed at 25 megabits per second while DVCPRO HD is compressed at 100 megabits per second. HDV is an MPEG 2 format which uses a 15-frame Group of Pictures based on one key frame (inter-frame compression) while DVCPRO HD uses intra-frame compression, or one discrete frame per individual image.

I realize that this subject might have already been butchered to death...

Yes indeed... that's why it's a good idea to search, browse, read and learn from this forum.

anyone can point me out to another post that touches on this subject?

There are plenty of them; look in the early history of this forum.

[Coco Bermudez]

Chris:

Thanks a million for the response...It is incredibly valuable to me.

One question though...when you say"

Originally Posted by Chris Hurd

The difference is that the HDV format is compressed at 25 megabits per second while DVCPRO HD is compressed at 100 megabits per second. HDV is an MPEG 2 format which uses a 15-frame Group of Pictures based on one key frame (inter-frame compression) while DVCPRO HD uses intra-frame compression, or one discrete frame per individual image.

the DVCPRO HD compression is then better? 25 megabits versus 100 megabits?

[David Saraceno]

25 megabits per seconds is 4 times as compressed as 10 megabits per second.

Also, DVCPRO HD records twice as much color information, and doesn’t suffer from the MPEG motion artifacts that some have witnessed in footage from some HDV cameras.