AG-HPG20 - Must have for any P2 production at DVinfo.net

Robert Lane · February 12th, 2009, 10:32 AM

I haven't seen this mentioned on any threads but this device is a "must-have" for any P2 production regardless of camera or budget. When the first version of this came out Panny referred to it as the "P2 Gear" and it was met with a lukewarm appeal. Now it's being called "P2 Portable", has nice upgrades from the original and it's been getting rave reviews from both indie and commercial users.

I liked the original and can't wait to use this one.

Enclosed with the product shot is the PDF from Panny on all the specs.

Ivan Snoeckx · February 12th, 2009, 01:51 PM

I'm not into this whole P2 thing, but check out this!

PANASONIC DEBUTS AJ-HRW10G RAPID WRITER P2 WORKFLOW TOOL

Noah Kadner · February 12th, 2009, 09:05 PM

Nice!

-Noah

Matt Gottshalk · February 12th, 2009, 09:58 PM

I have the original P2 gear. Love it.

This looks great.

Ellis Kendrick · February 13th, 2009, 12:42 AM

How do you guys use your P2 Gear/P2 Mobile? I know it has a lot of features, but the only one that I could see myself using regularly would be its ability to transfer P2 files to a hard drive in the field, without lugging a laptop around. And $4000-$5000 just seems a little expensive for that.
So what am I missing?

Jan Crittenden Livingston · February 14th, 2009, 06:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ellis Kendrick

How do you guys use your P2 Gear/P2 Mobile? I know it has a lot of features, but the only one that I could see myself using regularly would be its ability to transfer P2 files to a hard drive in the field, without lugging a laptop around. And $4000-$5000 just seems a little expensive for that.
So what am I missing?

Well both P2 Gear and P2 Portable will allow you to update metadata after recording as well. It will allow for on set viewing to say a larger plasma without taking the camera out of position. You can use it to act as a transcoder from your laptop to an HD display so 1394 out to the P2 Gear in and out HD-SDI to the monitor, effectively becoming an Kona card for the laptop. And as you mentioned it is a nobrainer off load device in the field. And keep in mind that all of those partitions do not have to show up on the laptop as NONAME, because the Gear will allow you to give each partition a name. The P2 Gear will continue to stay in the product line because for some this is all that is needed.

But the P2 Portable, which is $5295 as compared to the $3995 of the P2 Gear, does a bit more. It is capable of recording AVC-Intra and it has an HD-SDI in. This could be the AVC-Intra Card for all those HPX500 customers out there, and frankly any camera that has an HD-SDI out put can become a master quality recorder. It still hosts a drive over USB, but won't do a 1394 host, however it will host a Fat32 drive in addition to its own formated Type S. This means that these new little USB memory sticks like the one from OCZ. OCZ Technology | Products | Flash Media | OCZ Rally2 Turbo USB 2.0 Flash Drive can be used for the offload of individual clips. This would be huge in the News market. This is the reporter's offload tool. It also has some other little functional changes like being able to upload metadata from a card so that if you were going to attach it to a big camera, you don't have to give up the Metadata portion of the P2 workflow.

Hope this helps,

Jan

Matt Irwin · February 14th, 2009, 03:41 PM

I remember seeing an HPG10 at Panasonic's NAB booth this last year mounted to an HDX900 via a special bracket that places the 10 securely behind the battery.
So theoretically this would work with the HPG20-- feed SDI and power from the camera and record AVC-Intra with a 900, 500, etc as a more or less integrated unit with the ability to shoot tape (with a 900 or Varicam), P2, or both as needed. Great for owner/operators...
If the camera's run switch could trigger record on the HPG20, that would be even better.

(is that bracket a Panasonic part or third party?)

--
Edit: The bracket is Panasonic's: http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webapp...Model=P2-MOUNT

"RTFM," as they say....

Robert Lane · February 14th, 2009, 08:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jan Crittenden Livingston

But the P2 Portable, which is $5295 as compared to the $3995 of the P2 Gear, does a bit more. It is capable of recording AVC-Intra and it has an HD-SDI in. This could be the AVC-Intra Card for all those HPX500 customers out there, and frankly any camera that has an HD-SDI out put can become a master quality recorder.

Imagine an HPX500 with high-quality glass hooked up to a P2 Portable shooting AVC-I; you've got a poor-mans HPX3700!

I'm in.

Nick Harris · February 15th, 2009, 03:09 AM

Ok, I am getting all excited here but a while back I was asking if I would have much benefit of hooking my HPX500 to the AJ-HPM110 and gain the ability to record 10 bit AVC-Intra.

Barry responded saying that the HPX500's HD-SDI output is only 8 bit so we would only gain AVC-Intra's native recording resolution (which I'm assuming is an advantage over DVCPROHD's anamorphic resolution), and we would not see the benefit of 10 bit color (which to me would have been the most important reason to bother with an AVCIntra recording device).

He also mentioned that the only real resolution jump we'd see is at 720p, and would be fairly minimal at 1080p.

That said, unless there's some incorrect info here, it seems like it would be unrealistic to call this device an "AVC-Intra card for the HPX500" if we aren't seeing the main benefits of the codec.

Correct me if I'm wrong, please!

-Nick

Kevin Railsback · February 15th, 2009, 06:58 AM

I used the P2 Portable in Africa and it was pretty sweet.
It'll be on my list right after I can pick up a HPX-300

Mark Donnell · February 16th, 2009, 11:20 AM

It seems to me that the only thing that this unit is missing is a HDMI output for connection to a monitor. I realize that there is HD/SDI output, but only a small number of expensive monitors will accept HD/SDI.

Robert Lane · February 17th, 2009, 10:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Donnell

It seems to me that the only thing that this unit is missing is a HDMI output for connection to a monitor. I realize that there is HD/SDI output, but only a small number of expensive monitors will accept HD/SDI.

You may be misinterpreting this unit's mission: It's a field recorder/viewer with meta-data capabilities. It's not meant to be sending signals to home HDTV sets but instead to professional video capture/review devices as part of a production toolset. HDMI is a home-consumer connection type, not pro video.

Barry Green · February 19th, 2009, 12:58 PM

The Portable was really nice to have. It's like a half-dozen P2 accessories all in one. It's a 2-slot reader for the computer, it's an AVC-Intra recording deck, it's an HD-SDI playout device for P2 equipment, it's an on-the-fly DVCPRO-HD-to-HD-SDI converter (sort of like using a Kona card to see your FCP timeline on an HD monitor), it's a super-ultra P2 Store (because not only can it offload to a hard disk, and verify, but you can also play the clips on the cards and play the clips from the hard disks too.) And you can use it to rename the volumes you've offloaded to a hard disk, so you won't see a bunch of "NO NAME" volumes popping up on your Mac desktop; instead it could say "Africa 1" and "Africa 2" or "Day 1 Card 3" or whatever. And it can bus-power external USB hard disks; we used it with a 500GB Seagate external USB drive; can't do that with a P2 Store! And it can also sub-clip clips, meaning that you can extract just a portion of a clip and export that as its own clip. I used that to edit down hours of Africa footage to just the salient bits that I wanted to keep. And it can attach or edit metadata. And the battery lasts for something like six hours. And you can put it in loop playback mode to use it for "digital signage" or trade show playback or whatever.

So, yeah, very cool. Way more attractive than the P2 Gear; I was always lukewarm about that product, but the P2 Portable offers a whole lot more. Not the least of which is that it can turn a tape-based camcorder into a tapeless P2 camera, so your old tape-based VariCam (which records 960x720 at 8-bit DVCPRO-HD) could now plug its SDI port into the Portable and record 1280x720 at 10-bit AVC-Intra. Now, you won't see that much improvement on HPX170 or HPX500 footage, but you would still have 10-bit color depth for working in post. It could also be used with an EX1, EX3, HD250, PDW700, F900, anything that you wanted to convert to tapeless AVC-Intra.

I liked it. I liked it a lot more than I expected to. It was good to have along.

Ellis Kendrick · February 21st, 2009, 09:58 PM

Thanks for the answers, all. Sounds very versatile....still probably not for me, given the cost, but I can see the benefit. Now if only Panasonic made some little keyboard for it, or some other gizmo that let you enter in meta data quickly. Seems a natural for a product like this.

Barry Green · February 23rd, 2009, 04:13 PM

It has a software keyboard for entering metadata. A touchscreen software keyboard would probably be ideal.

February 14th, 2009, 03:41 PM	#7
Matt Irwin Major Player Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 327	I remember seeing an HPG10 at Panasonic's NAB booth this last year mounted to an HDX900 via a special bracket that places the 10 securely behind the battery. So theoretically this would work with the HPG20-- feed SDI and power from the camera and record AVC-Intra with a 900, 500, etc as a more or less integrated unit with the ability to shoot tape (with a 900 or Varicam), P2, or both as needed. Great for owner/operators... If the camera's run switch could trigger record on the HPG20, that would be even better. (is that bracket a Panasonic part or third party?) -- Edit: The bracket is Panasonic's: http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webapp...Model=P2-MOUNT "RTFM," as they say.... __________________ Matt Irwin DP / matt.irwincine.com Last edited by Matt Irwin; February 14th, 2009 at 04:29 PM.

February 15th, 2009, 03:09 AM	#9
Nick Harris Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Los Angeles and San Diego, CA Posts: 68	Ok, I am getting all excited here but a while back I was asking if I would have much benefit of hooking my HPX500 to the AJ-HPM110 and gain the ability to record 10 bit AVC-Intra. Barry responded saying that the HPX500's HD-SDI output is only 8 bit so we would only gain AVC-Intra's native recording resolution (which I'm assuming is an advantage over DVCPROHD's anamorphic resolution), and we would not see the benefit of 10 bit color (which to me would have been the most important reason to bother with an AVCIntra recording device). He also mentioned that the only real resolution jump we'd see is at 720p, and would be fairly minimal at 1080p. That said, unless there's some incorrect info here, it seems like it would be unrealistic to call this device an "AVC-Intra card for the HPX500" if we aren't seeing the main benefits of the codec. Correct me if I'm wrong, please! -Nick __________________ http://www.sunspot-pictures.com/nickharrisDP.php

February 15th, 2009, 06:58 AM	#10
Kevin Railsback Trustee Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Cedar Rapids, Iowa Posts: 1,544	I used the P2 Portable in Africa and it was pretty sweet. It'll be on my list right after I can pick up a HPX-300 __________________ --==Kevin==-- http:naturephotostudios.com.com

February 12th, 2009, 01:51 PM	#2
Ivan Snoeckx Major Player Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Belgium \| Europe Posts: 441	I'm not into this whole P2 thing, but check out this! PANASONIC DEBUTS AJ-HRW10G RAPID WRITER P2 WORKFLOW TOOL

February 12th, 2009, 09:05 PM	#3
Noah Kadner Better than Halle Berry Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 435	Nice! -Noah

February 12th, 2009, 09:58 PM	#4
Matt Gottshalk Major Player Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Potomac Falls, VA Posts: 215	I have the original P2 gear. Love it. This looks great.

February 13th, 2009, 12:42 AM	#5
Ellis Kendrick New Boot Join Date: May 2008 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 21	How do you guys use your P2 Gear/P2 Mobile? I know it has a lot of features, but the only one that I could see myself using regularly would be its ability to transfer P2 files to a hard drive in the field, without lugging a laptop around. And $4000-$5000 just seems a little expensive for that. So what am I missing?

February 16th, 2009, 11:20 AM	#11
Mark Donnell Major Player Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Silver City, NM Posts: 385	It seems to me that the only thing that this unit is missing is a HDMI output for connection to a monitor. I realize that there is HD/SDI output, but only a small number of expensive monitors will accept HD/SDI.

February 19th, 2009, 12:58 PM	#13
Barry Green Barry Wan Kenobi Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: North Carolina Posts: 3,863	The Portable was really nice to have. It's like a half-dozen P2 accessories all in one. It's a 2-slot reader for the computer, it's an AVC-Intra recording deck, it's an HD-SDI playout device for P2 equipment, it's an on-the-fly DVCPRO-HD-to-HD-SDI converter (sort of like using a Kona card to see your FCP timeline on an HD monitor), it's a super-ultra P2 Store (because not only can it offload to a hard disk, and verify, but you can also play the clips on the cards and play the clips from the hard disks too.) And you can use it to rename the volumes you've offloaded to a hard disk, so you won't see a bunch of "NO NAME" volumes popping up on your Mac desktop; instead it could say "Africa 1" and "Africa 2" or "Day 1 Card 3" or whatever. And it can bus-power external USB hard disks; we used it with a 500GB Seagate external USB drive; can't do that with a P2 Store! And it can also sub-clip clips, meaning that you can extract just a portion of a clip and export that as its own clip. I used that to edit down hours of Africa footage to just the salient bits that I wanted to keep. And it can attach or edit metadata. And the battery lasts for something like six hours. And you can put it in loop playback mode to use it for "digital signage" or trade show playback or whatever. So, yeah, very cool. Way more attractive than the P2 Gear; I was always lukewarm about that product, but the P2 Portable offers a whole lot more. Not the least of which is that it can turn a tape-based camcorder into a tapeless P2 camera, so your old tape-based VariCam (which records 960x720 at 8-bit DVCPRO-HD) could now plug its SDI port into the Portable and record 1280x720 at 10-bit AVC-Intra. Now, you won't see that much improvement on HPX170 or HPX500 footage, but you would still have 10-bit color depth for working in post. It could also be used with an EX1, EX3, HD250, PDW700, F900, anything that you wanted to convert to tapeless AVC-Intra. I liked it. I liked it a lot more than I expected to. It was good to have along.

February 21st, 2009, 09:58 PM	#14
Ellis Kendrick New Boot Join Date: May 2008 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 21	Thanks for the answers, all. Sounds very versatile....still probably not for me, given the cost, but I can see the benefit. Now if only Panasonic made some little keyboard for it, or some other gizmo that let you enter in meta data quickly. Seems a natural for a product like this.

February 23rd, 2009, 04:13 PM	#15
Barry Green Barry Wan Kenobi Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: North Carolina Posts: 3,863	It has a software keyboard for entering metadata. A touchscreen software keyboard would probably be ideal.