Any news on 16 GB P2 ?

[Mark Donnell]

Does anyone know when the 16 GB P2 card may be available ? A rough guesstimate earlier this year was, later this year.

[David Saraceno]

Originally Posted by Mark Donnell

Does anyone know when the 16 GB P2 card may be available ? A rough guesstimate earlier this year was, later this year.

No news on any anticipated arrival.

[Barry Green]

The only thing I've heard is what they said at NAB, which was "anticipated by the end of the year."

[Robert Lane]

The buzz is that 16GB cards should appear at or about the same time as the HPC/HVX2100 (or whatever they're calling it now) arrives, mid winter/early spring. But who knows, Panny might surprise us all.

[Don Steele]

From Jan/Panny today:

"16GB will be the next P2 size and it will be in early 2007."

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread...ght=early+2007

[Ed Quinto]

I attended a demo yesterday and the pannasonic rep said jan/feb 2007.

[Sergio Perez]

Originally Posted by Ed Quinto

I attended a demo yesterday and the pannasonic rep said jan/feb 2007.

I heard in another forum that the 16gb would be out in summer 2007.

[Robert Lane]

Originally Posted by Sergio Perez

I heard in another forum that the 16gb would be out in summer 2007.

I've confirmed from 2 Panny reps that in fact the 16gb cards won't be out until summer (most likely June) of this year.

[Benjamin Hill]

Robert, do you have any idea if the other anticipated P2 cards (32GB, 64GB, etc.) will take just as long?

I don't have knowledge about what influences the manufacturing/development process; but longer recording times- without additional gear- would obviously be such an improvement to this already excellent camera.

[Robert Lane]

No, and it's much too early to expect any info from Panny about them either. Somewhere there was a published road-map from Panny as to the approximate time these cards will become available. It's quite possible that the next larger card *might* make a debut by years-end but at this point since the 16gb card won't make it until June I'd expect it will be '08 before the next jump in size.

However, the 16gb cards will neatly fill the gap in long-form recording as it literally doubles the available time in any format. Currently 720p24PN get's you 41 minutes on the HVX with (2) 8gb cards, with 16gb cards in place that's just under 1 1/2 hours of time. And in the upcoming 2/3" inch bodies with 5 P2 slots using 16gb cards in all 5, that's a whalloping amount of time in a single batch.

My guess is that when the 32gb cards do come out we'll also probably see the version "A" HVX - but that's nothing more than speculation and pipe dream.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Panasonic has removed the projected P2 roadmap from their site... Or at least I don't think it's there anymore. It's hard to say what will come next and when, but if the 16GB card comes out in June, that puts it about 8 or 9 months behind when it was originally hinted at coming out. Unless there's a surplus of 8GB cards, and I'm inclined to believe this is the case with the current promotion, there's no reason for them to not be selling the 16GB cards. When the 16GB cards do arrive, if they cost much more than about $1500 and if the 8GB cards are not under $900, then something is terribly wrong with the P2 pricing model. FLASH prices have plummeted over the past 6 months and even the top-grade, zero-error guaranteed chips that Panny is using in the P2 cards are currently selling for under $160 in standard SD packaging for 4GB capacity.

Although, I'm hoping that Panasonic will have increased motivation to get 16 and 32 GB capacities on the market by the end of '07 to match up with their upcoming P2 based cameras.

[Robert Lane]

The unconfirmed buzz is that it's not SD availability or cost that's the issue but the built-in RAID controller that manages communication I/O and file management. They can't simply use the same controller with newer, larger SD memory the controller has to be redesigned and firmware revised and apparently, that's been the issue with the delay, trying to keep everything stable and reliable.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Originally Posted by Robert Lane

The unconfirmed buzz is that it's not SD availability or cost that's the issue but the built-in RAID controller that manages communication I/O and file management. They can't simply use the same controller with newer, larger SD memory the controller has to be redesigned and firmware revised and apparently, that's been the issue with the delay, trying to keep everything stable and reliable.

Bah... I don't buy that one for a minute. Samsung, Conexant and Broadcom all make interleaving memory controllers with programmable DSPs for such embedded applications. Nobody is reinventing the wheel here. What have they been doing for the past year? It's not like 16GB P2 cards weren't being talked about a year ago. Besides, I would be serously shocked if the memory controller in the 8GB cards can't be scaled to 16GB. Most such embedded memory controllers come in with addressing capabilities of 32bits (4GB) and 36bits (64GB). It's just up to Panny techs to integrate the components and create the firmware -- chances are they don't themselves and leave it to their contracted manufacturer to do it all.

The RED team is already testing REDflash at 32GB and larger and it has superior specs and requirements to P2.

I know I'm somewhat grumpy over this, but I think the real hold up with 16GB P2 cards is Panny market strategy. Let 8GB surplus dwindle down to basic levels before ramping up 16GB production. The HVX200 is really the only demanding product right now that could benefit from the 16GB P2 cards until their newer P2 cameras come out closer to NAB. Older P2 systems that are primarily DVCPRO50 are probably not able to use 16GB P2 cards. ...Which could in theory also be part of the delay. Perhaps they're trying to create a card that offers a "compatibility mode" where the P2 systems will see it as multiple 4GB cards.

Anyway, I'm speculating like everyone else, but I seriously doubt that the internal memory "RAID" controller has anything to do with it. No reason for it to be the issue.

[Robert Lane]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kilgroe

Bah... I don't buy that one for a minute.

I'm with you, but we'll never know what schemes are going on behind closed doors. All I know for certain is that I want the HPX500 and the 16gb cards - yesterday.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Originally Posted by Robert Lane

I'm with you, but we'll never know what schemes are going on behind closed doors. All I know for certain is that I want the HPX500 and the 16gb cards - yesterday.

I'm kinda interested the HPX500, but for now I'm planning on RED. I'm putting in for my RED reservation and then will wait to see what NAB brings (too bad I can't actually go this year). I figure that with the refundable RED deposit and the fact that over 1000 people will have one before I do, most of the little bugs and issues should be reported in time for me to make my purchase decision. We shall see....