HDV and TV stations

[Bryan McCullough]

People here are super friendly and more often than not little sidebars that spring from questions contain very valuable information.
I know that locally to me WFAA has bought some Z1s, but I don't know what they're doing with them at this point.

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

You've probably noticed I've edited part of this thread. Let's keep things from going astray?

I can tell you that WFAA bought the cams, I'm the one who originally demo'd them there. Same with MTV, ABC/Washington, KUTV in SLC, and many other stations. You'll likely see WFAA's LaVida and/or Metro quickly being delivered in HD.
Why buy them when they're not broadcasting HD? Lotsa reasons, but one BIG one is that it gets a great SD picture at a low cost (shooting HDV, delivering SD) and can be archived for future broadcasts.
And, if the cameraman falls and trips with the camera, it's a 5K loss, not a 55K loss.

[Augusto Manuel]

Douglas, with this are you implying that the Z1 in standard mode (downconverting HDV > DV) is as good as a $55,000 SD camera in terms of picture quality ?

Just curious about what you say because you are one of the experts in this forum.

Originally Posted by Douglas Spotted Eagle

Why buy them when they're not broadcasting HD? Lotsa reasons, but one BIG one is that it gets a great SD picture at a low cost (shooting HDV, delivering SD) and can be archived for future broadcasts.
And, if the cameraman falls and trips with the camera, it's a 5K loss, not a 55K loss.

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

I'm not implying anything. The point is, the image on the HDV cam when properly brought to SD "looks" as good as what most mid grade Betacams shoot for ENG, even if it doesn't process quite the same. The station's investment in the HDV camera is basically insignificant at that point, so it's a very attractive proposition for the station.
Since the camera is low cost, and very little to maintain on it, they save money in a lot of areas, and budget for ENG and news magazines isn't all that high in most of the regional shows. In the case of MTV, they can either buy 10 Z1's, or one/two Betacams with lenses, plus they need an in-house maintenance guy to keep the cam at top shelf functioning. (even though they rarely are) Plus, the cams are small, and more appropriate for the type of their "live show" production.
I suspect that if the format keeps going the way it's going, if a shoulder mount that looks good on a screen comes out, we'll see a huge shift in the lower size station camera use. XDCam will be the next shift, but not everyone can afford a truckload of 530's.