HD For Indies

Here's all my raw notes on this panel, given by a Sony rep

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XDCAM HD

-has thumbnail mode to find clips
-has random, non-linear access
-plug and play w/current infrastructure
-does proxy video on the fly - records high res, frame accurate proxy for the high res
-proxy is like 2mbit
-over File Access Mode or GigE, can do about 20x realtime to get the proxy off
-low res proxy quickly, conform to high res later on (video is 1.5 mbit) in a pinch can air it, better than videophone (imagine wartime Iraq phoned in video).
-what's the pixel res of the proxy? The guy didn't know

-XDCAM was introduced to take over betacam and other stuff

-XDCAM HD has 2 year "bumper to bumper" warranty

-XDCAM HD is on the heels of the SD XDCAM stuff. Sold about $11,000 XDCAM standard def stuff sold so far

-has slow shutter (three frame accumulation is what they call it, frame blending is what I'd call it)

-"keep your ears open at NAB for some significant announcements between Sony and Apple" - so yeah, expect it to support XDCAM HD

-they're using MXF - MXF is a SMPTE standard file wrapper. MXF is an interchange format. it is a wrapper to go around the internal file format standard, helps interoperability between systems and equipment.

It isn't the mechanism to DO the transfer, it is a way to HELP the transfer

-e-VTR reads all 1/2" formats, mark an in and out, and it goes out GigE as a file - that is cool. MXF is involved in this.

-AVC is for capture and control for laptop and desktop, including downconvert

-File Access Mode mounts the Blu Ray XDCAM HD disc as a disk so you can access as files to pull over the footage

-has 9 pin deck control

-can drop a memory card on a memory stick to record proxy video, is about 1 GB/hr on the SD camera

-product lineup - HDV is low end, HDCAM and HDCAM SR are the high end. XDCAM HD stuff falls into the middle between the low and high. It has similarities with both low and high end in terms of ease of use, FireWire, but also professional 9 pin integration, HD-SDI etc.

23GB single side single layer. At lowest high def data rate, 2 hours.

When dual layer comes out, expect to get double capacity

-in the future (a yearish), a 2/3" system will come out to use bigger discs (and also 4:2:2 I've been told)

3 recording modes:
1.) 18 megabit 4:2:0, 120 min or more VBR (variable bitrate)
2.) 25 megabit, 4:2:0, 25 mbit is very similar to HDV. Audio is uncompressed here, HDV is compressed audio, 90 min or more
3.) 35 mbit 4:2:0 VBR, 60 min or more

METADATA - data about the data - frame rate, camera I'm using, all kinds of metadata that is written to disc. Don't need to use post it notes on the tapes etc. - the data travels with it all the way to the NLE (if the NLE supports it), XML based

-there is provided metadata space. There are some defacto metadata, shot markers in camera, there are tools to assign flags that work with an Avid (can use for good take/bad take etc).

Q: can you do this after the fact of shooting (screenig stuff off camera or deck)
A: yes you can. Each disc can write ADDITIONAL data to add metadata. There's also a 500 MB directory on each disc to put ADDITIONAL data on the drive, it's just raw space to add whatever extra stuff you want. THIS IS GOOD AND USEFUL AS ALL GET OUT.

XDCAM HD vs. HDV @ 25mbit
-MPEG layer 2 for HDV, uncompressed 4 track on XDCAM HD
-SD video codec - DVCAM on XDCAM HD, DV or DVCAM on HDV

discs are $30 apiece - if it breaks, shrug and ditch it, unlike P2 which you'll cry about if you break one

Q: when they go to dual layer, will it work with existing XDCAM HD?
A: NO - dual layer will be for 2/3" cameras, not for these 1/2".

The PDW-F350 is the nicer camera of the two:
-2 inch B&W viewfinder
-HD-SDI out
TC in/out separated
XLR audio inputs
24p/25p/30p/50i/60i capable
$25,800 with NO LENS

PDF-F330 - about $17K
1.5" view finder
HD/SD component output
TC in/out switchable
-RCA pin x2 audio output
24p/25p/30p/50i/60i capable

The 350 can over/undercrank to do fast/slow motion, like the Varicam can.

can shoot 60p and play back 24p

CAN'T DO 60P FOR 60P PLAYBACK (which is odd, but OK - you could do some tricks to get 60p at 60p at post though I'm sure)

Can take clips from camera and make a virtual playlist, and trim them down individually, in a non-destructive manner play'em back in order. Pre-editing stuff to in the field, on the camera.

When doing blocking, can queue up a clip, set in and outs, and flip back and forth to compare the shots - for sets or for news, saves a bunch of time without winding around on the tape (SAVES TIME!!)

-time lapse capability - set it up for a 7 hour timelapse and away you go

-both cameras have FireWire standard

-usually don't want to use cameras as decks or a feeder deck because of head wear- with optical, zero head contact, no head wear, so worth doing.

-camera uses 1/2" 3 chips, 4:2:0, 18-35 mbit, can also capture DVCAM in standard def mode. Native 16:9 chip,
native record modes:
23.98p, 25/, 29.97p, 50i, or 59.94i @ 1080 res
-uncompressed audio

4 position optical ND filter
-various speed shutter, has slow shutter mode (slows down shuttering, take advantage of the light coming in - it's frame blending.

1-8, 16, 32, and 64 frame "accumulation" that blends'em together, and gotta be in 50i or 60i mode to use it

-freeze mix - lets you ghost mix a recorded frame and live feed

scene files - all the setup that you have, can save as a file on a memory stick, can save an open ended number to memory stick, or save 5 on camera without the need for a memory stick at all

-time lapse - 1 frame or 3, 6 frames, or a trigger (1 frame/sec to 1/day) ASK ABOUT THIS - 1/3/6 WHAT?

-4 to 30 in roughly one frame increments, then leaps to 60 for

-Easy Mode - does a basic simple generic setup (looks like hell out of the box, is set up for news out of the box)

-can control some basic stuff with a remote

-3.5" flippable LCD viewfinder

DECKS:

PDW-F70 is the recorder

Traditional A/V - HD-SDI, FireWire native, lists for $15K, player is $10Kish, 9 pin deck control, etc.

options: each board is $2K
network board - GigE
MPEGTS board - HD MPEG TS in/out conversion
Analog HD input board - HD Analog component input
SD to HD upconversion board - SD input for HD up-conversion (does it do anamorphic, center cut, and crop?)

F30 is the $10-$11K playback only unit for feeding NLEs

Expand function - from the thumbnail screen, you can take a single clip and fill the screen with stills from the whole thing. Pick one of those 12 chunks and can continue to zoom in, breaking it down to 12 more chunks to "zoom in" to a particular location on the clip, and can add markers to mark in/out for ingest into editing system. Can whittle down to just the clips you want, just the portion you want. Can zoom in 3 times for 1/1728th of the source clip.

In playlist mode it'll zero out the timecode mode, so you'd lose the source time code, so NOT RECOMMENDED for film style workflows where you'll need to match back later

Going forward for archive:

XDCAM Cart - PDF-C1080 is a big 80 disc system with up to 4 drives - $80K, room for 4 decks, 80 discs, nearline storage - proxy server and full res server

biger 600 Disc XDCAM Cart avialable later this year for a bit more

eventually a jukebox - acts like a NAS device

XDCAM intelligent

-bare drive for internal/external computer mounting.

SO IT LOOKS LIKE YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO POP A DISC INTO A BLU-RAY READ/WRITE ON YOUR COMPUTER, GOTTA GET XDCAM HD SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE IT IS A SHELLED, NOT BARE DISC. And there are additional issues as well beyond the physical form factor. The 500GB allocated extra space has to be dealt with for instance, so that's different firmware, for instance.

Also, lenses are likely to be $8K to around $22K - so full package is $32 to $47Kish then.

Mike from Sony gave the preso, very well done.

-mike

Thanks to Blake and esp for correcting some mistakes I made, read the comments for some further details on MXF