Clarification from potential buyer

[Brandon Freeman]

I'm the multi-media producer of a church in Boise, Idaho, and I am considering putting two HVX200's in for next year's budget.

Most of the footage that I will shoot will be at 1280x720 at 24pn, with a little bit of 1080i on the side, most likely. Does the data rate remain constant? I've read in a few places that the 24pn with 720 resolution is less memory intensive.

Is this true?

Thanks.

[Jeff Anderson]

yes, I dont know the exact rates off the top of my head but anything in pN mode records only the frames necessary. 24pN takes less space, than 30pN, and both require less space than 60P. pN is only in 720 mode though, 720 60P and all 1080i rec modes require the same amount of space.

[THoff]

Correct, in native (PN) mode, the duplicate frames are not stored, which can save significant amounts of space on the P2 cards.

There are a number of places where Panasonic compares recording capacities in the various formats, including in the HVX200 brochure:

ftp://ftp.panasonic.com/pub/Panasonic/Drivers/PBTS/brochures/B_AG-HVX200.pdf

[David Jimerson]

In short, 720p/24pN takes up 40% of the space of 1080 or 720p/24P, so you can fit 2.5 times more footage on a card.

[Brandon Freeman]

Okay, so forgive my ignorance (shoulda jumped on the HVX200 bandwagon years ago, but didn't). On the brochure, page 5, it shows a chart of recording times, but I can't tell what size the P2 card is in the example. It says 16 minutes for 1080i HD. Is that the 4GB chip? If so, for filming, dang, 24pn can have up to 40 minutes on one little guy!

[David Jimerson]

That's the 16 GB card, or two 8 GB cards.

1080 (and 720 "P" mode) take up about a gig a minute.

[Brandon Freeman]

Thanks for the clarification. I was wondering.

[THoff]

On the brochure, page 5, it shows a chart of recording times, but I can't tell what size the P2 card is in the example.At the bottom of page 5 are a number of footnotes. The footnote for *6 (the Rec Time column in the table) states that the recording times are for two 8GB cards.

With two 16GB cards, you'd get 84 minutes of 720/24pN recording time. The larger cards seem to yield slightly longer recording times as a result of not having to span and leaving unused space on the card.

[BlackDogPro]

Question: I have heard that in 24pN you are not recording sound directly to the P2 card, only to firestores, etc... This sounded a bit wrong to me as it was my understanding that the Progressive Native function only eliminates the double frame cutting down on the amount of space used on the storage device, while simultaneously recording 24 complete/flat frames...

Can I get some clarification?

[THoff]

No! Absolutely wrong! You do get sound, and you cannot even record PN to a Firestore because the DV port is inactive in native mode.

The only time the camera doesn't record sound is when you overcrank or undercrank, i.e. the number of frames recorded per second doesn't match the number of frames to be displayed per second -- this would obviously distort the audio, so it isn't even recorded.

[BlackDogPro]

Thanks! I thought it sounded fishy.

With the new 3.0 update for the FS100, you can record from the Camera in 720/24P and through the FS100 in 720/24 P2 pN or Quicktime pN. This gives the same desired result.

My 100 Gig FS100 records 268 minutes of 720/24pN.

[dalasv]

Can somebody tell me why you would record in 24P or 30P? I don't understand why you would not always want to be in 24PN or 30PN to get more space.

My friend says there is a subtle difference in how motion looks, but I'd like to hear more opinions on this and reasons why you would use 24P or 30P over the native formats.

[Barry_Green]

There is no difference in how motion looks between 24p and 24pn, or between 30p and 30pn.

The 24p and 30p modes are there for a couple of reasons:
1) compatibility with firewire streaming (to a tape deck or firestore or computer)
2) ability to record sound at variable frame rates.

Other than those two reasons, yeah it's pretty much pN all the time.

[mainstreetprod]

I do a lot of timelapse recording, and you must be in a non native mode
to do a timelapse (or interval) recording. I use 720 30P.

[dalasv]

Thanks so much for your replies, Barry & mainstreet.