Canon Hdv Deck?

[David G. Smith]

In the midst of all the hoopla about the new cameras, including the Canon XL-H1, has anyone heard of plans for a Canon HDV deck? Will tapes shot on the Canon be compatable with the Sony or JVC decks? Will these different flavors of HDV be compatable with all the HDV native NLEs?

I know I can hear Rosanne Rossandanna, "You ask alot of questions!". I was just wondering if I was the only one concerned about this. So unless, I spend $8500 to $12,000 for a camera/deck combo, I am stuck using my $5500 to $9000 camera as an editing deck. What about rental? If I rent a JVC or Sony or Canon, won't I be stuck with a bunch of tapes that will only play back on brand specific decks or cameras? It would be smart that, once you digitize the footage, to archive it on HDDs or other IT media for future use to save the cost of deck purchase or rental. I know that DV25 had many different flavors, but at least at the pro-sumer level, mini-DV was mini-DV (I know, I've heard of incompatibility issues with mini-DV, but I never had a problem with it). Is anyone else worried about this?

[Barry_Green]

Chris Hurd answered my 720p-compatibility question by saying "No, no 720p compatibility at all".

I would be quite surprised if Canon produced a deck. They never have, have they? Off the top of my head I can't think of any Canon VCR of any type. I'm sure they're relying on the Sony equipment.

What about rental? If I rent a JVC or Sony or Canon, won't I be stuck with a bunch of tapes that will only play back on brand specific decks or cameras?
Yes you would. They're really two different formats, and it's unfortunate that they have the same name, as it's quite misleading. I mean, if you have a BetaSP tape you expect it to play in a BetaSP deck, right? Or VHS in a VHS deck, or DV in a DV deck, etc... regardless of who manufactured it, it's always compatible. But you cannot expect that you can play an HDV tape in an HDV deck. HDV is the first and only format I can think of that is incompatible within itself.

[jrv3034]

Yes you would. They're really two different formats, and it's unfortunate that they have the same name, as it's quite misleading. I mean, if you have a BetaSP tape you expect it to play in a BetaSP deck, right? Or VHS in a VHS deck, or DV in a DV deck, etc... regardless of who manufactured it, it's always compatible. But you cannot expect that you can play an HDV tape in an HDV deck. HDV is the first and only format I can think of that is incompatible within itself.

Are you serious?! A tape from the Z1 won't play on anything except the Z1 or a Sony HDV deck, and a tape from the HD100 only works on JVC equipment? And then Canon shows up?????

Good Lord! I really don't want to jump on the HDV bandwagon...

[Barry_Green]

I am serious -- no Z1 or FX1 or HC1 or A1 or XL H1 tape will play in any JVC equipment at all.

And no JVC HD100 or HD10 or HD1 tape can be digitized from any Sony or Canon HDV equipment. However, you can play back JVC tapes to analog and at least watch them in the Sony gear (don't know about the Canon; it may or may not have limited analog playback capability from JVC tapes). I don't know if you can see the JVC tape play on the Sony's LCD, I know you definitely can't get the JVC data out of the Sony's firewire port, but I do believe you could see the JVC tape play on a monitor attached to the Sony.

Canon equipment should theoretically be 100% compatible with Sony.

There's really two incompatible formats at work: HDV1 (720p) and HDV2 (1080i). They really don't ever meet; they should have been named differently so as to avoid customer confusion.

[David G. Smith]

I am serious -- no Z1 or FX1 or HC1 or A1 or XL H1 tape will play in any JVC equipment at all.

And no JVC HD100 or HD10 or HD1 tape can be digitized from any Sony or Canon HDV equipment. However, you can play back JVC tapes to analog and at least watch them in the Sony gear (don't know about the Canon; it may or may not have limited analog playback capability from JVC tapes). I don't know if you can see the JVC tape play on the Sony's LCD, I know you definitely can't get the JVC data out of the Sony's firewire port, but I do believe you could see the JVC tape play on a monitor attached to the Sony.

Canon equipment should theoretically be 100% compatible with Sony.

There's really two incompatible formats at work: HDV1 (720p) and HDV2 (1080i). They really don't ever meet; they should have been named differently so as to avoid customer confusion.

So, Barry, the different formats are still compatable with all the native HDV NLEs, right.?

[stephenlnoe]

.......different formats are still compatable with all the native HDV NLEs, right.?

Yes 1080i and 720p 25p/50i and 30p/60i and 60p, but neither FCP/HD nor Liquid 6 will currently work in 24fps HDV end to end. I've included a screen shot of options in Liquid 6. The screenshot is of the 'presets'. You can also make a custom timeline to support 60p as well. FCP likely has almost identicle options.

FCP is 'working on' 24p HDV end to end support as is Pinnacle. XpressPro will have the Liquid HDV timeline next month (October '05) so they will be native as well. It's likely they'll come right out of the gate with 24p HDV end to end.

http://www.planetliquid.us/web_video/szn89productions/hdvoptions.png