HMC150 questions answered...

David S. said:
Give me a way to edit mts files natively on a Mac, and I'm going to look hard at this cam.
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Bootcamp and almost any Windows NLE? Heh.

Avid? Heh.

Premiere Pro's next incarnation? Heh.

I mean, I know what you're probably REALLY saying, which is "have FCP support it natively." Maybe they will; after all, the AVC-HD market will probably be 10x to 100x as big as the P2 market in short order. Or maybe they won't. That's up to Apple to answer. But if you really wanted to edit the footage on your Mac hardware, there will probably be lots of ways to do it, without transcoding, before too long. I don't know which pro NLEs will have native integration, but I'm guessing all of them will before too very long, almost certainly by NAB right? Every one of them is already signed on to the AVC-HD coalition and AVC-HD cams have already been out for a long time, so ... seems like support is about ready to land.

Avid just launched native non-transcoding AVC-Intra support, and EDIUS already has a conversion tool that fully supports PH mode, and EDIUS always supports native formats, and even Vegas (if you use the beta .DLL) can support PH mode natively. I think the wait for proper NLE support will turn out to be shorter than anyone expects, mainly because both Sony and Panasonic are pushing AVC-HD pretty hard.
 
tbanucci said:
- It was cool that you could put any SD card in there and it would work, although class 4 and up are recommended, the sales guy was telling me that even a class 2 would work ok. Class 1 had problems.
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Class 4 is required for the PH mode, and maybe for the 17mbps HA mode.
Class 2 will work for the medium (HG) and economy (HE) modes. I think Class 1 would work for the economy mode, but not sure.

For shorthand, the "class" refers to how many megabytes per second the card supports. So class 1 = 1 megabyte (or 8 megabits) per second, class 2 = 2 megabytes (or 16 megabits) per second, and class 4 = 4 megabytes (or 32 megabits) per second. So the 6mbps mode should work in class 1, the 13mbps mode in class 2, and the 17mbps just barely requires class 4 (I don't think there's any such thing as Class 3, is there? If so, 17mbps should work in class 3).

- I don't like the fact that Panny still has not integrated the lens cap. C'mon people! This is 2008! No more lens caps flying around!
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Agreed. Such a little thing, so easy for them to have done...

- I love this camera! *****BUT****** I'm so worried about workflow. If I get the 170, I can take my footage out and start working on it right away with the DVCPRO HD codec on an FCP system. If I have the 150, I have to wait for everything to convert to ProRes, just like tape pretty much! Time is money for me....
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Apple's approach to the workflow remains to be seen. It's been a while since FCS2 came out, so maybe they're going to favor you with an FCS3 and proper native support? Remains to be seen. But I strongly suspect that the other companies will have integrated native support -- they support just about every other file format natively, so no reason not to suspect that they'll support AVC-HD natively. It then becomes a question of whether your computer hardware is powerful enough to give you decent performance.
 
markyf said:
My gut tells me, though, that some software or a plug-in to FCP will appear that will allow us to convert much faster. At 3 or 4 times RT, it wouldn't really be that much of any issue, would it?
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I happen to think the whole concept of converting is just silly anyway, but with AVC it makes sense at least until computer hardware is fast enough to not worry about it. A faster converter would be a possibility, I guess, but I'd hope that there'd be something like MXF4QT developed which would give you FCP users direct integrated access so that you could totally bypass the conversion process. Haven't heard of anyone working on such a tool, but seeing as the market is probably going to be 100x bigger for AVC-HD (since it's on consumer cams as well as broadcast) then I have to assume that software companies are looking to implement such a solution. If they're not, I'll hire Anhar to write one up. :thumbsup:
 
Hi Barry, A while back you mentioned that the camera saves the scene files onto the sd card. If i read correctly does this mean that everytime you swop cards you loose scene settings?

Next question, does QT Pro open the files (I live in South Africa and not gonna happen if i try download them...)

Thanks
 
People keep mentioning toast for converting. What does it convert it to? What is the quality like? What is the speed of the conversion? Any faster than voltaic?
 
Much much faster than Voltaic.

It converts the footage to whatever codec you have installed on your Mac.

I convert to DVCProHD footage based on the grid size shot by Barry.

Voltaic only converts to AIC.

It took 75 seconds using one of Barry's MTS files in Voltaci to AIC.

It took 11 seconds to go to DVCProHD 1080/60 using Toast
 
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David S. said:
Much much faster than Voltaic.

It converts the footage to whatever codec you have installed on your Mac.

I convert to DVCProHD footage based on the grid size shot by Barry.

Voltaic only converts to AIC.

It took 75 seconds using one of Barry's MTS files in Voltaci to AIC.

It took 11 seconds to go to DVCProHD 1080/60 using Toast
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Wow! What do I need to do in toast to convert these files?
 
Attic6 said:
Hi Barry, A while back you mentioned that the camera saves the scene files onto the sd card. If i read correctly does this mean that everytime you swop cards you loose scene settings?
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No, the scene files are all loaded into the camera's memory. You can pull the SD card out and put it in another camera and load them in that camera, etc.
 
psts said:
Wow! What do I need to do in toast to convert these files?
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click on the icon on the left that converts?? drop the MTS. file in it like you would to burn and click the red btton then convert any which way you want I like the HD setting in 1080 60p I think it was, I would have to look again but none the less toast 9 convert and try different stuff until you are happy with it... wayyyyyy better then Voltaic
 
psts said:
Wow! What do I need to do in toast to convert these files?
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Not certain what you are asking.

You need to import the file in the appropriate tab, and set the export parameters.

It is in the manual in Toast 9.

And the tab is the Convert tab on the right, not left.

You use the Video files selection
 
David S. said:
Not certain what you are asking.

You need to import the file in the appropriate tab, and set the export parameters.

It is in the manual in Toast 9.

And the tab is the Convert tab on the right, not left.

You use the Video files selection
Click to expand...

Sorry- I should've explained, I've been using Toast 7 so I I'm not familiar with 9
 
It's september folks when will the hmc-150 come out , can' t wait !
Can anyone confirm if the european version will be switchable ?
 
I am expecting my HMC150 any day now and I need to get my Chrosziel 411-52 mattebox fitted over to this camera. Looks like B&H lists a proper Chrosziel adapter for the DVX100.

I'm wondering if this is what I need for the 150. I may have missed the post pertaining to this; what was the consensus about whether a DVX100 wide angle will fit on the HMC150?

-Darren
 
I have swapped the lens hoods between a DVX100 and an HMC150. It's not absolutely the easiest slickest simplest thing in the universe, but it does work. So I'd say the bayonets are the same and anything that works with the DVX should work with the 150. Should.
 
Barry_Green said:
I have swapped the lens hoods between a DVX100 and an HMC150. It's not absolutely the easiest slickest simplest thing in the universe, but it does work. So I'd say the bayonets are the same and anything that works with the DVX should work with the 150. Should.
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Thanks Barry, perhaps for now I'll err on the side of caution and just mount it with a 15mm rod setup that I've already got.

David S. said:
I didn't know the HMC150 was shipping yet
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My vendor preordered an HMC150 directly from Panasonic on August 2nd. My rep told me on August 21st that they are expecting it "within two weeks."

So yeah, any day now. Of course "expecting" and "shipped" are two very different things. I'll be sure to post here when it arrives!

-Darren
 
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