Jim Carswell
Well-known member
Hey folks. New poster here. I've been following things here for quite a while as the HVX has taken its initial steps in the market. One of my concerns has been about whether the camera will be accepted by the Discovery family of networks. As a result, I contacted a friend of mine who heads up Discovery's video on demand side of things about the HVX's acceptability. He used to head up production at Animal Planet before making the move to on demand... that's where I know him from. He forwarded to me a Discovery document detailing the acceptance of the HVX and P2. The document was written by Josh Derby who is the Manager of Technical Standards and Operations.
The memo is as follows:
Panasonic P2 technology represents the next generation of acquisition formats, cameras that record files to re-usable media and enable truly tapeless production and post production. The day for that technology is certainly coming but there are questions as to whether its time has tryly arrived. P2 cards are expensive and are in no way disposable, nor are they intended to be stored as camera masters. As DCI requires producers to deliver original camera masters for all original and comissioned projects, the concept of fixed media poses a challenge. There may be a time in the future where DCI will be prepared to handle digital file-based delivery from its producers but until that time P2 will be governed by the following restrictions.
1. Material captured using P2 for commissions and original productions must be cloned to an approved tape format for final delivery to DCI. Tapes should be cloned in such a way as to ensure that they are properly referenced in the program's final EDL or NLE project with proper timecode and tape name.
2. The program producer must demonstrate that workflow cost savings achieved by using the P2 format will cancel the expense of the transfer to tape.
3.Material for standard definition must be captured on P2 in the DVCPRO 50 codec. Material for high definition programs must be captured in the DVCPRO 100 codec.
4. The Panasonic HVX200 camera, which can record video in HD standards onto P2 media, has not been approved for unrestricted HD acquisition. While this camera records HD video onto the recording media the optical performance of the camera is closer to the performance of an HDV than to a oprofessional 2/3" camera system. Consequently, HD media captured using this camera will be governed by the HDV guidelines. The HVX200 may be used in the DVCPRO format for unrestricted Standard Definition capture.
That's the gist of the policy as it was sent to me. If there are any typos... they are mine. The bottom line here is that, as this policy states, only a small percentage of an HD production for DCI can be shot with the HVX. Some of you may already be aware of this. I was not. And as a result I'm very disappointed.
I remain an incredible fan of this camera and provide this information for discussion purposes.
Jim Carswell
Spyhop Productions, Inc
Savannah, GA
The memo is as follows:
Panasonic P2 technology represents the next generation of acquisition formats, cameras that record files to re-usable media and enable truly tapeless production and post production. The day for that technology is certainly coming but there are questions as to whether its time has tryly arrived. P2 cards are expensive and are in no way disposable, nor are they intended to be stored as camera masters. As DCI requires producers to deliver original camera masters for all original and comissioned projects, the concept of fixed media poses a challenge. There may be a time in the future where DCI will be prepared to handle digital file-based delivery from its producers but until that time P2 will be governed by the following restrictions.
1. Material captured using P2 for commissions and original productions must be cloned to an approved tape format for final delivery to DCI. Tapes should be cloned in such a way as to ensure that they are properly referenced in the program's final EDL or NLE project with proper timecode and tape name.
2. The program producer must demonstrate that workflow cost savings achieved by using the P2 format will cancel the expense of the transfer to tape.
3.Material for standard definition must be captured on P2 in the DVCPRO 50 codec. Material for high definition programs must be captured in the DVCPRO 100 codec.
4. The Panasonic HVX200 camera, which can record video in HD standards onto P2 media, has not been approved for unrestricted HD acquisition. While this camera records HD video onto the recording media the optical performance of the camera is closer to the performance of an HDV than to a oprofessional 2/3" camera system. Consequently, HD media captured using this camera will be governed by the HDV guidelines. The HVX200 may be used in the DVCPRO format for unrestricted Standard Definition capture.
That's the gist of the policy as it was sent to me. If there are any typos... they are mine. The bottom line here is that, as this policy states, only a small percentage of an HD production for DCI can be shot with the HVX. Some of you may already be aware of this. I was not. And as a result I'm very disappointed.
I remain an incredible fan of this camera and provide this information for discussion purposes.
Jim Carswell
Spyhop Productions, Inc
Savannah, GA
