How would AVC-Intra Compare to ProRes or DNxHD

V

Viddovation

Veteran
Consider it an academic question if you will, but what are your thoughts? Generally this wouldn't make sense economically, but I may end up working with a client who already has an AVC-Intra deck, so, curious about quality.

This would be from the F3, hence why I put it in this forum.
 
I wold test it first both in terms of performance as well as workflow. I do admit that I only worked with AVC-Intra once when I was reviewing a Panasonic HPX300 early in its initial production cycle. At that time, I found the AVC-I footage noisy but that could equally have been attributable to the HPX300. It was, however, noisier in my testing than the DVCPRO HD footage. I also found it very resource-intensive in editing. For example, on my MacBook Pro which at that time was a Core2Duo machine, I could not play back AVC-I in FCP to a single external FW drive without major dropped frames. It improved with a 2-drive eSata raid. ProRes HQ footage would play back. So I would test both appearance and workflow as well as highlights. Much has been written about ProRes clipping highlights, (or at leasdt above 109 IRE) which then can be recovered in grading. DNxHD seems less problematic. I for one would be very interested in how an AVC-I workflow would hold up.

Ned Soltz
 
Theoretically, it should be spectacular. 10bit 422 in a phenomenal codec @ 100Mbps

but i've never used it.
 
Quality should be great, but ProRes HQ still looks better at 10bit 4:2:2. DNxHD at 170 or 220 is excellent too and is supported natively in more NLE's.
Have to assume if the person has the bucks for that capture device, they should have the workflow issues taken care of as well. As in not your problem. (Hopefully)
 
For what it's worth, I've been using AVC Intra 100 with a Varicam 2700 and the signal is beautiful. Super clean with no noise whatsoever. We've pulled some of the cleanest keys with AVC-I 100. Ned, we bought a HPX300 as a b-cam and it was horribly noisy. I think the cam was the issue...not the codec. Anyway, I would imagine that recording a F3 via a AVC-I 100 deck would be spectacular.
 
Thanks for confirming what I suspected to be the case ith the HPX300. I believe Panasonic made some massive improvements in what is now the HPX370.
 
Pana is claiming further improvements to the sensors on the new HPX 250. Hope this is true.
Good luck in which ever format you have to deliver in.
 
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