More about the mysterious AVC Ultra

[Jan_Crittenden]

Nothing prevents Sony to develop something similar for the SxS system...

Except the necessary speed to record it. It does need at least the speed of the codec 200Mbs plus 1.5 times that for overhead. in a sustained write mode. I know the SxS will transfer at 800 Mbs, but I have never seen them publish the write speed. And then there is the issue that Sony would have to move away from their MPEG2 stance. So far the only nod they have given to MPEG4 H.264 AVC is in the consumer level of cameras.

This sounds good, and would love to see this on a camera, but should only come next year or later.

Outside the 3D HD theater there was an HPX170 looking camera with binocular-like lensing, so maybe there will be a camera.

I was looking forward for an HPX300 firmware update to address the 1080p issue. While addresing the flash situation is nice, it would be equally important for this to be addressed. That, and, of course, the S/N.

Frankly in regard to the 1080P/24 skew, I sent it out with one of our consultant DPs to shoot some moving cars, track some action, and working with it over the last 10 days I think that if you move the camera so that you don't have judder in your motion, you won't have skew either. Follow the ASC chart for the Motion handling in relation to frame rate and mm on the lens, you should be fine. And yes, the flashband compensation really addresses the thing you can't control.

As far as the S/N, we are not seeing the same thing here, there must be an explanation and my bets are in one of two places, that the DRS was on and the scene didn't need it, or there may be an issue with the FCP ProRes in the 50P implementation. ProRes does indeed have a footprint, I do see it here.

All the best,

Jan

 

[Joe_Digital]

So is there any more information about the AVC Ultra codec? Is this a year away? Will it be usable with existing cameras by way of firmware upgrade?

 

[Barry_Green]

No, most definitely not. AVC-Ultra is not for recording HD footage. They already have that covered with AVC-Intra.

AVC-Ultra is for recording what comes *after* HD ... so, 1080/60p, or 3-D, or 4:4:4, or whatever.

 

[TedRR]

Let's see XDCAM disk keep up with that!

It would blow up in flames!

 

[Joe_Digital]

I wouldn't exactly say Intra 100 covers HD. I think there are still improvements to be made on Intra, which is why I'm asking about how Ultra could be incorporated into current workflows.

When I examine an image on my HD CRT via the HD component cable -as always I'm impressed by what's there, but then when I record and view the 1080 or 720 footage via HD-SDI in my Symphony Nitris the compression is obvious.

I would welcome 1080 4:4:4 at 200 or greater/Mbits/sec. I'm not saying don't push the envelope to beyond 2K, but why not improve on what is achievable in the current 1080 or 720 colorspace?

 

[Robert M Wright]

According to this, write speed with SxS cards is about 640Mbps (doesn't seem likely there would be a problem sustaining 200Mbps):

http://www.sony.ca/promedia/support.htm

I don't see any reason why Sony would have to abandon MPEG2, for recording 1080p60 (or whatever) either.

 

[Barry_Green]

I don't see any reason why Sony would have to abandon MPEG2, for recording 1080p60 (or whatever) either.

They've already said they're going to.

Sony fully acknowledges that H.264 is better than MPEG-2. I mean, they'd have to be idiots not to. Their claim is that the H.264 infrastructure isn't developed enough yet, there aren't single-chip AVC encoders that they're satisfied with, etc. That's why they haven't gone with it yet. Which is, of course, the same attitude that led them to be too late to the memory recording scene in the first place.