New DVCPRO P2 brochure

It's been answered a hundred times before, but the simple answer is:

It could. If they'd wanted to install a DVCPRO-HD tape deck in it, it could record to tape. Of course, that would drive the price up by over $16,000 (the parts cost on a DVCPRO-HD tape mechanism) and would make the camera dramatically larger as well. And don't forget, DVCPRO-HD tapes are $46; we're talking about real HD tapes here, not $5 Wal-Mart tapes, so your tape cost would add up enormously as well.

I am certain that if enough customers ask for a tape-based HVX, and would be willing to pay the $22,000 cost for it, then they'll make it. Until then, the idea of using P2 (and shaving $16,000 off the camera's cost by doing so) looks like a very attractive alternative. It is because of P2 that this camera can exist at all, at the price point it's aimed at.
 
eddavid said:
Has this been answered before: why couldn't the camera record to DVCPro-HD tape like its big brother, the Varicam? After seeing that the price of an 8 gig P2 card goes for $2000, I can't but help feel like Panasonic struck out.
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because mini dv cant handle the bandwith and transport speed of dv100. As far as I'm concerned, they should of eliminated the dv transport altogether and made it solid state only...that would of lowered the price a bit.
 
thanks for the reply,
then here comes another question that I want to ask:

are there any guerrilla-groups out there already working away on making p2 cards for much, much cheaper? Imagine them stealing the coveted ipod nano technology! 4 gigs for $250. imagine that! the hvx100 would sell so fast!

just kidding! that's illegal!
 
Well, here's the thing: P2 cards aren't actually overpriced, considering what they are.

WHAT? Blasphemy, did I say? No, I'm just looking at what actually is going on out there.

For example: a SanDisk Extreme III compactflash card is a single 4gb card that's barely fast enough to handle a DVCPRO-HD stream. It's the only compactflash card that could maybe handle a stream of DVCPRO-HD, it's by far the fastest CF card on the market. A 4GB ExtremeIII costs $799.95 at retail. A 4gb P2 card costs $899 at retail -- almost the same, and it's four times as fast.

Of course, the Extreme III has a street price down around $450, but to be fair, we don't know what the "street price" for P2 cards will be yet. Might be a whole lot less than $899!

The cheaper memory cards out there are S L O W. Slow slow slow. You'd never get DV100 data streaming to an Ipod Nano. The Nano device is designed to deal with 256k-bit MP3 data streams, not 100 megabit video streams (notice, 100 megabits is 400 TIMES as fast as those MP3s). So yeah, Nano's memory is cheap -- but it's also useless for video storage. Useless. So no reason to even think about it.

Now, with that said, I believe there are some efforts underway for people to try to make P2 alternatives. I just don't expect there to be a dramatic price drop under what regular P2 cards would cost. We can hope though!
 
yes.. as with everything, P2 card prices will come down. Nobody has paid a SRP price on an "accessory" in along time, so we will see what the street price is as Barry has suggested. Remember the 4gb P2 card came out when 1gb SD cards where $500 each, so current pricing for them most likely will change when the P2 card becomes more Prosumer. It will also be uncertain exactly how P2 cards work in the workflow, I have a feeling some people will be happy with 1, some people will need 8.
 
Panasonic should just let us all have a heavier DVXuser.com discount on the cards and all will be just fine. :)
 
eddavid said:
thanks for the reply,
then here comes another question that I want to ask:

are there any guerrilla-groups out there already working away on making p2 cards for much, much cheaper? Imagine them stealing the coveted ipod nano technology! 4 gigs for $250. imagine that! the hvx100 would sell so fast!

just kidding! that's illegal!
Click to expand...

There's nothing special about what's in an iPod. iPod Nano doesn't need the internal bandwidth of a P2 card and, yes, it's built out of commodity off the shelf components just like P2 cards are. And there are plenty of MP3 players on the market that are smaller than the Nano, they just lack the iPod cool factor and Apple's iPod marketing juggernaut. No coveted technology in there... In fact, the Nano is overpriced, IMO.
 
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