Questions comparing HPX170 and HMC150

I

Isaac Brillant

New member
Hi,

I'm deciding between buying the HPX170 or the HMC150. Aside from the main differences of format and compression and media, I have a few questions about the features that I was hoping someone could answer:

1) Does the HMC150 share the same Focus Assist modes, Waveform, Histogram, and Vectorscope as the HPX and HVX?

2) If the HPX170 has HD-SDI, is there still a way to connect it to a consumer HD monitor, as you'd be able to with HDMI?

3) According to this article by Barry Green, www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=164832), you ?in theory? lose over half your chroma info when shooting in 720p vs 1080. So, then in terms of chroma, would shooting on an HVX or HPX in 720p with 4:2:2 still be much better chroma than shooting with the HMC150 with 4:2:0 in 1920x1080, or would it be about the same?

4) If the HVX and HPX are an anamorphic format, and have resolutions of 1280x1080 and 960x720, vs the HMC's resolution of 1920x1080 and 1280x720, respectively, then in what way are the HVX and HPX sharper than the HMC? Just in terms of color?

5) Also, regarding resolution, if I'm transcoding from DVCProHD to ProRes, does the "resolution" remain 1280x1080 or is it transcoded to ProRes 1920x1080.

6) This questions sounds a little convoluted but here goes-- I know you can't "really" increase resolution after the fact, but if 1280 x 1080 DVCPro is in fact transcoded to 1920 x 1080 ProRes, then since the vertical res was always 1080, does this mean I could now get away with scaling the image larger than I'd have been able to in 1280x1080, and maintain sharpness? (I'm thinking of cases of, for example, a talking head interview, where I want or need to make a cut, but only have 1 medium closeup - so I blow up the shot to cheat a closeup that I can cut to.)

7) Does the HMC have the same Variable Frame Rates as the HVX and HPX?

Thanks for your time!!

Isaac
 
1) almost -- but no histogram focus assist. And the magnified focus works a little differently on the 150, it takes over the whole screen instead of being a magnified window like on the HPX/HVX.

2) yes, you can use component output. Or you could get an HD-SDI->HDMI converter box for the 170 for about $500.

3) I would always shoot both in 1080, whenever possible. And the 170 will have more chroma info recorded.

4) It doesn't quite work like that, because the recording format is different from the chipset. The DVCPRO-HD format gets about all that the HPX is capable of delivering; the chipset can only deliver a maximum of about 1440x810. So DVCPRO-HD pretty much gets it all. An HMC150 in 720p mode will be a little sharper than an HPX170 in 24p mode, but in 1080 mode they're pretty even.

5) You can't have more than is recorded, so the 1280 gets upscaled to 1920 in the conversion to ProRes.

6) It's digitally zooming regardless of when you do it, so it really won't make a difference.

7) No. No variable frame rates at all, although you can use 720/60p to get 60fps slow motion.
 
Thanks for the quick reply.
Regarding answer 4-- Does that mean that in 720p the image is a better one on the HMC than on the HPX? If I get the HPX, I'll pretty much usually shoot in 720p for space reasons.

Thanks
 
Isaac Brillant said:
Thanks for the quick reply.
Regarding answer 4-- Does that mean that in 720p the image is a better one on the HMC than on the HPX? If I get the HPX, I'll pretty much usually shoot in 720p for space reasons.

Thanks
Click to expand...

I only should 1080p cause it looks so much better !
 
Everts said:
I only should 1080p cause it looks so much better !
Click to expand...

Having the faster frame rates available in 720p is actually really handy , and the quality difference can't be that great as initially barry thought 720p was better, he changed his mind eventually of course, but still the difference isn't that great due to the sensors only being 960x540.

The main difference is in chroma resolution which is apparent in certain situations, but the 720p images are still very good.
 
There are limits, of course, but they're pretty BIG limits -- the biggest card you can use is 32GB, and in the very best-quality mode you'll get three continuous hours of footage in that mode on that card; in the "economy" HE mode, you'll get 12 solid hours of footage.
 
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