Why DVCPRO25?

[Barry_Green]

I highly doubt they will do this, but it's possible right?

Anything is possible, but I don't think there's any chance of them doing it. It would mean creating a new, proprietary, noninterchangeable format that can only be used with this one camera. P2, the way they've gone, is using several existing formats, and the cards are directly compatible with basically every laptop in the world. No hassles, no problems, no additional equipment to buy, direct compatibility with stuff that's out there now.

Whereas if they recorded their HD on a miniDV tape (by running it at 4x the speed or whatever else they'd need to do), then you're talking about needing a new deck, or only ever capturing from the camera, which means interchangeability (i.e., handing over a tape to someone else) is out...

If they're going to have a tape drive, I would want it to be compliant with industry standards (or, so incredibly fantastically superior -- and affordable -- that industry adoption would be a "given").

If I were a client I think I'd love to get my footage already sitting on a hard drive ready to edit, rather than a stack of tapes I have to waste a day logging and digitizing. Especially true if you're renting an edit bay. Producers will adore this.

Oh, I absolutely and thoroughly agree -- I wrote a big huge post over on the Cow describing this. I think it's the perfect workflow. But -- the customer is always right. If your client is hiring you to deliver him some DV tapes, then by gum, that's what you'd better do, that's all I'm saying. If the client's flexible, you'd better believe I'll talk 'em into HD delivered pre-digitized on a hard disk, ready to edit, and I'll get all their repeat business because they'll save hours and hours and hours of digitizing/logging/searching/hunting time. It's a better workflow, by far.

But I'd like to preserve the option, because there are some people who want what they want (even if it's not better), and for those customers, you give them what they want or you don't get the job. DV is an established workflow, been around for a decade now, people know it and they're used to it. They'll quickly adapt to the new workflow because it's so much better, that I firmly believe, but... things don't always move so fast.

I was just shooting a couple of episodes for a reality TV show for CGTV, and the editor had never seen a DVX before. He's an accomplished editor, been doing it for years, he works on an Avid, and they don't even digitize through firewire. He'd never seen a DVX. He was blown away and left the shoot declaring that he was going to buy one, but the point is, he wanted a tape because that's all he knew how to work with. There will be others like him. There will be a transition period.

And yes, for those customers, if Panasonic doesn't include a tape drive in the HDX, I could always just bring the DVX...

 

[shAi]

i think.. replacing the DVX with the HDX wouldn't be possible at the moment for me. so much for the "panasonic are too late" bulls.. we might have to keep our good old baby (how can a baby be old?!?) for a little longer and there goes some budget for the new one too...
i work regularly with productions from abroad that come to shoot here, i can't deliver hard disks to them. although that would be so fuking cool.
i sense revolution. that's what Panasonic have in their agenda for us folks. i start to think that the DVX was only a warm up to what might start 3 weeks from now...
:shocked: :lipsrseal :undecided :shocked: :laugh: :cheesy:< me freaking out from anticipation

 

[NoahK]

You could still easily run your footage out to tape if that's what the client needs via FW or your NLE. All you would need would be another deck or cam to hold the tape. Think about how nice it would be to have a tape output as an optional afterthought rather than a neccesity. And you'd be guaranteed no TC breaks. Clients would love that.