Quote:
Originally Posted by Douglas Scott
Hi Mike:
Since the XDR is built around the XDcam format, I believe the unit should be able to have a file that any XDcam editing system can work with, e.g., Sony, AVID, etc. as soon as possible.
Next, Final Cut Pro is very popular so the ability to edit on that platform is essential as well. This will surely be the format for your future Nano customers and current XDR users of in-house productions.
A normal day of interviews & b-roll uses 6 to 10 - 30 minute tapes. This would need roughly 4- 32 g CF cards. When the cards are at or under the $25 per card, you'll be in the competition range of tape stock. Even though you can reuse the cards, I would need to have 3 or 4 sets of 4 in stock at all times when sending cards off to clients. The turn around would probably be around a week. Of course as cards get larger in size, the math would be done for these base numbers of roughly 5 hours per day of footage. On long days, the tape count goes up.
The cost of cards is one reason why I'm using the drop onto DVD or hard drive method of deliver. Another concern is whether my clients are going to have the readers available for a CF card workflow.
In the end, until my clients can edit the footage/files, cards, size and their costs are a mute point.
Cheers,
Scott
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Hi Scott-
Thanks for the explanation. We agree completely in the need for an XDCAM comaptible file (MXF). Our current CDV file format is already very close to MXF, we just need to add the headers for full compatibility.
In a few days we will release a new firmware update with 1080psf support for QT. We'll also have a lot more menus enabled, including system and audio menus.
Next week we are concentrating on QT file playback with the abaility to playback the last clip (recordered) or to select any individual clip for playback.
After these updates, we'll dive into MXF support, which is slated for a November release. We're also looking into a QT <-> MXF translator from Open Cube (a French software company). While we will have QT and MXF support, the ability to convert to the "other" format will always be a useful utility as we will never be able to record QT and MXF simultaneously.
I would assume the CF card prices will continue their 40-50% yearly price drop curve for the foreseeable future. So, CF may just replace tape in the not too distant future. BTW, CF card readers (USB) are around $15.