I went to see AG-HVX200 in person today at InterBEE

[Dean Sensui]

Kaku...

Great to hear from you again.

Thanks for all the detailed practical info on the HVX-200 and the video format it's using.

It's as I suspected when I first heard about HDV. I didn't think the GOP concept would hold up with rapid changes in scenery. It might work well with multi-pass variable rate encoding but with live material and the impossible task of predicting changes in every frame, it's highly likely there would be artifacts.

And sure enough, there is.

For our own work, the Panasonic system would probably be a better choice. I left the newspaper business at the beginning of the year to do video production full time. The fishing show I'm working on often has thrashing fish at the back of some large fishing boat. With the rapidly changing pattern in the wake at the boat's stern, the splashing, and changing colors it's a sure bet HDV would fall apart at the worst possible moment.

We're not going to jump into HD just yet as we're still watching the technology. Also, our cablecast host, Time/Warner, isn't requiring HD programming yet. But we'd like to be ready when it does require the jump.

One of the things I like about Panasonic's camera is the ability to create a record-ahead buffer. We've burned hours of tape on a lot of trips just waiting for that moment. And I've missed a lot of candid comments as well. A lot of our time is spent waiting for a hook-up or other real-life action. Now we can have the camera ready and waiting with a 10-second buffer and just hit "record" when a reel starts to scream or when someone says something meaningful. Just gotta make sure someone's awake to grab the camera when it does!

Aloha,

[Kaku Ito]

Hi Dean,

I think I did find your name under the fishing thing.
Fishing in Hawaii must be spectacular that can be appreciated all over the world. If I get asked about any fishing deal by my clients (boradcasters and productions) and I will recommend you to them.

Just imagine what HVX200 can do for the slow motion footage on fishing! Shooting in 720/60P, you can benefit right away even for your SD projects.

[Jung Kyu]

were you able to eject the tape when you were holding hvx200.
if so you could brought spare dv tape and record it. i know it's not HD footage but we can basically see what it's like. such as color tone and others.

[Kaku Ito]

Originally Posted by Jung Kyu

were you able to eject the tape when you were holding hvx200.
if so you could brought spare dv tape and record it. i know it's not HD footage but we can basically see what it's like. such as color tone and others.

Jung,

I was told that the unit was not the finalized version, so I wouldn't have done that. I asked Panasonic if we could copy the files shot at the show but they did not want to provide them, so they don't want to have the files go out. I won't take chances to shoot something wihtout asking even if I were appearing here with psudoname. My name is know enough around the industry in Japan because I've been writing articles for a decade on Video Alfa magazine.

[Dean Sensui]

Originally Posted by Kaku Ito

Hi Dean,

I think I did find your name under the fishing thing.
Fishing in Hawaii must be spectacular that can be appreciated all over the world. If I get asked about any fishing deal by my clients (boradcasters and productions) and I will recommend you to them.

Just imagine what HVX200 can do for the slow motion footage on fishing! Shooting in 720/60P, you can benefit right away even for your SD projects.

Kaku...

Thanks for the offer of recommendations! We're looking right now at having the show marketed outside of Hawaii. One third of our website's visitors come from California and another third comes from everywhere else.

I thought about the slow-mo feature. True half-speed video. Certain FCP plug-ins should provide even better options, too. And what's also nice about the HVX200 is that it'll shoot DVCPro50 as its SD format, tho not to tape. And that has 4:2:2 color space, which is really helpful in post.

So I'm keeping a close eye on what develops with that camera.

And here's a bit of fishing trivia: The Pacific Blue marlins caught and tagged in Kona, Hawaii often travel as far as the South China Sea and other parts of the Pacific. This was discovered with the aid of electronic "pop up" tags. These large pelagic fish cruise entire oceans!

[Kaku Ito]

Originally Posted by Dean Sensui

Kaku...

Thanks for the offer of recommendations! We're looking right now at having the show marketed outside of Hawaii. One third of our website's visitors come from California and another third comes from everywhere else.

I thought about the slow-mo feature. True half-speed video. Certain FCP plug-ins should provide even better options, too. And what's also nice about the HVX200 is that it'll shoot DVCPro50 as its SD format, tho not to tape. And that has 4:2:2 color space, which is really helpful in post.

So I'm keeping a close eye on what develops with that camera.

And here's a bit of fishing trivia: The Pacific Blue marlins caught and tagged in Kona, Hawaii often travel as far as the South China Sea and other parts of the Pacific. This was discovered with the aid of electronic "pop up" tags. These large pelagic fish cruise entire oceans!

Dean,

Yes, the "Moments" we can capture, "like a feather in the wing" haha, with 60p in slow motion and not need to deinterlace in freeze and all the goodies. And less compression DVCPRO50, yeah, I want to see how different resolution video holds for HD environment, so my first project would be challenge to mix the different formats that HVX200 can shoot with.

Man, those big fish can travel!! Pixar should make somehting according to that.

[Dean Sensui]

Originally Posted by Kaku Ito

Dean,

Yes, the "Moments" we can capture, "like a feather in the wing" haha, with 60p in slow motion and not need to deinterlace in freeze and all the goodies.

Ha ha! I was just listening to that album the other day while doing a bunch of color grading on an upcoming show.

Keep us posted on what you discover along the way. And drop me an email sometime when you get a chance.

Aloha!
Dean Sensui
dean@HawaiiGoesFishing.com