Are you saying that most major editing programs will have some sort of AVCHD support within the next few months? If so that's good news.

I am saying (or rather, have just said in a previous post) that there will definitely be *at least* two major editing apps that support AVCHD (again, those are Pinnacle Studio and GV / Canopus Edius) within the next few months when this camera ships.

I wonder why Panasonic couldn’t put a focusing ring on a camcorder that is supposedly professional. Even their concept AVCHD camcorder had a focusing ring.
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/do...05/ifa6_09.jpg

It’s weird when a lot of Mini DV camcorders had a focusing ring including the GS250 and the Optura.

Quote ( "Everyone I show it to says, 'I want one,'" stated Panasonic Product Line Business Manager SteveGolub. )

not me. i want the HV20 at half the price with features i can use, thanks.

and 3ccd's?.. give us a single 1/1.8 for improved latitude dynamic range.. features the human eye can detect. bleeding colors on 1ccd is history.

could of been even better with the filmic gamma curve and negated progressive frames.

what happened to the company that kicked off the progressive mode? why leave it out now?

Well it does include a 4 gig memory card and a 40 gig external storage unit for that price so it’s safe to say that the camcorder itself is a few hundred dollars more than the HV20 and the only feature that the HV20 has over the Panasonic is 24p, nothing else to my knowledge. Still, the HV20 does make it look too expensive. Maybe Panasonic will lower the price once its released.

Update from Canopus personnel: the AVCHD converter was online briefly but has been taken down until an updated version can be posted within the next few days or so.

If this is an Edius 4 plugin you'd need to be a registered user to access the download, as Chris alluded to earlier.

Jvc?
 

"From the press so far, the JVC seems like it will best the Panasonic in most aspects. Hopefully the JVC will produce editable footage right away."

Which camera are you talking about here?

It’s the JVC HD Everio GZ-HD7
http://www.jvc.com/presentations/eve...lid=MPEverioHD
It’s basically a GS400/HC1 equivalent with a 60 gig hard drive. It records a full 1920X1080 straight to MPEG2 verses the 1440X1080 of HDV
So far, there isn’t a camcorder that can touch it.

Thread
http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=83341

Video of a JVC representative talking about it.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...8918&q=jvc+hd7

Hands-On
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/ces2007/j...-hd-227549.php

Panasonic confirmed that their press release is in error. The lens on the AG-HSC1U is F1.8, not F1.6 as stated in the press release. Except for the different video processing, gray paint job, and better warranty, this is the same camcorder as the consumer HDC-SD1.

The big problem with AVCHD editing would seem to be the raw processing power required.

The H.264/MPEG-4 is said to be as much as five times as computationally intensive as MPEG-2.

So -- it would seem to be a significant tradeoff.

What one gains in codec efficiency and smaller file sizes would seem to be offset by the need for much more raw processing power.

I ran into problems as an early adopter with HDV MPEG-2.

My old computer wasn't fast enough so I bought a new one and now I have a computer that isn't fast enough for H.264.

I suspect many fairly new computers considered "fast" today won't cut the mustard where AVCHD editing is concerned.

The NLE firms know this, no doubt, and I suspect that's why they're taking so much time releasing software that will edit these files.

Jerry Jones
http://www.jonesgroup.net

Guy

I totally agree with you on these last points.

This "pro" Pani looks really anemic (spec wise) compared to upcomming competion. That being said, I hope Pani announces (mid 07 ?) something more appealing for the prosumer crowd.

JohnG

On the other hand, if a non-linear video editing program made use of video "proxies," then a weak computer would work.

That's the news I'm hoping to read when the big NAB announcements are made.

Jerry Jones

But, Jerry, it is possible to do that right now. Nero 7 will transcode AVCHD to another format that is easier to edit. Or, a professional with lots of footage to convert might want to get the Elecard Converter Suite (pricey). IMO, the difficulty in editing AVCHD isn't the big issue here. It is simply an extension of the difficulty in editing HDV that has largely been solved. The real issue is the picture quality and features on these camcorders.

Sony Vegas already does make use of these proxies. There are plugin tools for HD proxy creation for Vegas. The proxies are swapped out prior to rendering.

Guy, I'm with Jerry on this one. As a developer of these tools, and working closely with a couple of NLE companies, it's the raw processing power required that is the main current challenge, plus some decode to timeline issues. The image quality on these camcorders is weak, no doubt, but that's not the format, it's the quality of the glass, imagers, encoders, and bitrates. As the bitrates rise, it gets easier, but it's still serious horsepower, even a dual quad AMD machine chokes.

Nero 7, yes, will transcode AVCHD to another format, but the key feature I'm talking about is the feature where an NLE will automatically make the conversion to the editing format and then -- upon export -- link back to the original files in the timeline for export back to the original format.

Can Nero 7 do that, Guy?

I remember going over the feature description for that program and I didn't see that specific function.

Without that specific function, I'm afraid I'm still dubious.

Jerry Jones