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September 13th, 2007, 02:00 PM | #1 |
Major Player
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AVC-intra and the HVX-200
When I was at the NAB in Las Vegas five months ago I spoke with several people at Panasonic's booth and inquired about future HVX-type cameras and the AVC-intra codec. They were unsure that it would be available, apparently because the AVC-intra codec is a very CPU intensive codec and a lot of heat is generated. Over at the Edius Forums several folks who have edited with the AVC-intra codec report that a lot of computer horse-power is needed to be successful. Anyone know more about this ?
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September 13th, 2007, 02:25 PM | #2 |
Major Player
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As I understand, the boards just started to ship - and yes, I've heard that it's CPU intensive... looking forward to playing with it in Edius, and with the 2000 camera. I have a dual-xeon 3.6 machine running Edius SP - I'm not expecting that it will play very well, even in a native timeline without layers - we'll see...
Word for you though - it's not going in the 200 or the 500 - the 2000 and 3000 will jive with the new codec board - the 200/500 are DVCPROHD. |
September 13th, 2007, 02:36 PM | #3 | |
Wrangler
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Quote:
-gb- |
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September 15th, 2007, 06:49 AM | #4 |
Go Go Godzilla
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AVC-Intra by design is not going to be any more troublesome to work with than DVCPRO-HD since it is a "i-frame" codec; there are two flavors, either 50mbs which is DVCPRO-HD quality at half the bitrate or, 100mbps which is near-D5 quality. The concept being that you can take up 50% less space on the P2 cards without sacrificing any quality or, go all the way to D5 image quality at the same time/space as shooting in 1080.
AVCHD however is a totally different animal; unlike AVC-I it is a long-GOP type of codec which will require more horsepower to edit just as HDV does, although it is supposed to be a more efficient long-GOP structure. There continues to be a lot of confusion between these two codecs and many tech specs and details between the two are getting mixed up. The short version: AVC-Intra is only available on the HPX2000, 3000 and P2 Mobile deck and, beyond and is a professional "i-frame" codec and should require no more computing resources than any other "i-frame" codec (not all NLE's support it yet, including FCP). AVCHD is a consumer codec co-developed by Panasonic and Sony (go figure), is a long-GOP structure and does require more computing power for editing. AVCHD has deeper NLE support than it's Intra cousin - for now. It will not be implemented on any of the pro-line of Panny cameras nor will the HVX200 or HPX500 be using that format in the future. |
September 15th, 2007, 01:01 PM | #5 | |
Barry Wan Kenobi
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Quote:
Frankly, if Sony can offer 35-megabit MPEG-2 in their pro line with a straight face, I certainly can't fathom why Panasonic couldn't offer 24-megabit AVC with an equally straight face. Should be a head-to-head matchup there. I'd still prefer intraframe though. |
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September 15th, 2007, 10:17 PM | #6 |
Regular Crew
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While I could never leave the I-frame world I did get my hands on that HSC-1U at the WEVA Expo and I was amazed at the pictures it put out. Final cut really struggled with AVC-HD but the new iMovie 8 was AMAZING. It scrubbed the timeline quicker and cleaner than anything I've ever seen. Nice entry for a low price point 1080i prosumer cam.
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September 16th, 2007, 11:28 AM | #7 |
Major Player
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It's unfortunate that the HSC-1U does not shoot progressive.
That would be nice. And am I to understand that these small AVCHD cams shoot interframe footage ala the Z1U and other HDV cams? |
September 16th, 2007, 11:22 PM | #8 | |
Barry Wan Kenobi
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Location: North Carolina
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Quote:
AVC-Intra is the top-end intraframe codec they're introducing. AVC-HD is more like super-HDV (depending on bitrate, of course). |
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September 17th, 2007, 09:46 AM | #9 |
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So this: 1080P AJ-HPX3000
would be the AVC-Intro cam at about $48K? |
September 17th, 2007, 12:38 PM | #10 |
Barry Wan Kenobi
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Location: North Carolina
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Yes, but it's AVC-Intra.
AVC-Intra is also available as an option board for the $27,000 HPX2000. |
September 17th, 2007, 02:24 PM | #11 |
Major Player
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Robert - I don't like to question you, as you have much more experience and knowledge than I do, but it was the people at Panasonic that said that the AVC-Intra codec was computer-intensive and runs hot, and that for those reasons that it may not show up in a small camera for a long time. Similarly, the folks on the Edius forum who had edited with the AVC-Intra codec said that it taxed a good computer to the max. Anyway, for my purposes the DVCPRO HD codec works well, and with the rapid increases in flash storage being made, there may never be a need for the AVC-Intra in small camcorders like the HVX.
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September 30th, 2010, 03:32 PM | #12 |
New Boot
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Mark,
I was demostrating Edius at NAB 2010. I used a lot of avchd, HQ, and avc-intra 50 and 100. My favorite codec to use native is avc-intra. This is a intra frame codec that is not that more intensive on the system than HQ is on a system while using Edius. The avc-intra 100, yes, will take a little more horsepower only because it is a 10bit codec 4:2:2. Very similar to the new 10b HQX codec from GV. I am still running a core 2 Extreme chip at 3.3. I can get 3 layers of avc-intra to run in RT in an 8bit project on Edius. This system is by no means a powerhouse, at least, not anymore. I used the same avc-intra files at WEVA in August on a I7 980x and it cut through them like butter. AVCHD and AVC-1 files are the power hogs of the codec world. As far as Panasonic putting avc-intra into samller cameras, well....why would they. That is the pro camera stuff. Even the new AG-AF100 shoots in AVCHD. In order to shoot in avc-intra you have to purchase the extra card reader, for lack of a better term, that is in the $5,000 range and holds 5 P2 cards. It is as big as one of the smaller cameras that you were referring to. Let me assure you, if I can edit avc-intra 100 and 50 in realtime on a core 2 Extreme processor, I know an I7 system will have nooo problem with it. |
September 30th, 2010, 09:05 PM | #13 |
Inner Circle
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Jerry:
Did you notice Mark's post was from 2007? Dan |
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