New P2 recording platform: an alternative to P2 cards
 

Announcing the CinePorter CP-2 from Specialized Communications Corporation.

Read the press release and some of my notes... located at:

http://www.p2info.net/articles/misc/cineportercp2.php

What do you think? Not much info yet but there will be more details next week.

Very Interesting,
Size and Cost?
I suspected there will be ample devices to help along these lines.
Still I am surprized to see it so fast

J

Nifty.

Some immediate thoughts ergonomically speaking: that exposed P2 card area and flimsy door in the down position is a bit of a nightmare--opportunities for dirt to get into the card drives, as well as the door and/or cable from the card insert being vulnerable to damage. I could see there being a sheath that fits over the card insert which would seal the slots, but I'm not sure about an open door solution.

Otherwise, the package seems quite tidy fitting under the camera,although my personal opinion is that any and all non-shoulder mount cameras are a questionable idea for handheld shooting--not being able to brace against the body or rest on the shoulder is always a compromise to the photography, and ultimately more tiring. I'd love to see a shoulder mount assembly that places the P2 recorder and a single battery (IDX, Anton Bauer etc) over the other side of the shoulder--obviously this sort of thing will appear shortly after the camera does. I'm sure that many will be more delighted with the all-in-one design of this system than me though--it's definitely a matter of personal taste.

It's exciting to see these longer-recording time options popping up, certainly this was a major sticking point for many after the original announcement of the camera (and the cost vs shooting capacity ratio is clearly more palatable than the P2 cards)

As mentioned in the article (see link in first post), hard disk size and unit cost has not yet been announced.

Product photo added to Image Gallery: http://www.dvinfo.net/gallery/showimage.php?i=416

Edit: photo *removed* from Gallery, see posts below.

Competition is good. That improves products and keep prices reasonable. It is good to have different options

You know what would make this great product into a killer product? Have a FW800 or SATA port for faster download speeds to your NLE! That or a removable hard drive bay with swappable disks!

Either-way, this is a nice alternative, or rather a nice complement to an exciting line.

Do any of these solution allow you to put your own HD in them?

Frederic: It looks like there's a standard USB (USB2?) jack on the lower right side.

Aaron: Not yet that I'm aware of.

It would be cool to have also a firewire port (if not for recording, at least for data transfer and ingests).

I will not be surprised if this drive does not have FireWire. It doesn't need FireWire for recording, since it is a P2 device. With the P2 interface you get all of that great metadata info attached to each clip, which isn't supported by FireWire. Besides, if you prefer FireWire, there's the FireStore DS-100, so that option is available if you want it.

Ingest into NLE will be faster through USB2 rather than FireWire 400 anyway... right?

I've asked Spec Comm for one that I can use on the site and am supposed to get one today (hopefully). As soon as it's up, I'll let ya know right here.

Okay, just got off the phone with Spec Comm regarding a new photo... for the time being there will not be one just yet. At best I'll have to wait until next week at Govt. Video Expo, even though I wasn't given an answer as to whether or not I could get a photo there.

If that seems mysterious, it's only because they have to treat all media fairly. I'm on the media list for Govt. Video Expo along with who knows how many other print and online sources, so just like everybody else I'll have to wait for the show in order to get my own images, so next Wednesday is the best I can do.

That press release went out only to the Govt. Video Expo press list and I don't know what other sites are on that mailing list that you guys go to, but whoever they are they're all being told the same thing, wait until the Expo. So between us and whoever else is going to be there next week, there should be some product images forthcoming at that time.

What I can tell you about what it looks like: it's a hard disk enclosure that appears to match the footprint of the HVX200, it's about as thick as a Panasonic camcorder battery, and apparantly is powered by a second camcorder battery mounted in such a way that this battery is situated directly below the one on the camera and positioned the same way, horizontally, as on the HVX itself. The prototype housing I saw had heat fins all the way around with a USB or USB2 jack on the rear right side. From the rear left side there's a short four-inch cable that goes to a P2 slot insert card. It plugs into the camera just like any P2 card would; from there the video is carried by the cable to the hard disk drive in the enclosure which is mounted to the base of the HVX. I understand it'll also attach to a standard V-mount behind the battery of a full-size P2 camera such as the AJ-SPX800.

Will have to wait until I visit their booth next week to find out weight, cost, drive capacity and other details.

Does this seem like something that's going to come out sooner or later? Next month or next June?