Really? I haven't come across those prices yet but I do expect them pretty soon, when the Hitachi is no longer the only 1TB. Competition will kick in when Seagate releases it's 1TB soon.
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AVCHD Panasonic cam
- Thread starter EssentialParado
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Actually, the newest Panny gets 80 minutes on an 8GB card at the highest setting (13 Mbps). So with a 16 GB card, you're looking at about 2.5 hours. I think the new Sony flash AVCHD camcorder records at 15 Mbps, so a 16GB MemoryStick would get you a little over 2 hours.
ft
I've been told by a reliable source that Best Buy had the Hitachi 1TB drives on sale at that price recently.
You are kidding? That low I would have to get 3. What was the regular price? Now someone needs to get 500gig or more built for laptops.
Surely could you not just mount the SD card and drag the .mp4 video files (I assume) into Final Cut Express?
Listen to Lethal here. I recently had an entire project go down (~60 gigs worth of MXF files) because the POS LaCie drive died on it's way to the sound editor. Good thing I did a rough pass and exported it, but still... I will never be able to color correct or do a proper sound edit now. Don't be me. Make backups immediately!
Listen to Lethal here. I recently had an entire project go down (~60 gigs worth of MXF files) because the POS LaCie drive died on it's way to the sound editor. Good thing I did a rough pass and exported it, but still... I will never be able to color correct or do a proper sound edit now. Don't be me. Make backups immediately!
Ouch dude, sorry to hear that.
Lethal
Yeah, I don't think I'll be buying another LaCie drive again. Dual hitachi 500GB in an enclosure w/ mirrored RAID ftw!
Yeah, I don't think I'll be buying another LaCie drive again. Dual hitachi 500GB in an enclosure w/ mirrored RAID ftw!
This is just my opinion, but I think the LaCie's are fine for non-continuous use(back-up drive for instance) but for continuous use like editing the passive cooling enclosure seems inadequate and the HDD cooks. Many people seem to be happy w/G-Tech drives (they are passively cooled too but have a heat sink on the bottom as well as better air flow). I'm not a huge fan of using a mirrored RAID as a sole back-up because if a power surge or something hits you're up a creek 'cause both your main and backup drives just got fried. I prefer using FW drives that stay unplugged and disconnected expect for when I'm updating them. For a current project I'm working on I'll have a set of drives and the master tapes at my place and the director will have a mirrored set of drives and clones of the master tapes at his house. We have over 100hrs of footage so far (probably have another 50 before shooting is done) so it's a chore keeping things organized and doing all the clones myself, but it's worth it knowing I have these "safety nets" in place incase anything goes wrong (I also keep the project file saved in three different places).
Lethal
Nevermind. So, when do you think we will see 20mbps AVCHD (with CABAC encoding)?
Well, for that kind of real time encoding, the cams will have to have a LOT more processor horsepower, which of course will eat at battery life. With the extra encoding necessary to "binarize" then encode for CABAC (vs. one pass encode for VLC), and the increase from 13 to 20Mbps, I'd say that is at least a doubling in processor power. So taking Moore's Law into account, I'd say 18 months minimum. At least at the $1000 price point.
Does anybody here know the file size for an hour of the highest quality HD this thing can shoot (in the AIC format).
The Panny doesn't shoot in AIC, it shoots in AVCHD. In the highest quality mode, it clocks in at 13 Mbps, or about 5.8 GB per hour.
When you import the video into iMovie'08, it converts it to AIC. I don't know the bit rate for AIC, but someone mentioned 110 Mbps, which is about 50 GB per hour.
ft
Panasonic HDC-SD5
I just got off the phone with Panasonic and they are accepting pre-orders for the new HDC-SD5 at $995.95. I also checked on Amazon and they are also accepting pre-orders and showing a shipping date of around September 15th. Bummer for me as my Colorado vacation starts on Sep 3-15th. However, I really can't see buying the HDC-SD1 when the newer one is coming out just around the corner.
I just got off the phone with Panasonic and they are accepting pre-orders for the new HDC-SD5 at $995.95. I also checked on Amazon and they are also accepting pre-orders and showing a shipping date of around September 15th.
Bummer for me as my Colorado vacation starts on Sep 3-15th. However, I really can't see buying the HDC-SD1 when the newer one is coming out just around the corner.No, the poster said the 50GB/hr was for AIC (Apple Intermediate Codec). this is a non-temporaly compressed codec (unlike HDV and AVCHD). It is used for editing only (which HDV and AVCHD aren't good at due to the temporal compression), not for shooting, not for storage. Once you've edited your footage, you use compressor (for FCP) or export from iMovie to a different format, like h.264, or mpeg2 or 4. Then you can delete your AIC files.
still....if i want to put AVCHD on my computer, it will be 50GB/hr unless i edit it and change the format. that is pathetic. its a consumer format!
It's also a complicated and very CPU intensive format. That's the trade off for such a small file size. AVCHD is based on h.264 and as rough idea of how demanding a codec it is just look at how steep Apple's h.264 system recommendations are just for play black. Even using a completely maxed out 8-core would flat out suck for editing that format and using a consumer machine w/iMovie would just be an absolute nightmare. Interframe codecs like HDV and AVCHD are not very good editing codecs because they are so CPU demanding.
Lethal
Panasonic / HDC-SD1
Just purchased the SD1 , discovered that we simply cannot download the sd card to our Macs (pre imovie 8 ) . They will however load to imovie 8 . I've not yet attempted to copy to any other storage type items . BTW , B&H photo is selling for about $750.
Also the Apple demo on imovie 8 , neglects to show that the camera needs more than a simple USB line , it must also be connectd to ac-power via the charge unit .
JM E
Just purchased the SD1 , discovered that we simply cannot download the sd card to our Macs (pre imovie 8 ) . They will however load to imovie 8 . I've not yet attempted to copy to any other storage type items . BTW , B&H photo is selling for about $750.
Also the Apple demo on imovie 8 , neglects to show that the camera needs more than a simple USB line , it must also be connectd to ac-power via the charge unit .
JM E
Good info.
I've written about this in other threads/forums. Since iMovie06 is not compatible with these AVCHD camcorders, is there a way to use iMovie'08 to import and convert the AVCHD files to AIC? Then, using iMovie'06, import the converted AIC files to use all of the '06 features?
I guess it would take a little time to find the converted files, depending on how the iMovie'08 library is set up in Finder.
If this can be done, then iMovie'06 can use footage from the newest AVCHD camcorders. Someone could probably write an Applescript to automate the process.
ft
Hmm that's interesting. So if you plug it in via USB does the SD card mount? What files show up on it?
Here's a really good, top to bottom, review of the Panasonic sd1:
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Panasonic-HDC-SD1-Camcorder-Review.htm
I was looking at the Canon HV20, but this camera really had me tempted for a while, even playing with it in Circuit City for a bit. I really want to go tapeless, but I don't feel the AVCHD codec is there yet (in quality and support) Check out the Performance and Format parts of the review.
Also, they found the smaller ccd's (all 3 of them) couldn't compare to the Canon HV20's single one in low light conditions. It had more noise and less accurate colors.
I'm still on the fence, and will probably wait till around Christmas to buy. Then I can see if the sd5 rates any better, and maybe Canon will have something new.
Oh, also, I don't use iMovie at all, only FCP and I haven't yet upgraded to Studio 2. (spent too much recently upgrading to Adobe CS3 Production Premium)
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Panasonic-HDC-SD1-Camcorder-Review.htm
I was looking at the Canon HV20, but this camera really had me tempted for a while, even playing with it in Circuit City for a bit. I really want to go tapeless, but I don't feel the AVCHD codec is there yet (in quality and support) Check out the Performance and Format parts of the review.
Also, they found the smaller ccd's (all 3 of them) couldn't compare to the Canon HV20's single one in low light conditions. It had more noise and less accurate colors.
I'm still on the fence, and will probably wait till around Christmas to buy. Then I can see if the sd5 rates any better, and maybe Canon will have something new.
Oh, also, I don't use iMovie at all, only FCP and I haven't yet upgraded to Studio 2. (spent too much recently upgrading to Adobe CS3 Production Premium
)
The AVCHD iMovie is 7.0.1 NOT 8. It's Part of iLife '08.
It's iMovie 7.0.1 not 8. It's a part of iLife '08. You AVCHD people are really in for a rude surprise when you figure out you have no logical archival technique as do HDV users on HDV video tape.
While I agree that HDV is currently better than AVCHD right now, the convenience of not having tapes is very tempting. I would love for someone to develop an HD camcorder that shoots HDV, but records onto Flash or a HDD.
As for archival, if you use a 8 GB flash card for the AVCHD units, you could always dump the raw files onto a DVD-R/DL. Plus, you always have the AIC version in the iMovie'08 library which would/should get backed up during your normal back-up routine.
The problem for the more advanced users (somewhere between shoot-n-watch and the pro) is that the lowest common denominator always wins. That's why the miniDV camcorders are going away. DVD and HDD camcorders have overtaken the SD market.
With HD camcorders, the pros know that tape is currently better, but the normal consumer will see the Flash/DVD/HDD AVCHD units and compare it to the tape-based HDV ones and automatically dismiss HDV. Consumers have been conditioned to think that tape means low-quality. You could talk about bit-rates, archiving, resolution, editing and cost until you're blue in the face ... the low-end consumer will opt for the "fancier" units. And when that happens .... shudder.