It’s a High Def World has been running a series of film look tests, pitting Magic Bullet plugins vs. Nattress plugins. They are doing the comparisons on Varicam footage, and making the results availble as H.264 QT files.
Interesting stuff.

EDIT: Clips have been removed from the server.

HD Beat has a posted on the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD round-up from IFA.
You also find tons more images and details at blu-ray.com. It’s picking up steam, folks.
One common thread…those hi-def players all look slightly oversized.

Engadget has a few pictures of the Canon XL H1 HDV camcorder. No review or commentary to speak of though.

(via HD For Indies)

Read a few interesting thoughts on the supposed upcoming dual-core Mac G5 systems. These comments by Mike caught my eye:

“And if it is dual core, IBM (the chip vendor) has stated that it’s likely to top out at 2.5 GHz, actually numerically lower than the current dual 2.7 GHz chips shipping in high end PowerMac G5s.”

“So I read all this to mean that the dual core 2.5 GHz systems will be announced and ship sometime after the Paris Expo, that they will be dual core not twin dual core, and they will still be based on PCI-X not the newer PCIe.”

Interesting stuff that makes you go “hmmmmmmmm”. We shall see…

EDIT: At the end of Mike’s post there have been some nice, insightful comments posted. You should read them.
Also, here’s a relevant article at Macworld, posted just yesterday, on why Apple chose Intel and not AMD for the next iteration of processors.

A BluRay recorder news Haiku:

BluRay recorder.
Korean-language only.
Will we ever see?

Thanks, folks. I’m here all week. Try the veal…

Camcorderinfo has people at the Canon Expo in New York at this time, and are anticipating news of the Canon HDV camcorder. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Richard has posted more news from Canon’s press conference. Looks like the first Canon HDV-capable camcorder will be called the XL H1.

Features to note:
1080i resolution, native 16:9 CCD’s
Selectable frame rates - 60i, 30F and 24F (”f” stands for “fake”)
Uncompressed HD-SDI and SD-SDI output
20x lens (38.9 - 778mm)
16:9 EVF with “LCD mode”
Improved optical stabilization

Available in November for MSRP $8,999.
Anyone want to make bets on when we will see the GL3?

Slashdot mentioned updates to linux/unix video editing software Cinelerra and DIVA. As is the case with many popular open-source projects, Cinelerra has a forked version as well.

For the record there is another popular open-source linux DV software project called Kino, and also one called Piranha. And of course, MainConcept has a commercial package called MainActor.

…and here’s an extensive list of other linux video and film related software.

[Cinelerra / Cinelerra fork]
[DIVA (is not AVID)]
[Kino DV]
[Piranha]
[MainConcept MainActor]
[Free/OSS video/film software]

HD For Indies has the scoop on the Panasonic HVX-200 and Sony XDCAM HD cameras.

EDIT: Jan Crittenden says the scoop is not correct. I suppose it COULD just be FUD, but Jan, being the Project Manager and self proclaimed “Panasonic Queen”, would probably know the details… At any rate, Mike has dug up a link that supposedly will have all the correct info on the HVX.

On Larry Jordan’s Goodies page he has an Applescript that automates the process of creating folders for a new project. The script is easily customized to fit your needs.

MacNN is reporting on the DigitalVoodoo SD|Spark, a 10/12-bit video capture card for use with FCP.
Key features:
12/10 bit SD-SDI Dual & Single link 4:4:4/4:2:2:4/4:2:2 I/O
12 bit Analog Component Composite S-Video I/O & RGB output
A/D & D/A onboard 12 bit converter
6 Channels of AES/EBU & 8 Channels of S/P DIF digital audio I/O
Embedded Digital Audio
2 Channels of RCA & XLR Analog Audio I/O
Internal Keyer
Genlock
PCI 32 bit 66/33 MHz
Desktop Preview
10 bit RGB internal processing.
OSX Tiger, QuickTime 7.0.1 and G5 support.
FCP 5 and RT Extreme support for real time effects and transitions.
Photo Jpeg support for offline editing.
DVCPRO, DVCPRO50, DV and RGB capture and playback.
Compatible with all QuickTime applications

The card is available for $1500, in comparison AJA recently announced the Kona LH card that in addition to SDI also supports HD-SDI and retails for $300 more than the Voodoo Spark.

Samsung has announced that it has created the foundation for 16Gbit compact flash memory chips, which in the very near future can lead to configurations of 32Gbit. This is good news. Just two years ago it was thought that flash memory was rapidly approaching max capacities, that the cell sizes on the chips would not decrease much more than 65 nm. Well, they have…Samsung has done it with 50 nm manufacturing. It is now thought that decreases past 45 nm will be technically difficult, but not impossible.

PLEASE NOTE: This innovation has enabled sizes up to 16-32Gbit, not 16-32GB. 16Gbit equates to 2GB of storage. While that is not a stellar leap forward, it is improvement. (Thanks to eagle-eyed blogger smokeonit for catching that)

Why is this video-related news? Because P2 is now a viable solid-state storage solution for camcorders and it uses SD memory. And CompactFlash is used in camcorders like the Grass Valley Infinity series.

Solid-state memory is becoming more and more prevelant in our industry, and offers perhaps more peace of mind and reliability than HDD-based solutions like Firestore drives. Flash memory is hardy, survives bumps, drops and temperature swings with ease, and uses a lot less power than disk or tape based technologies which require spinning parts at high rpms.
Vs. the SecureDigital format, CompactFlash rates higher in the speed dept with transfer rates up to 66 MB/s in the Version 3.0 spec. The CompactFlash spec theoretically tops out at 137 GB max size. In contrast, the SD format theoretically supports cards up to 128GB sizes, and currently tops out at 12.5 MB/s transfer rate. Note that the P2 card format includes (4) SD cards in a RAID-0 configuration.

Common video format rates:
DV/DVCAM - 3.6 MB/s
HDV - 3.6 MB/s
DVCPRO - 3.6 MB/s
DVCPRO50 - 7.7 MB/s
DVCPRO HD - 5.8-14 MB/s
8bit, 10bit Uncompressed SD - 20-27 MB/s
8bit, 10bit Uncompressed HD - 90-160 MB/s

Holy crap. We posted previously about the P+S 35mm adapters for digital video cameras…well HDForIndies is reporting that another company called Cine-one has created a fantastic variation called the “indi“. It’s a 35mm adapter for the Sony HDV series that offers many of the features of the P+S Mini35, but sidesteps a few of the problem areas and it a whole lot cheaper on the wallet. It looks like an aluminum bazooka. Mike’s writeup also includes a link to exclusive video of the adapter on the IBC showfloor.

[HDForIndies on the indi adapter]
[Cine-one indi site]
[P+S Technik Mini35 adapter review]

HD For Indies has a few interesting posts on HD and HDV cameras at IBC. For starters they have exlusive pics, video and hands-on reviews of “the latest in low cost HD camcorders from Panasonic, JVC, & Sony, as well as Ikegami’s higher end EditCAM HD that records to Avid’s DNxHD format.” Read the article for details.

Since that post, Mike has followed up with news of Canon’s HDV camcorder, a camera that looks a lot like the XL-2. There is speculation that we’ll see this camera at NAB 2006, but I’ve read from a reliable source on a video forum that we’ll it a lot sooner than NAB. And of course, Canon will surely follow with an update to the GL-series, an HDV GL3 seems inevitable (and long overdue).

EDIT: Looks like Firestore has announced a drive for Panasonic P2-based cams. This is a great alternative to P2 technology, and makes the rig a lot more afforable.

I spotted this hands-on (informal) review of the Sony HDR-HC1 HDV camcorder at VideoUniversity Forums. Some excellent info there from experienced shooters.

MacNewsNetwork is reporting that AJA Video has announced it’s new 10-bit uncompressed capture card for OSX and FCP Studio, the Kona LH.
AJA says the $1,800 Kona LH is “the only PCI card available for Mac OS X and Final Cut Studio that offers both HD and SD analog and digital I/O — in one convenient card, at a low price, and with the same excellent broadcast quality for which AJA is known.”