HD For Indies has posted an exclusive hands-on report of the Panasonic AG-HVX200. A DoP with an IN at Panasonic played with a pre-prod model in the field, and his report is very detailed and informative (and glowing). Read it.

Also, readers that attended DVExpo have written in with comments and details.

Sony announced last week that they will be using MPEG-2 encoding on BluRay disc for delivery of HD content. ArsTechnica explores why they would choose an older, less efficient codec when there are excellent alternatives available in H.264 and VC1.

“It has been suggested that Sony’s internal mastering team is simply more familiar with MPEG-2, and will need time to transition to a modern codec. Others have said that it’s unlikely that early Bu-ray discs will even have advanced interactive features, making the size issue less important. Both could be true, but there’s another matter to consider as well.”

“The plot gets more interesting when you consider who has patents on what…..Sony has more than 140 patents related to MPEG-2.”

Food for thought…

(Via HDBeat)

This DVXUser thread has several 1920×1080 still images, grabbed from a WMVHD 24p clip (direct link to the video clip at HD For Indies).
There are stills in both JPG and TIFF format. Bear in mind that they are snagged from a WMVHD encoded source, but you can still see the quality of the camera in the shots. The HVX cam looks like it will love up to the hype…

DVXUser has posted the first publically available footage taken with the Panasonic AG-HVX200 camera (due to ship on the 29th of this month).

1080 & 720 rez samples available in both WMV-HD and H.264. Downloading…

Just in the nick of time, Panasonic has announced that the much-vaunted AG-HVX200 camcorder will ship on December 29, 2005. DVGuru notes that there is also a new FAQ on the camera.

(Via DVGuru)

Here are step by step instructions on how to build what is basically a Mini35 Adapter, for a small consumer DV camera. The builder is calling it a DOF machine. The device is basically is doing the same principles that are offered by a P+S Mini35 though…for a fraction of the cost. Could be a fun project.

(Via DVGuru)

The CinePorter CP-2 hard disk recorder built for use with the AG-HVX200 and other Panny P2 cameras. It has a port the plugs directly into an open P2 slot. The diagram shows the recorder mounted below the HVX. Back at the ranch, the footage comes off disk via USB2. Disk sizes up to 240GB (that’s nice). It’s powered by a included (built-in?) 7.2v battery. Supports DV, DVCPRO, DVCPRO50, DVCPROHD.

(Via HDFI)

Ran across this nugget at HD For Indies…
Ever heard the phrase “all that and a bag of chips”? Red Digital Cinema is a new company (?) that is talking up a camera they intend to deliver. They feature the tagline “WE DECIDED TO SKIP SEVERAL GENERATIONS OF EVOLUTION…” on their website, and based on the hot air specs they are talking, it certainly sounds like it. How does nearly 4K resolution sound? Ok, what about 60P frame rate? That do anything for ya? Full-frame CMOS sensor (similiar to the Arri D20, by the way…) allows the use of “real” 35mm lenses. The hits just keep comin’…

4520×2540 pixel res.
60p, variable frame rate between 1-60fps.
Full-frame CMOS sensor.
4:4:4, 4:2:2 output from HD-SDI or dual fiber-channel outputs.
Select 100, 80, 60, 50, 25, or 19 Mbps.
Accomodates “REAL” 35mm PL mount cinema lenses.
Records to a variety of solid-state media or optical disc (they say “BlueRay”), as well as tape.

Sounds hot. Mike at HD For Indies has a good writeup, opinions, and comments on the camera. Also some comparisons to the Kinetta (which has been coming Real Soon Now for a long time…) Should be interesting if this company can make good on the promises.

UPDATE: Mike/HDFI does a little napkin math with bitrates, and comes to the conclusion that the HD signal pouring out of the dual fiber links could be as high as 2GB/sec (or 7TB/hr), as far as storage requirements go. Yeech.

Gizmodo is reporting on WidowPC’s forthcoming Sting 917X2 notebook, a PC that offers PCI Express, SATA, and runs either Athlon 64 FX-57 or AMD dual-core processors. WidowPC is accepting pre-orders at this time, and claims they will ship as soon as dual-core and FX-57 chips become available. Could be a nice mobile platform for PC NLE users…

It is expected that Adobe will complete the acqusition of Macromedia by tomorrow. I wonder what this reorganization holds for Adobe’s Pro Video apps? It seems likely that this will only further Flash as a delivery medium for web video…

Digital Heaven has announced new lower pricing for Multicam Lite 1.03, it’s just $99 now for the standalone tool. Additionally, they have announced the release of two new plugins, and an update to the DH_WideSafe plugin.

From the Press Release:
DH_Counter is a video generator which automatically creates a mins:secs text counter. Featuring comprehensive options for count up/down, whether the count includes zero and a stopwatch mode for display of 1/100ths of a second.

DH_Fade is a video filter which makes it easy to create consistent fade in/outs on clips which have different durations. Once set up with the desired duration, the filter can quickly be copied/pasted to other clips to save time.

In addition there is also a new version of DH_WideSafe, the 16:9 safe area generator. Version 1.2 of DH_WideSafe is now fully compliant with BBC/EBU specifications for widescreen safe areas and is a free upgrade to existing customers.

We previously mentioned Digital Heaven here and here.
Also, DVGuru recently linked to a review by LAFCPUG of DH’s MovieLogger 1.0.