Final Cut User

DVXusser.com a  great resource on line now has a new publication coming .

DVXUser is proud to announce intent to publish DVXUser Monthly. A monthly publication in magazine format with a primary focus on promoting DVXUser members and their personal accomplishments, and a secondary focus on providing you with valuable technical information, reviews, product information, etc, etc, etc.

Like everything else on DVXUser, DVXUser Monthly will be entirely free to you. Circulation of the magazine will be monthly.

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Look for the first edition in a month or two, with regular monthly mailings after that.

Thanks for your time. Hope you enjoy it!

While reflecting on post for a couple of projects this morning, I began drifting along through cyber space poking at some info on Panasonic’s P2 update of the Varicam.  It struck me that I didn’t recall any tape based releases from Panasonic during NAB.  Shocked by this sudden realization I quickly referred to Panny’s Press Release Page to see if maybe I was mistaken… but there isn’t any mention of tape. I just perused Sony’s Press Releases too - there’s a bit of tape in there but it’s out numbered by developments in alternative recording methods.
So many, and I mean MANY - types of production rely on tape and will need tape for archiving for a long time to come. It will be very interesting to see how long before professional tape based recording is phased out…. more to come.

Quick link to the press release of the new VariCams ,HVX200a and AG-HPX170(HD SDI).More blog notes coming as NAB news rolls out. Panasonic Press Release Link  AG-HPX170 Links

Panasonic announced the arrival of it’s long coveted 64GB P2 Cards this morning. The release of the 64GB card effectively doubles current recording capacities on the market, with the previous maximum being the 32GB cards that Panasonic released only months ago.

Based on a current record time of 42 minutes in 720 24pn mode on my 16GB, I’d say you can get 168 minutes of the same on a 64GB. That’s nearing 3 hours of HD footage!

Here’s a few more from the press release as posted on studiodaily.com

A 64GB P2 card is capable of storing over four hours of DVCPRO footage (64 GB X 4 minutes per GB), or more than two hour of DVCPRO50, AVC-Intra 50 (64 GB X 2 minutes per GB) or 64 minutes of AVC-Intra 100 or DVCPRO HD. With five 64GB P2 cards installed, an AJ-HPX3000 P2 HD camcorder can record for 320 minutes in AVC-Intra 100 or DVCPRO HD (400 minutes in 1080/24pN) and 640 minutes (800 minutes in 24pN) in AVC-Intra 50 or DVCPRO 50.

I think I posted this back in November - maybe not to this site though.  Anyhow, just doing a reinstall on a laptop and was reminded of the P2 Format Station release form Panasonic. 

This free little App from Panasonic allows you to format 16gb and 32gb cards with your laptop and maintain readability in camera. For those of you who don’t know, since the 16gb firmware update, you were unable to format those cards with a laptop. Upon reinserting the card into the camera you would get a read error.

The NYFA recently purchased 30 HVX200s. This acquisition is a huge sign of commitment to the technology and workflow by the Academy.

“We believe the HVX200 is a fantastic choice for our students,” said Jerry Sherlock, President and Founder of the New York Film Academy. “The benefits are numerous especially because it allows them the ability to switch from DV to HD according to their needs and budgets.”

Read More of the news release here

Panasonic has recently confirmed the claims it made at NAB earlier this year about shipping 32gb Cards before years end. A release a couple of days ago sites a November ship date with a retail price around $1650. No update will be needed to use the cards, as long as you have already performed the 16gb update. Check out more at Studio Daily

I recently shot a short film for director Michael Fisher, entitled SHELL. The film was shot approximately 2 weeks ago with an HVX using a Redrock M2 adapter and some sweet Zeiss lenses that I had previously blogged about. The film is up online now so please take a look and feel free to leave comments! I’ll be writing more in the coming weeks regarding the techinical aspects of it.

A couple of days ago Panasonic released watch basically is the equivalent of the P2 Viewer (PC) software for Mac!  This is good news and indication that free metadata support it’s way (crossing fingers).  The P2 Contents Management Software can be found here.

Specs are here.

The software is not compatible with the Quicktime 7.2 update, in fact it is only compatible with 7.1.6. Already having upgraded to 7.2 I installed the software and took my chances. The first noticeable thing, which is also mentioned in the specs on Panasonic’s site, is that the audio levels aren’t available with QT 7.2 installed.

One cool thing about this is that you can create metadata files within it to upload to your camera. No more constructing them by hand or making them on a PC!

A little bit about what the P2 Content Management System does:

Features
This is an application program that ingests P2 contents by using PC and manages them in PC.
P2 viewer is built in and able to view P2 contents easily like the P2 Viewer.
Contents can be speedily retrieved by automatically constructing the data base by using the metadata of P2 contents at the time of ingestion.
Able to add, change and delete metadata registered in P2 contents and the data base by the simple method.
Able to handout and keep them as back ups by copying P2 contents onto HDD and Optical media.

Main Functions

Display P2 contents data
Ingest P2 contents in PC.
Retrieve metadata of P2 contents
Classification
Display and Editing of property
Viewing (playback of contents)
Display and editing of text memos
Recording and delete of voice memos
Export P2 contents data
Production of Backup data for P2 CMS format
Archive P2 contents data (moving to optical media disk)
Restore

A couple of screen grabs I made, below.