PANASONIC (New) HDC-SD1 & HDC-DX1 H.264 Camcorders...

The official English press release by PANASONIC is now up:

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"Their high-sensitivity features also allow for shooting in poorly-lit
situations - for example, as low as six lux."

Amazing, if true.

Jerry Jones
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Different formats for different people.

PANASONIC offers two H.264 (MPEG-4) options.

AVCHD = consumer format.

"AVC-Intra" = professional format.

AVCHD = Long GOP format

"AVC-Intra" = I-Frame Format

PANASONIC offers AVCHD to consumers.

PANASONIC offers "AVC-Intra" to professionals.

The AVC-Intra format is designed to be implemented with relatively high
data rates

These two formats are quite different formats even though they are both
H.264-compliant.

The "AVC-Intra" format involves "intraframe" compression at very high
bitrates.

PANASONIC will be introducing AVC-Intra capability -- as an option --
for forthcoming professional P2 camcorders to be unveiled at NAB 2007
in Las Vegas.

This was announced in May of this year as confirmed by the following
news article:

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Also by this Panasonic PDF:

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"The AVC-Intra (H.264 compliant) codec offers significantly better
compression efficiency than older MPEG-2 codecs and can provide high
quality for news at half the bandwidth compared to DVCPRO HD."

"This bandwidth savings, without the compromises of long GOP
compression, will offer advantages in storage and distribution as well
as twice the recording time on a P2 card."

"The optional AVC-Intra (H.264 compliant) support for the new P2 HD
products will be available in April 2007."

The professional camcorder model to be introduced by PANASONIC will be
the AJ-HPC2000.

Meanwhile, consumers will benefit from AVCHD.

AVCHD is twice as efficient as HDV.

This means you can cut the data rate in half and get equal or better
quality.

It also means smaller file sizes.

Most of today's NLEs can already edit long GOP files (HDV) natively.

They should be easily modified to do the same with AVCHD.

The following software firms are already working on AVCHD editing
solutions:

* Adobe Systems Incorporated
* ArcSoft, Inc.
* CANON INC.
* Canopus Co., Ltd.
* CyberLink Corporation
* Focus Enhancements, Inc.
* InterVideo, Inc.
* MainConcept AG
* Nero AG
* PIONEER CORPORATION
* PIXELA CORPORATION
* SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO.,LTD.
* SHARP CORPORATION
* Sonic Solutions
* Ulead Systems, Inc.

SOURCE: #

In addition, the AVCHD format provides for data rates up to 24 Mbps.

Originally, it was only 18 Mbps.

But the AVCHD group amended the upper data rate to 24 Mbps on July 13
as you can read on the following specifications page:

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In an ideal world, use of the 24 Mbps data rate ceiling of AVCHD would
be an exciting option.

On the other hand, I suspect we'll be somewhat surprised by the image
quality of the new Panasonic AVCHD camcorders, which top out at 13
Mbps.

I suspect the HDC-SD1 might blow the Sony cams out of the water because
of the three CCD design.

Plus, I suspect Panasonic may have optimized the H.264 codec more
successfully than Sony.

We'll know when CamcorderInfo.com and other Web sites perform some
tests.

Regards,

Jerry Jones
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I'm not sure what you mean by that, Ken. DV, whether recorded to small
(Mini) tapes or to large (Standard) tapes is 25 Mbps, 720p HDV is 19.7
Mbps, and 1080i HDV is 25 Mbps.

All four of these AVCHD camcorders are 1080i, so the comparison, if
it's to be made, should be made to 1080i HDV. The highest currently
used AVCHD data rate of 15 Mbps isn't close to 25 Mbps, in my opinion.

The four camcorders mentioned above comprise the *entire universe* of
available/announced AVCHD products. Period. There are no others.
Someday it might become a decent format, but not yet.

--
Frank, Independent Consultant, New York, NY
[Please remove 'nojunkmail.' from address to reply via e-mail.]
Read Frank's thoughts on HDV at #

...

Which is close to Mini-DV and HDV, but is there an AVCHD
camera (much less 3CCD AVCHD camera) that will do 24Mbps?

On 8 Nov 2006 11:09:45 -0800, in 'rec.video.desktop',
in article <Re: PANASONIC (New) HDC-SD1 & HDC-DX1 H.264 Camcorders
(High Definition)
And for those folks who read the Japanese language, here are three
additional links:

Panasonic HDC-SD1 and HDC-DX1 (press release of November 8, 2006)
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Panasonic HDC-SD1 (product information)
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Panasonic HDC-DX1 (product information)
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The HDC-SD1 records to SD and SDHC flash memory cards while the
HDC-DX1 records to 8 cm red laser Mini-DVD optical discs.

Note that the maximum data rate supported by these two camcorders is
only 13 Mbps. That's lower than the maximum data rate of the Sony
HDR-SR1, which is 15 Mbps, but is slightly higher than that of the
Sony HDR-UX1, which is 12 Mbps. All of these data rates, however, are
well below the maximum specified by the AVCHD format, which is 24
Mbps.

--
Frank, Independent Consultant, New York, NY
[Please remove 'nojunkmail.' from address to reply via e-mail.]
Read Frank's thoughts on HDV at #

More:

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Jerry Jones
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