Archive of the HD/HDV Category

I call Thursday NAB’s “rump” day, a short, casual afternoon of thin crowds, when tired booth personnel slip away to visit competitors and otherwise view the show floor for themselves. It’s my favorite day.

For instance, I swung by RED’s tent and found no lines. I stepped immediately inside and like those before me, ogled the aluminum prototypes of the upcoming 5K Epic (the small boxy one) and 3K Scarlet (“3K for $3K”) rotating behind glass. more

Serendipity on the show floor makes for impromptu sessions. Tuesday I ran into cinematographer Bill Bennett in front of the Sony F35 parked on a dolly in front of Brand Pro’s booth. Not much to say about the F35–35 means its newly developed single CCD is the size of a Super 35mm film frame–except that it’s as impressively thought out as last year’s F23 on which it’s based, and like its double first cousin, Panavision’s Genesis, did once, it sets a new highwater mark in 4:4:4 RGB high-end digital cinematography cameras.

Well, for $250,000 without lens, it ought to. A lot to pay in weak dollars for tighter depth-of-field and better dynamic range than the F23, plus 1-50 fps variable speed in 4:4:4 (compared to F23’s 1-30). But you do get every pixel you pay for. This is a full-on 1920×1080 RGB image—no Bayer interpolation of phantom R and B pixels here, no sir. Leave that to lowly CMOS cameras like the REDs, Silicon Imaging 2Ks and Minis, and Arri D21s (at NAB upgraded from D20 with new 2K RAW data output mode). more

Monday’s dharma at NAB was about bigness and smallness, and I’m still thinking about it.

Yesterday Tim Robbins gave the keynote speech. Ever since FCC Chairman Newton Minow gave his famous “vast wasteland” speech at NAB in 1961, it seems NAB has played it safe. Past keynotes I’ve attended have featured Ronald Reagan (attacked on stage by an ice sculpture-wielding assailant, yards from where I was sitting), Barry Diller, Richard Parsons of Time-Warner, James Cameron and the like. Safe Republican choices, not likely to get former NAB CEO and good ol’ boy Eddie Fritts in any Washington hot water.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the Convention Center this year.

How Tim Robbins got invited to give the keynote is anyone’s guess. But there he was, on stage, facing a large morning audience of radio and TV broadcasters, cable owners and mixed-media types. more

Back from the show. I like taking a day or so after my last postings to look through everything I’ve collected, selecting some last items to include in a final wrapup. While that’s not a lot of time for deep reflection, I am at least far enough away from the hype of the moment to enable a bit of perspective.

At the NAB press office earlier this week I overheard an NAB official talk to the editor of one of the leading trade mags. He was asked about what he thought would be among the most exciting developments of the show. Instead, he begged off answering, stating that as far as he was concerned it was all just a rehash. He could find nothing new or interesting worth commenting on. more

Artbeats didn’t just bring three new collections to NAB–a gorgeous ultra slo-mo reel, new air-to-air (shot with Phantom) and energy aerials, and an Environmental Impact series.

The company also reinforced their intention to be a creative and technical resource for those using stock footage with an on-booth demo theater running continuous series of tutorials on topics including Steve Holmes on compositing fire effects in AE, DVD menus, lower third design, and using ProRes 422.

For those who aren’t at the show check out Artbeats free downloadable tutorials at artbeats.com.

HP announced it is the first company to release Microsoft’s Media Center Extender capability to an Internet-connected TV.

With the capability, people using HP MediaSmart TVs not only get access to rich content from the Internet but they also can enjoy their own digital treasures from their home PCs on a big screen high-definition TV (HDTV). Read on at The Briefing Room

More 2008 NAB Show news from The Briefing Room

Mobile Studios is on the Panasonic booth with an elegant flypack system for live production. The set up includes a Panasonic AV-HS400 switcher, BT-LH2600W monitor, and an AJ-HPM110 P2 recorder. It can be configured with Mobile Studios own MS-CG100HD character generator (available separately at $9995). Fourteen available rack spaces for optional intercom, wireless sound audio mixer, direct-to-edit capture, and battery backup/UPS. $30K to $75K.

In addition to the flypack on display here, the company also does one with a MOTU V3HD option for direct-to-edit capture on laptops with FCP or Premiere CS3. www.mobilestudios.com for more.

After AJA turned heads last year with Io HD, it seemed IO had gotten new preeminence and respect. Now Matrox brings the MX02 into the mix, an elegant, portable tool kit of Mac IO for Mac and MacBook Pros. Native support for XDCAM, XDCAM HD, XDCAM EX, and P2. Not ProRes dependent (though it will support ProRes). Available in July at $1595.

Also of note at Matrox, the RT.X2 LE at $1095, so the cheapest realtime HD editing we’ve ever seen. Works with Adobe Premeiere Pro CS3 and CS3 Production Premium. Now available through dealers worldwide.

Autodesk no longer has to get graphics support from one source and SDI support from others. With the integration of Nvidia’s Quadro FX 5600 SDI, new efficiencies open up in the workflow for Smoke 2009, Inferno 2009, Flame 2009, and Flint 2009, as well as the Backdraft Conform 2009 systems.

The Quadro 5600 SDI card (a graphics card and an uncompressed SDI daughter board) provides two channels (fill or key) of 8-, 10- or 12-bit uncompressed SDI in 2K, HD, and SD formats, analog and digital house synch and ancillary data, for support of virtual sets and other live compositing applications and direct connection to broadcast monitors, switchers, tape decks or SDI projectors.

In my quest to identify buying momentum for Blu-ray recorders, I spoke with Alison Traxler from Primera Technology. Primera offers a range of CD/DVD/Blu-ray recorders, from the inexpensive Bravo SE (20 disc capacity, $900 street with DVD-R/$2900 street with a $500 rebate till the end of May for Blu-ray) to rack mounted, multi-burner units that are much more costly.

Primera offers Mac and Windows clients with all units and has network software for $500 that allows unlimited number of Mac and Windows clients to send record/print jobs to any of their burners.

After three days at the show, Alison reported that “people are super excited that our Blu-ray solutions work with Macs; we’re the only company shipping a Mac solution in that price range.” She also commented “we’re also seeing a lot of interest from event and wedding videographers who are producing small numbers of discs for clients willing to pay for HD quality.” more