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Posted by jerry on 11/09/06 07:29
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:
http://tinyurl.com/qjtfg
Also by this Panasonic PDF:
http://tinyurl.com/ymvucg
"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: http://tinyurl.com/stb66
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:
http://tinyurl.com/ylc2za
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
http://www.jonesgroup.net
Frank wrote:
> 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.
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