Monday, March 24, 2008

Pro-sumer HD Video Formats Demystified

There are many different flavors of HD Video available for today’s video producer, and it seems like more are being created each day. In this post, I’ll look at a few of the common flavors and talk about their strengths and weaknesses. Since I am not even close to being an engineer, I’ll attempt to keep the information top-level and look at them from the standpoint of someone considering shooting and editing in these formats. If you want information suitable for an engineer, check out this site. Also, keep in mind that some of what I say is my subjective opinion. Don’t take mine as the final word—ideally, you should look at both first-generation footage and finished projects from the various formats to form your own subjective opinion.

HDV: This has rapidly become the most popular of pro-sumer formats due to the relatively inexpensive cameras that shoot in the format and the feature that it records on miniDV tape stock. Other than these two features (which are actually pretty huge), HDV really doesn’t have many advantages over other formats. The high compression and use of an MPEG-like codec make it a poor choice for editing and DVD distribution, although many projects that originate on HDV are improved by use of dedicated editing technology. This format is also made more difficult to work with due to competing and incompatible formats released by Sony and JVC.

XDCAM xe: This is the most recent release from Sony and is largely an answer to DVCProHD (see below.) This format uses a compression technology similar to, but better than, HDV. While the verdict is out on whether this compression is “better” than DVCPro HD, the considerably lower data rate allows for longer record times on solid state media, but will probably also require you to convert to a different format for editing. Prosumer cameras using this flavor of HD record on Sony’s proprietary solid state media which sells for a price similar to Panasonic’s P2 cards.

DVCPro HD: This format, available on Panasonic Cameras, is a nice step up from HDV in terms of quality. The much lower compression, wider dynamic range and color space, and use of discreet frames makes DVCProHD (also sometimes called DVCPro100) a much nicer recording format. It is also an excellent choice for post production when disc space is a consideration—in fact many people recommend converting HDV to DVCProHD for editing to preserve the image quality of the HD. The primary drawback of this format is that in pro-sumer cameras like the HVX200, you can only record on Panasonic’s proprietary solid state P2 cards instead of inexpensive and widely available MiniDV tape.

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