Interesting, a colleague of mine seems to think that HD’s gone off like rocket over the water, with what they are calling ‘Basement Virus’. From what he told me, people are installing HD projectors in their basements and whacking the image against the end wall, which as most US basements are around ½ mile wide, that produces a good screen to enjoy full HD. They in turn invite the neighbours round to see the awesome footage, which in turn sets of ‘Gottta beat the Jones’s’, scenario. Quid pro quo, we have a HD rush on our hands. Or was it simply my colleague’s love of warm brown beer pickling his brain!

If Grass Valley, Sony, Ikegami (the big 3) and panasonic (the also-ran) are to be believed, greater than 60% of all acquisition for broadcast is HD, and approximately 30% of measurable corporate is being acquired in HD. ENG is currently less than 15% HD, but that is anticipated to rise in the next 12 months due to XDCAM HD and Infinity from GV being in the pocket of News, and more importantly, many news stations have been holding budgets for affordable HD cameras. Bear in mind that as of this second, there are no fully shipping HD camcorders in the 1/2 or 2/3 range for sub 50k. In two weeks, there will be 7 (that I'm aware of) in the sub 40k including glass. At NAB, we'll see genuine numbers of who is doing what, but since the above mentioned companies are already tossing around numbers, it's pretty easy to have a grip on what the NAB report will be.

Any news on how many US theaters are adding digital projection to their equipment?

DSE,

Thanks for that, my sources here tell me the BBC are taking anything on Sony or Panasonic at the moment, but are in deep talks with Sony. On a more technical note can you seriously consider the XDCam HD? Compared to the XDCam SD it’s what we call a bodge, i.e. it’s a poor attempt to trying to get into the cheap HD market. I think the XDCam SD is a cracking camera, with all the knobs and buttons a cameraman needs. That can’t said for the HD version, topped with the 1/3’’ lens mount makes it a truly awful piece of kit.

On a complete tangent I’ve got both your Vegas workshop books, unfortunately my 15-month-old son scratched the DVD from the Vegas 6 book. All the files work O.K. apart from the Media files, any idea what I can do about it, bearing in mind I’m based in the UK!!?

Cheers

Phil

First of all, XDCam HD isn't a 1/3 lens mount. It's a 1/2 lens mount. And they have a 2/3 adapter with full resolution ability. It's 35Mbps VBR. It rocks.
I've had both of the camera, shot with the camera, compared the camera to others, and yes, of course it's an HD camcorder. How could anyone say otherwise?? To say such is merely an indication of complete and utter ignorance. Additionally, more of the XDCAM HDs have been already contracted into markets than any HD camcorder in history. Someone would suggest broadcasters in the US are that dumb? Grass Valley and Sony will dominate the market over the next couple years while Panasonic struggles with P2, and Ikegami brings on Infinity.

Don't know what to tell you regarding the media files. If they were just .veg files, they're easy to post, but the media is pretty large.

30% of measurable corporate is being acquired in HD. ENG is currently less than 15% HD

It would be interesting to see if the actual shipment figures lend credence to that. In other words, if you know the installed base of cameras in the corporate market, in order to get to 30%, then 30% of all those cameras would have to be replaced in order to get to a 30% figure (unless they are only using one HD camera where they used to use three SD cameras). I don't question that you have correctly reported the figure, but only am wondering if, in the few years that HD has been shipping, that all vendors collectively could have sold enough to replace 30% of a population of cameras that probably represents 5-10 years of sales at the mature market volume that SD cameras have been selling at for decades.

There is a lot of "puffery" and spin that goes into some of these numbers, and I always look at them with some skepticism. I can tell you that when I shoot in public with my FX1, it reminds me of 1981 when I first started shooting video with my old Videcon camera and over the shoulder tape deck: Everyone would stop and ask me all sorts of questions because they'd never seen the stuff up close. Same thing with HD now. I don't think that would happen if it was 30% of the market locally (or course, I live in a backwater, so things might be much slower here).

The question isn't "How many cameras are out there" but rather, how many "productions" are being done in HD. Given that many stations won't even accept SD any longer, and none of the big cable houses will accept SD after October, it actually seems that the numbers handed out by NAB are low, not high. Commercials are still film, but even those are quickly being supplanted by high end HD. There are a lot of SD camcorders sitting idle, and Ebay is surely full of SD for sale as well.

DSE,

Yep O.K. got the lens size wrong, but it's still a bodge for those with 2/3'' lenses having to muck around with adapters, it doesn’t make a comfortable working situation. To validate it further, and explain my ignorance, the XDCam HD is missing the most important feature of any camera, the separate ND filter wheel. As far as I’m concerned it doesn’t matter what format they choose it’s the functionality of the camera that counts. I for one never shoot above f2.8 if I can help it. Without that wheel I lose half my skills as a cameraman. I can hear you saying just dial it to filter 2 or 4, but trust me it’s not the same, that classic ‘Did I re white balance on filter 2 or was that just 4’, always haunts you at the most pressured of times. With HD producing such sharp pictures the need to reduce the depth of field is more important now than ever before, you need to keep the viewer focused on your subject, and not have yards of focus, unless you want it that is.

Re the DVD, unfortunately it’s the media files, I’ll have to see if I can get one in the library.

Cheers

Phil