Technology and Innovation

Although Vegas is under a different division, Sony Media Software, Sony opted to bundle the RM1 with Adobe’s Premiere Pro 2.0 editing software. There are currently some issues between Windows Vista and Premiere Pro, however—as soon as we launched the program, we got an error message about direct sound input not being supported, and that recording audio would not be possible. Once we clicked through that and started a new project, the program immediately froze. The solution, as it turns out, is to attach a mic to the machine, and to leave it attached. (Strangely, attaching a mic while the machine was running caused it to completely crash.) This workaround made Premiere Pro further issues with the software. captured HDV via a Sony HDR-FX7 with Sony DVGate Plus, a slightly confusing but very versatile capture tool. That yielded a smattering of M2T files (MPEG-2 trans, port stream), one file per press of the camcorder’s start/stop button.
We fed these files to Corel’s Ulead BD Disc Recorder, a simple program that generates simple discs, but just having the power to give someone HDI content on a disc should be a powerful-enough feature to stand on its own. The program claimed that it wasl performing some transcodes, but the process was so fast, we think it probably didn’t actually have to do much ol anything to the HDV clips we imported] (We later tried Roxio’s DVDit Pro HD, reviewed elsewhere in this issue.)
To play back our freshly-burned BD-RE of HDV footage, we launched Corel WinDVD BD for Vaio. Strangely,] it wouldn’t play our disc. We took the opportunity to install CyberLink’s| PowerDVD Ultra, which happily playei back the video (but didn’t output any audio). Just for giggles, we tried WinDVD BD again, and we got both audio and video! This means that we I encountered a strange little codec issti lurking there. We expect a patch to arl dress this should be out before long.

On the output side, we captured clips shot in HDV 720/30p and in DV 720/24p to see how they fared in an editing environment. Using Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 on a system exceeding minimum requirements for HDV editing, we had no problem making simple edits. We also tested the live conversion from HDV 720/60p to 480/60i via the composite output on a calibrated rear-projection television and found the quality of the signal to be very high. We could not find any evidence of compression or conversion artifacts.

Camera Control
One of the features that sets the HD200U apart from much of the competition is the use of a high-quality manual lens. A 1/3″ bayonet lens mount connects the standard Fujinon 16x lens that features manual focus and both manual and servo control over zoom and iris. Those of you that long for direct access to these fundamental controls won’t be disappointed; they all give you a very fluid feel with fine degrees of adjustment. If you don’t have time for all-manual control, with a single flip of a switch, you can engage the HD200U’s Full Auto mode, where even gain values are determined for you. Auto exposure was very fast and reliable in most situations.

Definition DV, selecting from 480/60i, 480/24p and 480/24pa formats, JVC Pro GY-HD200U.
In our tests, we shot a variety of subjects in all modes and were particularly impressed with the silky smooth image quality of the 720/60p format. JVC’s new Super Encoder has now made recording this progressive frame rate possible in an HDV format. This is a really huge advantage for producers shooting fast moving subjects, or just anyone simply wanting an incredibly fluid look for their camera movements.
The native 24p will remain a favorite for independent producers (among others) looking to recreate the temporal likeness of film. Like all 24p frame rates, however, some strobing is inherent. Recording in the DV mode, the 24p format records in a 2:3:2:3 pull-down sequence for easy editing in a standard NTSC environment, while the 24pa format records in a film-standard 2:3:3:2 pull-down for film editing output.