Panasonic DVCPRO HD VTR Available
July 31, 2003
Secaucus, NJ - Panasonic's AJ-HD1700 DVCPRO HD VTR is now available, providing extended recording times, superior slow motion and low tape costs for HD program production, distribution and archiving.
The AJ-HD1700 VTR can record for up to 126 minutes in either 1080/60i, 1080/50i or 720/60p high definition formats on a single AJ-HP126EX cassette. The low tape cost of operation is achieved by the use of nine-micron track width recording, which delivers twice the recording density of existing DVCPRO HD recorders plus outstanding editing reliability thanks to editing-point guard tracks, a double-head playback system, new metal-in-gap (MIG) heads and powerful error-correction circuitry.
Another of the AJ-HD1700's breakthrough features is its ability to convert 24fps footage acquired by Panasonic's AJ-HDC27 VariCam HD Cinema camera to 1080/24p, the manufacturer describes, allowing the VTR to act as a source deck in a 1080/24p-based linear or non-linear editing bay. Source VTR operation in 1080/25p is also supported for PAL television applications.
The AJ-HD1700 offers full playback compatibility with all existing ¼" DV based compression formats including DV, DVCAM, DVCPRO, DVCPRO50, DVCPROP as well as DVCPRO HD. The VTR is also equipped with a built-in format up/downconverter for downconverting 1080i or 720p HD video to 480i or 480p, and upconverting pre-recorded DV, DVCAM, DVCPRO, DVCPRO50, DVCPROP tapes to 1080i or 720p HD.
With the optional AJ-UC1700G board, the upconversion capability is extended to standard definition (SD) line inputs. The board allows the AJ-HD1700 to upconvert SD material to HD and to record to HD instantaneously, providing a broadcaster with a drop-in replacement for an existing SD VTR as well as a practical multi-format HDTV recorder.
The 4U-size VTR also offers eight channels of high-quality, discrete digital audio (with 16-bit quantization and 48-kHz sampling) to fulfill requirements for 5.1 surround sound and SAP or multi-language programming. Tape costs on the AJ-HD1700 are comparable to an existing DVCPRO50 format VTR, and existing stocks of DVCPRO50 or DVCPRO HD tape may be used in the AJ-HD1700, allowing easy integration into broadcast facilities.
The AJ-HD1700 offers continuous variable HD slow motion playback of -1.0 to +2.0 normal speed (-1.0 to + 1.1 for DVCPRO50 and DVCPRO play). It offers extensive front panel editing controls, and a numeric key pad and high-resolution built-in 3" LCD monitor which can eliminate the requirement for external monitoring. Maximum shuttle search speed is a 100X normal speed with color images viewable on the LCD monitor.
Options include the AJ-YAC150P Serial Data Transport Interface (SDTI) Board for lossless transfer of native DVCPRO HD video and audio signals with other SDTI-equipped systems (such as the AJ-HDR150 server), and AJ-VNC150P VANC board for recording ancillary data such as metadata and closed caption data.
The AJ-HD1700 is currently shipping at a suggested list price of $59,950.
For more information, visit
www.panasonic.com/broadcast
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