Panasonic Intros DVCPRO P2 Series
April 12, 2004
Mississauga, ON - Panasonic will introduce its full line of DVCPRO P2 series solid-state memory products at NAB 2004. The line of products will be available this spring.
Included are the AJ-SPX800 ⅔” CCD camcorder, the multi-slot AJ-PCD10 Card Drive, the AJ-SPD850 Studio Recorder, and two types of P2 cards, the AJ-P2C004 4GB and AJ-P2C002 2GB card, which allow images to be captured onto P2 series solid-state memory products and transferred directly to editing software, eliminating the need for tape. Data is immediately accessible on the P2 card in file format. The card is recognized instantly when inserted into a PC’s PCMCIA slot.
AJ-SPX800 P2 Camcorder
The P2 series AJ-SPX800 camcorder combines a high performance ⅔” 3-CCD camera with 24fps/30fps progressive and 60 fields interlace DVCPRO and DVCPRO50 format with P2 card recording. By eliminating all moving parts from the camera recording path, Panasonic has ensured that the AJ-SPX800 is extremely reliable and resistant to environmental hazards, such as the shock, vibration, cold, dust, moisture and humidity that threaten camcorders based on mechanical recording transports, the manufacturer describes. The AJ-SPX800 images are stored on P2 cards using MXF file format to ensure IT compatibility for file transfer.
The AJ-SDX800 features: three ⅔” 520,000-pixel, 16 x 9 format, IT CCDs; a sensitivity of F13 at 2000 lux; and minimum illumination of 0.09 lux (at +48dB), or 0.01 lux (at +48dB plus with +20dB Digital Super Gain). It is also equipped with an advanced 12-axis matrix color correction system, and gamma curves. The camera’s audio features support two or four 48kHz/16-bit PCM audio channels. The AJ-SPX800 features five PC card-sized P2 card slots for recording. A sixth PC card slot is provided to accept a range of IT communications options, such as wireless LAN card or MPEG-4 Proxy Video Encoder.
The camera features USB 2.0, and optional IEEE-1394 interface for connection to laptop computers running a range of popular NLE applications, thereby providing a self-contained field editing solution. The IEEE-1394 data interface also provides a path for extended duration recording to backup videotape or hard disk recorders to complement P2 card recording. The AJ-SPX800 features three recording modes, continuous, pre-record or loop-record. The camcorder also has a large 3.5” high-resolution color LCD display built into the AJ-SPX800, which makes operation significantly easier when shooting from low- or high-angles.
AJ-SPD850 P2 Studio Recorder
The AJ-SPD850 recorder provides a high-performance bridge between the IT world of non-real time file transfers and the traditional world of real-time baseband video and audio recording and editing.
The AJ-SPD850 features five P2 card slots for recording. For direct connection to a nonlinear editor or video server, the AJ-SPD850 features USB 2.0 and Ethernet ports and offers IEEE-1394 and SDI with embedded audio as system options. The deck offers simple editing operation from its VTR-like panel complete with Jog/Shuttle dial, as well as Video Encoder adjustment control, a front-panel Graphic User Interface (GUI) and Play-list making and playback capabilities.
When operating with P2 cards, the AJ-SPD850 offers super-fast shuttle search speeds up to 100 times normal in forward, reverse, fast forward and rewind, with full color images. Variable slow motion playback is available from – 1.0 to +1.0 normal speed. A built-in 3.5” color LCD simplifies browsing and selection of clips, and reduces the requirement for an external field monitor.
Each 4.7 GB recordable DVD provides DVCPRO or DVCPRO50 native video archiving for about $3** per DVD-R disk. The P2 deck also supports a SD Memory card slot for reading and writing EDLs.
AJ-PCD10 P2 Drive
The AJ-PCD10 is a five-slot P2 drive designed for rapid ingest of DVCPRO or DVCPRO50 resolution video into non-linear editing or server systems. The P2 drive is designed for high-speed file transfer into servers or an NLE, and also enables direct access to the contents in the P2 cards. The AJ-PCD10 fits in a standard PC type 5.25” bay drive enclosure, and offers a high-speed USB 2.0 interface to connect to the host.
P2 Cards
The P2 professional solid-state memory card uses the PCMIA form factor and incorporates four SD Memory cards with a controller IC. With a 4GB P2 card, respective record capacity is 16 and 8 minutes with DVCPRO and DVCPRO50 (video, audio, and metadata). P2 cards can be re-used almost indefinitely.
A card can be re-written a minimum of 100,000 times without performance degradation and its reliable connector will last for a minimum of 30,000 insertion and removal cycles. An intrinsic advantage of P2 card recording is instant connection with the IT universe. For example, when a P2 card is inserted into the PC card slot of a laptop computer it may instantly be recognized as a mounted virtual disk drive. This permits instant editing since there is no longer any need to digitize media prior to editing. The user is provided up to 80 minutes record capacity at DVCPRO resolution with five 4G P2 cards. At DVCPRO50 studio quality, the P2 series products provide up to 40 minutes record capacity on five 4G P2 cards.*
A unique advantage of the DVCPRO P2 series is that recording time increases as the capacity of available P2 cards increases. Higher-capacity P2 cards will be available as the core SD Memory card size increases. P2 cards will initially be available in 2GB and 4GB capacities, with 8GB, 16GBytes and 32Gbytes capacities to follow.
Panasonic announced product pricing and availability as follows: the AJ-SPX800 ⅔” camera will be available in May at a suggested list price of CDN $26,000**; the AJ-SPD850 studio recorder will be available in June at a suggested list price of CDN $20,000; the AJ-PCD10 drive will be available in May at a suggested list price of CDN $3,400; and the AJ-P2C004 4GB and AJ-P2C002 2GB cards* will be available in May at suggested list price of CDN $2,800 and CDN $1,350 respectively.
Panasonic Canada Inc. (PCI) is a division of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (MEI) of Japan, one of the world’s largest producers of electronics and electric products for consumer, business and industrial use.
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* Capacity on the P2 card indicates raw data capacity. Formatted data capacity will be less.
** Canadian prices quotes; $1.00 CDN = $0.75 USD approx.
For more information, visit
www.panasonic.ca
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