Sony 1080i HD Camcorders

[stuboat]

Thanks for your quick response. It was formatted for AVCHD FORMAT/HD IN VIDEO MODE. The disc plays fine in the camcorder and when hooked up to the HD TV. Both Sony and Samsung said I should play it in other players at Best Buy or Circuit City and see what happens. If it plays on other players we know it wasn't the camcorder or the disc. I am going to try that this afternoon and see what happens. I saw a personal review elsewhere that said there is a compatibility problem. I'll let you know what the results are. My guess is that it will play just fine in a Sony but not in a Samsung. I hate to buy another player just for this since the Samsung, after the firmware updates, plays even the latest movies just fine.

[stuboat]

Well, I did what I said and went to Circuit City. The disc played fine in the Sony, as well as the Samsung 1400. It is definitely a problem with the player. I will be calling them tomorrow.

[bdLuvr]

Originally Posted by stuboat

I just bought a sony ux7 and recorded and finalized my first hi-def blu-ray disc. It plays fine when the camcorder is hooked up to hi-def tv but will not play in samsung Bd-P1000 blu-ray player. I have latest firmware upgrade (v.1.3). It recognizes the disc but not the recording. Any suggestions?

whaaa at least you get to record and play
we use an xdcam at work thru an avid system.
crikey the process with HD has tripled in the workflow and even more in hard-drive space :P

back in the day, Id be wishing for a workstation that can do 5minutes of ram preview (ntsc) in aftereffects.
crap with HD youd be lucky to get seconds, even with systems holding (cause their really 32bit:P) 16GB of ram.

one thing I did notice about the low-end point and shoot, deals with room lights a little better than the mini-dvs.
you find that with yours?

[BluStar88]

Originally Posted by Freis968

So, the consumer camcorders out on the market today say recording in 1080i. Why doesn't Sony offer a model to record in 1080p? Wouldn't that make sense in this day and age of 1080p BD and TVs?

I have a 1080p Sony Camcorder. I will check the part number and re-post tommorrow.

[timer00]

Originally Posted by BluStar88

I have a 1080p Sony Camcorder. I will check the part number and re-post tommorrow.

I'd like to see this too.. Sony's site doesn't list anything of the kind. They barely just came out with 1080i HD Camcorders?? I could be wrong on the commercial end but I doubt the consumer hand held end.

I did find some $3500+ way up there pro cameras that can do 1080p but I assume we are all referring to consumer hand held cams $1500 or less.

Reference link.
http://www.sonyhdvinfo.com/showthread.php?t=5495

[hazydave]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

1080p takes a much faster scanrate on the CCD, faster more expensive parts all around by quite a bit.
With 1080i, it only has to scan 540 lines at once. 1080p would be all 1080

No, it's not actually any faster, you just need a progressive mode. A plain old everyday 1080i camcorder scans 540 lines twice in 1/30th of a second... two 1/60th-second fields making the one 1/30th second frame (NTSC, and obviously, I'm rounding up from 29.97fps).

In 1080/30p, I'm scanning at exactly the same rate, just scanning both fields together, rather than interleaving them. In 1080/24p, I'm actually scanning slower. Neither of these is a big deal, chip-wise, particularly if you're using a CMOS sensor, which is inherently a parallel device (rather than CCDs, which are serial in nature). This is why folks like Canon are including real 30p and 24p modes in most of their new HD camcorders.

There's still an issue if you're recording to tape (or perhaps using a chip designed for tape, even on an HDD or Flash based system)... there's the tendency to ensure that HDV stays HDV just as they did with DV staying DV. So a 24p shoot is pulled down to 30p, then sent over as interlaced... a 30p shoot is also stored as if it were interlaced. And both of these would be limited to 1440x1080 on tape. But that IS real 24p, not the fakey stuff as on my Sony AVR-H1. And it's really no big deal to add, hardware-wise.

HDD, Flash, and of course Blu-Ray systems are going to be more interesting than tape in this, because they can go beyond 25Mb/s, and have no need to format into as-if interlace, they can store as straight progressive (and, naturally, give your NLE software one more thing to not quite understand, but this, too, shall pass). Now, who's actually will support 1920x1080... well, that's was the CE companies are calling "Full HD", and lots of folks are talking about it. So I'll bet it's getting in there, for under a grand these days.

I'm so thinking of getting a flash-based camcorder this year, to augment my two HDV units.

[highdefw]

1080i is more than perfect for now....Why on earth with a basic consumer need to brake their back (and wallet) in finding a good 1080p camera. We're doing home movies here. I know some people want that full quality, but if it means that much to you, than just wait. These cameras get cheap VERY fast.

When I bought my hdr-sr1, it was $1500. It recorded 1080i and 5.1 audio to a 30 gb hdd. 1 year laster, Sony releases the hdr-sr12 (something like that) and its $300 cheaper, and comes with more features, along with a 120 gb hdd.

That's the sad truth about technology, the newest thing becomes obsolete the next day.

[syncguy]

It appears that high end 1080i prosumer cameras such as Sony FX7 and FX1 hold their value for a longer time. They are in $2K to 3K price range.