I believe the reason the article about JVC GR-HD1 stated that current video editing software is unable to handle the HD recording format was built on a misconception. I think they meant that current software can’t capture the MPEG-2 stream from the camera over IEEE 1394 (branded FireWire by Apple). Once you got the MPEG-2 data transfered there is no problem to edit it with a modern resolution independent editing suite such as Fina Cut Pro.
The problem thus lies into getting the data to the computer from the camera device. But I don’t think there going to be any problem for anyone to put togehter a driver for it. IEEE 1394 is just a transport layer (not intended for DV at all in the first place) just like Ethernet and IP (as in TCP/IP). And MPEG-2 is a widely spread standard you can’t avoid it: all TV broadcast is delivered with it, DVDs is encoded in it….
It just amazed me that no one linked to the official press release in the reporting of the Las Vegas rollout of the camera. Anyway here is the JVC GR-HD1 press release.
Update: Some more related links: Lorin’s JVC Camcoreder Page and Is DV Dead?.
I have recovered a complete snapshot of the IndiPage site from early 1998 found in a zip file. Because the Wayback Machine at Internet Archive didn’t crawl the domain until 2000 there has not been any public copy preserved. I have emailed the archived and asked if I can submit my snapshot, it even have file timestamps preserved, to be included.
The invoice from Network Solutions tell me that I registered the domainname indipage.com in November 1996 and that it expired in November 1999. But I still belive the site went down in the spring of 1998 when I lost the webhosting.
JVC will soon introduce a new camcorder called GR-HD1 (camcorderinfo.com announcement and review, abcdv.com announcement) that is announced as the world’s first consumer HD camcorder to offer 750 line resolution progressive video, 1280 x 720 pixel resolution, at 30 frames per second, recording MPEG2 video to MiniDV tape.
One problem I got with the announcement and article above is that they say current video editing software is unable to handle the HD recording format. Final Cut Pro anyone?
Wonder if it’s possible to hack the camera and record directly to a disk array, like clusters of 4×160 GB IDE RAID, in a less mangled format than MPEG-2. I’m thinking 10-bit log… But that also rise the question what is the dynamic range possible to record with the camera ?
Starting Friday I’m throwing my own private hackerthon. I’m going to finish all the elementary features in the Irend library that provide Melies with low-level hardcore numbercrunching (I intended to put graphic into that sentence but that would have schewed the mental image more than necessary). I’m already knee deep in SIGGRAPH papers with stuff that I want to implement eventually.
Just wanted to share the following quote with my swedish audience:
…har för mig att nästan alla resurscentrum vänder sig till ungdomar. Vilket är helt meningslöst eftersom ungdomar inte kan göra film. Filmproduktion kräver stamina och järnkoll. Någonting man för med åldern. Nåstan all film av ungdomar är fjäskigt inställsam till föräldragenerationen och fyrtiotalisterna i synnerhet. ALLT handlar om sociala frågor, homosexualitet, könsroller och kulturkrockar. En hel generation “sell outs” fostras på dessa resurscentrum. Sådärja, nu måste jag gå och spy upp lunchen.
Posted on 0-Budgetfestivalen’s forum by a certain director. I almost fell of my chair laughing when I read it. Way to go Martin! No wonder Swedish Film Insitute closed down their forum.
Another quote, I just can’t help myself spreading the wisdom:
Martin “Sluta Fejka Nu” Munthe - som har tröttnat på att “underjordiska” filmare försöker dölja sin tekniska inkompetens med att det är fel “life style” att upprätthålla CCIR 601-standard.”
A long long time ago, before there was anything that resembled an internet connection, I’ve been working on a collection of documents about filmmaking. That pile of document, preciously printed out on my 9-pin matrix printer, eventually became a swedish site called IndiPage in the late summer of 1996.
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Looks like the archiving is finally working today.