A Tapeless Video Future... The HVX200

I have seen the future of tapless, low-cost High Definition future and its name is the Panasonic HVX200. Panasonic first revolutionized high quality, low cost digital video in the miniDV format with their DVX100 a few years ago, which allowed prosumers (professional consumers, i.e., wedding videographers, etc.) to get film look on inexpensive tape.

Panasonic has now done the same with high definition.

The HVX200 is unique in that, when recording high definition, it employs what are called P2 cards, which are solid state metal cards about the size of a credit card with storage sizes ranging from 2 gigbytes to 8 gigabytes. These cards don't have actual hard drives, but use RAM-like storage to keep the video files stored until erased. When using these cards, there are no moving parts... no sound from the camera as the tape mechanism turns the tape while it is recording. It's virtually silent.

A screen capture from a test of the HVX200

The camera also allows you to record in standard defintion the old fashioned way, on miniDV tape. Another option is that you could shoot on high definition and "down convert" your pristine high def video into the standard definition format, which ends up looking superior than the normal standard definition video quality.

In order to record in high defintion, you need about a gigabyte per minute of storage, so, with the 8 GB P2 card, you can record 8 minutes of high definition video. This is in line with shooting on film because film cannisters on movie cameras have about 8 - 10 minutes of film in them. Eight minutes of high defintion video doesn't seem like a lot, but its only a start. The storage capabilities of the P2 technology will continue to grow... the more space, the more footage you'll be able to store on each card.

The camera comes with two P2 slots, so you can swap out cards as they fill up while you're recording. If you have more than two cards, you could just plop in another one and keep recording. If you don't have more than two cards, when one fills up you could unload the video content on the P2 card to a hard drive on location and then reuse the P2 card. Another cool feature is that you can pre-record record for up to 8 minutes in high definition. What does this mean?

Well, lets say that you are recording your son's little league baseball game and he's up to bat. You don't want to record the entire at bat sequence, you just want to record when he hits the ball. You can set the camera to constantly record/overwrite 10 seconds of video into the P2 card until you hit the record button... meaning, that when you hit the "record" button on the camera, it will save what was coming through the lens 10 seconds before you hit that button. So, you aim the camera and have it setup to continually save into storage 10 seconds of video. Your son swings and hits the ball, you hit the record button, the camera will save 10 seconds before you hit the record button, meaning you have the pitch and the hit recorded.

That's just one of the little advantages that a tapeless video acquisition world will allow. As it becomes more standard, a variety of options will be available when recording video that would never have been a possibility in a linear, tape recording world.

I've been looking for a change in the video technology to allow a low cost alternative to High Definition, filmic filmmaking and the HVX200 may be it. It's certainly a step in the right direction and, potentially, a very important step in allowing me to provide high definition projects at a relatively low cost.

Now, you'll excuse me, as I have to change my shirt... I've been drooling on it since seeing the HVX200 footage.