Who is the ITU, and why should I care?

Sometimes when I am talking with clients during one of my seminars or over a meal, they ask me who the ITU is and why they should care. That’s why I decided to dedicate a few minutes to answering their questions. Here you will find out who the ITU is, when it was found, its original name, where it’s headquarters is, and why you should care.

Why should I care if my monitor shows ITU Rec.709?

At a recent seminar I gave in Miami about HD image grading together with Rubén Abruña, one of the the attendees asked a good question which deserves a short article. He asked “Why should I care if my critical evaluation HD monitor in my editing suite is calibrated for ITU Rec.709 if my client’s monitor won’t be?” In this short article, you’ll find out what ITU Rec.709 is, and get an adaptation of my answer (since the analogy I gave there would be relevant only to South Florida residents).

Canon HV40: a great inexpensive feeder deck for native Sony 3G HDV recordings

Users of Sony’s professional 3G HDV camcorders (including the HVR-S270, HVR-Z5, and HVR-Z7) and editors who receive footage from them may now consider purchasing a Canon HV40 camcorder to use as an inexpensive deck to feed footage to their NLE. The reason is that the Canon HV40 is quite inexpensive, is playback-compatible with the special native progressive modes available in the Sony 3G HDV camcorders, and even offers HDMI output. Although the Canon HV40 is not shaped like a desktop deck, it functions as such, and in many cases can save you over US$1200 over the lowest-cost compatible deck from Sony, which doesn’t even offer an HDMI output. Many of our readers read my recent articles which explained how first Sony USA and then Sony Latin America began to offer a liberation upgrade, which adds PAL, 25p and 50i to the cameras originally sold as 60Hz-only models. Well here are all of the modes, as they correspond with the Canon HV40 models.

Lumix GH1 camera: surprising responses from Panasonic

As I anxiously await the Lumix GH1 review unit, I want to keep all of you ProVideo Coalition readers up to date with the surprising responses I just received from Panasonic’s public relations department. A few weeks ago, I asked Panasonic several detailed questions which were not covered in any of the published material. I know many videographers who are quite curious about this US$1499 camera with humongous sensor and interchangeable Micro Four Thirds lens mount. The kit lens [14-140mm (35mm camera equivalent: 28-280mm)] is the one Panasonic recommends for video, since it is the silent one, with the very fast autofocus. Although Canon recently satisfied their 5D Mark II owners with a firmware upgrade to allow for manual ISO, aperture, and shutter speed, the 5D Mark II is still stuck at 29.97p (“30p”), with no flexibility to use the variety of extreme framerates that the Panasonic Lumix GH1 offers, i.e. 23.976p (“24p”) and 59.94p (“60p”)... or 25p and 50p in the European version. That’s why many people are still quite intrigued with the GH1, given its framerate flexibility and attractive price. So here come my questions and Panasonic’s surprising responses, which arrived today.

Matrox announces MXO2 Mini

At NAB 2009, Matrox announced its new MXO2 Mini, the second spinoff based upon the MXO2, and the third in the MXO2 family. The MXO2 Mini is the smallest and least expensive in the family, and the first one to be cross-platform. (The MXO2 and MXO2 Rack are Mac-only, at least for now.) If you are familiar with the MXO2, subtract XLR balanced audio and SD and HD-SDI, add multi-platform support, and you basically have an MXO2 Mini that starts at US$449 (₤338 in the UK, or €382 in other parts of Europe). If you would also like the new MAX option (which accelerates H.264 encoding when you are ready to deliver to AppleTV, Blu-ray, iPhone/iPod, WDTV, or the web), then the price is US$849 (₤644 in the UK, or €758 in other parts of Europe).

Blackmagic’s UltraScope; first 3 Gb/s SDI + optical fiber SDI scopes for editors and colorists

At NAB 2009, Blackmagic Design announced their UltraScope. In the manufacturer’s words: “The world’s first 3 Gb/s SDI and optical fiber SDI scopes designed for editors and colorists, with the technical accuracy broadcast engineers will love for only US$695!” Blackmagic continues, saying: “Simply plug into any compatible Windows computer with a 24-inch monitor, and Blackmagic UltraScope will display 6 live scope views simultaneously! UltraScope is engineering accurate and includes 3 Gb/s SDI plus 3 Gb/s optical fiber SDI. UltraScope auto detects SD, HD and 3 Gb/s SDI inputs.” For everyone’s sake, I hope Blackmagic Design creates a Mac version by the time the product ships in June… although at that price, if even Blackmagic doesn’t make a Mac version, some producers who generally prefer MacOS may well decide to dedicate a Windows computer just for this task.

AJA’s KiPro records ProRes422 directly, without a computer

At NAB 2009, AJA announced the KiPro, which allows direct recording of Apple’s revered ProRes422 or ProRes422(HQ) in the field, without any laptop, from any SD or HD camera or vision mixer (“switcher”). I consider the KiPro to be a natural extension of AJA’s IoHD, and my only surprise is why AJA waited so long to release such a product. The KiPro has just about any type of input and output that we could possibly imagine, is controllable wirelessly from a laptop or iPhone, and records to two types of removable media: either ExpressCard34 (the type that fits into your MacBookPro) or its own Storage Module.

The advantages of recording directly to ProRes422 or ProRes422(HQ) are fairly obvious, since these two códecs are 10-bit, full raster 720p (1280x720) or 10-bit, full raster 1080 (1920x1080), with true 4:2:2 color sampling, and are immediately editable in Apple’s Final Cut Pro (or even with iMovie 09 if the ProRes422 códec has been installed on the machine). The file sizes of ProRes422 and ProRes422(HQ) are certainly higher than those used in most onboard camera códecs, but for high-end EFP, many producers will gladly accept that. In addition to the HD specs mentioned, the KiPro can also accept SD signals, and either record them as ProRes422 or ProRes422(HQ) in SD, or upscale to HD. When dealing with analog standard definition video, KiPro can properly handle PAL, NTSC with 7.5 ire setup, or NTSC without 7.5 ire setup, depending upon the source and destination. KiPro can also handle realtime cross conversion in any direction between 720HD and 1080HD. This is very welcome!

Professional Audio Podcasting seminar, April 14th in Miami

Now is your chance to attend a seminar about professional audio podcast production. You will learn the fundamental differences between tradtional radio broadcasts, live Internet radio, and audio podcasts… and the advantages of the latter; how to design your audio podcast format; the standard elements (intros, outros, bumpers, etc.); hardware and software to produce your audio podcast; how to conduct high-quality telephone interviews; audio editing of your podcast; compression versus normalization; how to add chapters and graphics to your enhanced audio podcast; how to upload your podcast; and how to create an RSS feed which is compatible with iTunes and other podcast aggregators.

The date is April 14th, and the place is Miami, Florida. Although there is a charge of US$100 per person, attendees will receive a coupon good for a 40% discount off of the recommended audio podcast production software for Mac. Click here for more information, or to register.

Sony upgrades 3G HDV camcorders to universal, for a small fee

Readers of my recent articles in ProVideo Coalition, past articles in Latin American magazines, and those who have attended my seminars are aware of the many 25p production advantages over “24p” (23.976p) production, especially when the video is shot on HDV and the workflow is to take advantage of HDMI or HD-SDI capture. Up until now, producers in the USA (and other 60Hz American countries) who have chosen progressive Sony HDV cameras and appreciate the advantages of 25p had no choice but to go through “unofficial channels” to purchase the 25p/50Hz version of the camera. The ones I know are all very happy with the choice and with the workflow. However, they aren’t so happy that after spending so much extra for the camera and optional worldwide warranty, they still don’t have the flexibility of the 60Hz (59.94Hz) modes, in order to be able to shoot at “30p” (29.97p) or even “60i” (59.94i) for a slow-motion shot. Although most of them prefer 25p for their own productions, some of them are also often subcontracted to “shoot only” for other producers who aren’t so informed about 25p, and often request video to be shot at “30p” or “60i”. Fortunately, Sony USA has now recognized the need for a universal version of their 3G (3rd-generation) of HDV camcorders, which now encompass the HVR-S270, HVR-Z5 and HVR-Z7. See details about Sony’s upgrade program later in this article.

iMovie Pro?

Even though I have never gone to a Macworld Expo (and now probably never will, since Apple will no longer present there), I have always enjoyed watching Apple’s infamous keynote presentations via Internet. However, being so familiar with Final Cut Pro, I never thought I would be blown away by the presentation about iMovie 09, which you will see later in this article. I was quite surprised when I heard who was going to present it (Randy Ubillos), by the new features in iMovie 09, and even more so by Randy’s astonishing comment, which I will visit later in this article.

Universal HDV deck (almost)

Up until now, post-production facilities that accept HDV footage have confronted a major dilemma: If they bought a JVC BR-HD50 deck (US$3,399 list), the only HD recordings they could play were HDV 720p from JVC (none of the HDV 1080i tapes from Canon or Sony). On the other hand, if they bought one of the professional Sony HDV decks (currently between US$2,480 and US$8,290 list), they could play any HDV 1080i tape, but as soon as they tried to play an HDV 720p tape, the IEEE-1394’s video output would mysteriously go blank. Out of desperation, some facilities went to the extreme of buying two HDV decks: one JVC and one Sony. In other cases, people bought a Sony HDV deck only, and then settled for an analog capture from HDV 720p recordings, with its noticeable D>A>D conversion as shown in this breathtaking video (courtesy of Convergent Design and JVC Italy), and in some cases (as with the HVR-M15 and HVR-M15A when playing HDV 720p tapes), a forced, undesired cross-conversion from 720p to 1080i. This is a nightmare for a purist! But hold on…

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