Canon anounces 4:2:2 Mpeg II .MXF support!.. Woah!

cliff_622 wrote on 2/2/2010, 1:55 PM
With the war between Sony and Panasonic over MPEG2 vs. MPEG4 is raging on....but now it looks like Canon has chosen Sony's side.

As many know, for a little while now, the Sony boradcast geniuses out of New Jersey have released document after document on why MPEG II long GOP 4:2:2 is a more effeciant solution over AVC-Intra. (with Panasonic fireing back with; MPEG II is "old" technology, blah blah....I personaly side with Sony on this)

Canon has been on the sidelines durin this battle and looks like they just picked sides!

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/digital-video-industry-news/472115-canons-new-50mbps-mpeg-2-full-hd-4-2-2-codec.html

It appears their new camera should get Vegas support very quickly.

Codec-wize, there should be no serious compatability issues. Unless, maybe their .MXF wrapper might be different than Sony's in terms of metadata?. (anyone know yet?)

I imagine Canon has really validated Sony's argument with their choice today.

Wow. Cant wait for NAB 2010!

New Canon Pro Cameras and maybe a new Vegas Pro?

CT

Comments

Coursedesign wrote on 2/2/2010, 3:34 PM
Canon reveals their next Pro Video Camera

The article above also explains many common misconceptions about how Canon USA is organized (hint: the DSLR and prosumer camcorders are in the same company).

Btw, it's not "MPEG Eleven" or "MPEG Roman Numeral II" but simply "MPEG-2".
farss wrote on 2/2/2010, 3:51 PM
Now if Canon also went to recording on SxS things would get interesting. Panny and their byzantian P2 cards..............

Actually it'd also be amusing if it was Canon and not Sony that were the first to really use the faster datarate of SxS. It's been a bit of a mystery why Sony spec'ed such an expensive high speed media for the existing XDCAM EX cameras. The obvious conclusion was that at some point they'd release a 4:2:2 50Mbps EX camera. Perhaps Sony have held back so as not to annoy those who've already invested in their optical XDCAM systems.
I cannot see why Sony don't take a bit of a step back to the older times when you could buy the camera head and recording unit seperately.

Bob.
Coursedesign wrote on 2/2/2010, 4:08 PM
He-he, great idea!

I have one of those and love it, although I do not care for any of the tape formats offered for it (so I have to shoot tethered via SDI).

The nice thing about the XDCAM disks is that they solve the archive problem brilliantly.
With flash cards, you're back to "where do I put the hard drives?"
farss wrote on 2/2/2010, 5:24 PM
"With flash cards, you're back to "where do I put the hard drives?""

Sony have that covered for you, the XDCAM Optical disks of course :)
You see the synergy?

Bob.
DJPadre wrote on 2/3/2010, 7:31 AM
thas all well and good to support a decent codec (aside form long gop, at 50mbps im yet to encounter any probs with stuff shot on an f800... )

In any case, im wondering which camera will be utilising this codec... maybe the new A1... who knows.. but the new NX5 from Sony utilises AVCHD, not MPG2 422.. so i can only assume the the next EX4 or EX5 will use that codec to compete with canons newest offering...

DJPadre wrote on 2/3/2010, 7:33 AM
umm forgot to ask.. does nyone know the colour sample rate of a canon 5d or 7d?

i know the bitrate is close to 40mbps (36 for video on the 5dmk2) and 42mbps on the 7d, but im yet to find any actual tech spec on teh codec in use.... h.264 can be anythign really...
DJPadre wrote on 2/3/2010, 7:34 AM
oh and another thing.. they didnt mention frame rates...

if it shot 1920x1080@50fps we'd have it made, as our slowmotion needs at full res would be answered...

as it stands irrespecitve of the camera of choice, your limited to 720p

cliff_622 wrote on 2/4/2010, 7:55 PM
This is pretty interesting. I think Sony will need to revaluate 35 megabit XDCAM EX.

From the very limited info we have right now,...if that thing is 4:2:2 - 50 megabit than I'm guessing it's pointed straight at EX1 & EX3.

I guess the camera front end is the biggest question now. 1/3 sensor or 1/2?

If it's a 1/2 sensor and 4:2:2?,...EX is in big trouble.

This could force Sony to get 4:2:2 down into it's next 7,000 rig.

Or,...maybe, just maybe Sony could bust out with a EX1R firmware update that gets 4:2:2 into that baby! Haha,..I think I really dreaming now!

CT
Coursedesign wrote on 2/4/2010, 8:21 PM
The camera that will be shown tomorrow night is too small for 1/2" lenses with a reasonable max. aperture.

It is definitely time for Sony to switch to 4:2:2 at this price point, following Panasonic's HPX300 and now Canon's equivalent camera that both do real 4:2:2 with native 1920x1080p sensors.