It seems the industry has been waiting for a widely used – lower cost – better HD tape format. Will SR serve that role? Will SR solve the HD generation problem?
Fxguide spoke to Maurice Patel, Discreet’s systems product marketing manager, following last week’s annoucement that Discreet will be supporting Sony’s new SR HD format.
Sony’s SR format uses a new tape stock and MPEG-4 studio profile compression for near lossless video Hd recording (1920×1080) with 12 channels of audio, and the studio deck will playback Digital Beta and HDCAM tapes. With an optional board it can record 4:4:4 RGB HD.
FXG: Is Sony SR the format that we have been looking for, do you think it will take over from HDCAM, – most importantly : will SR solve the HD generation problem?
MP: HDCAM was pretty widely used – Sony claims that there are about 9000 decks out there – so yes we could expect HDCAM SR to also become widely used – though it will probably take some time for this to happen. We do believe that this sets a trend for lower-cost, higher quality, uncompressed HD tape formats, although HDCAM SR is still “mildly” compressed according to SONY terminology. The compression it uses is about 2.7:1 MPEG 4 for 4:2:2 and 4:1 for RGB. You can expect some generational loss but it will be much less than current HDCAM technology. All in all we (Discreet) feel that this is a great step forward and as the competition starts heating up will drive further improvements in videotape technologies – until eventually we end up with full uncompressed 4:4:4. Today, however, the only way to store HD material without compression is still as data.
FXG: As SR is virtually uncompressed it will be a great HD archive format, will Discreet look at doing mixed res archiving to SR?
MP: SR is not uncompressed but it will provide a great HD archive format. As SR is not a data device – it is not a slam-dunk for mixed resolution archiving either – the best method for that still being data.
FXG: Which Discreet systems will now support 10 bit 4:4:4 on i/o ?
MP: Discreet software versions that will feature support for 10-bit/component (RGB) media are fire 6, smoke 6, inferno 5.5, flame 8,5 and backdraft 5.5. SGI systems that support 10-bit/component (RGB) I/O areTezro, Onyx 2, Onyx 3200 and Onyx 350.
FXG: How many Discreet clients use HD regularly?
MP: We are not sure of the exact number as we have not talked to them all. We have not done a complete survey of our existing client base to determine this but we do know that more an more are doing HD and our HD system purchases have seen a huge rise in popularity. 2/3 of all Discreet systems sold now are HD. However, many clients that are reporting significant increases in HD production in 2003 are seeing a significant acceleration in production demand in the US.
FXG: How long will the record times be on SR – tapes, does the SR format mean reduced record time or does the new tape format/technology solve that?
MP: HDCAM SR videotapes offer the same recording times as the previous HDCAM format, offering up to 155min@25P and 124min@60i on the large cassettes.
FXG: Is there a difference between the SR field unit and the SR studio deck – in terms of quality, record formats, bit depth or are they identical?
MP: Yes there is a difference: the SR field unit is a bit smaller and it supports only HDCAM SR tapes. It only supports the smaller tape size (less than 120 minutes at 60i). The deck has faster record mode allowing it to reduce the compression rate to 2:1 instead of 4:1, however in this mode only the SR field unit can read the tape.
The SR studio deck is meant to support more than one tape format. It can play back DIGIBETA and HDCAM tape. It can play and record HDCAM SR tape but only at normal speed (4:1 compression).
FXG: When are the SR decks shipping?
MP: The SRW5000 is currently shipping in Japan. Sales and distribution are starting to get installed in the US. However the 4:4:4 board is currently scheduled to ship in March 2004 timeframe.
FXG: With the 4:4:4 10 bit workflow will Discreet look at supporting Sony’s digital stills camera RAW format next 😉
MP: I believe it’s on our list after scripting support for the Sony Aibo 🙂
