Tapeless Recording: The Future of Video?

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.filmpraxis.de/forum/messages/252.html' target='_blank'>http://www.filmpraxis.de/forum/messages/252.html</a><br /><br /></div>When I was doing some research on tapeless recording systems, I came across this forum posting made in July of 2003. I thought it was interesting to see what vendors were up to almost a year ago:<br /><br />"Users of nonlinear editing (NLE) systems have long enjoyed the benefits of instant, random access to their footage. This streamlines the editing process and preserves the editor's time for creative decisions rather than shuttling through tapes for the desired shot as linear editing once required. One key component of the editing process that has remained indebted to the linear process is the tape-based medium used for recording. This causes the least efficient aspect of the NLE, the digitization process, whereby each camera tape must be transferred into the editing system in real time. <br /><br />At this year's NAB2003 in Las Vegas, several leading manufacturers debuted next-generation tapeless recording systems. These systems aim to address the one remaining issue with NLEs by eliminating or greatly reducing the footage ingest process. These systems, introduced by Sony, JVC, Panasonic, Hitachi, and Ikegami, all offer different approaches. The various methods include: hard-drive based systems, blue laser optical and standard DVD recorders, and solid state SD memory-based PCMCIA cameras."<br /><br />The forum post goes on to talk about Sony's Blue Laser Optical Disc system, capable of 23.3 GB of data per disc, Panasonic using SD cards in parallel for recording speeds up to 640 Mbps, and a hard-drive based recorder from JVC. Interesting to note that "by the time the unit ships next spring when SD memory is expected to hit at least 16 GB per card." Well, it's the spring of 2004, and we've only just hit 1 GB. It amazes me how badly Panasonic has botched SD growth estimates - or I wonder if they've hit that technically but the market just isn't ready for it? Remember if they released 16 GB SD cards, it would force huge price drops across all SD cards.

[Crocuta]

Oh yeah, this is definitely the future of DV.

The Blue Ray disk would provide about 1 1/2 hours of DV per disk and, as with any removeable media, has the advantage of being as infinite as your budget allows. But the author had a good point about the future. You know we're all headed to HDTV eventually, and BR just isn't big enough there.

Same with the SD solution. 18 minutes? Give me a break. And the cost! Maybe some day if sizes continue to rise and prices continue to fall.

The hard drive option is great in its speed and potential capacity, but I'd ideally like to see the HD in a removable format. Picture a CF-based hard drive that you could swap in and out like any other media, and then stick right into your 6-way card reader in your PC. Now that would rock!