Panasonic AVC-Intra codec for P2

Something to look forward to at the next NAB: getting twice the value out of your P2 cards. Snubbing MPEG-2 and its long-GOP encoding, the company plans to support recording using the H.264-compliant AVC-Intra codec, which cuts storage requirements in half compared to DVCPRO HD, starting next April. That means that, for example, the new AJ-HPC2000 camera, slated to ship early next year, will be able to record 80 minutes to a magazine of five 8 GB P2 cards with the AVC-Intra option, rather than just 40 with DVCPRO HD. The company didn’t make any specific claims as to how AVC-Intra will perform compared to DVCPRO HD — but given recent gains in compression technology, it should be a very attractive option.