Misperceptions about the HDCAM SR DI abound. First of all, don't call
it an "RGB" DI. RGB refers to an uncompressed color space, as opposed
to videotape's compressed YUV color space. Yes, HDCAM SR 4:4:4 offers
RGB color space — but so does a 2K DI.
Second, to many, a tape-to-tape DI implies tape acquisition and
therefore a lower quality end result. Surprise! The HDCAM SR DI is
actually not aimed at features that have been acquired in videotape.
According to Hollywood DI senior project manager Neil Smith, the
majority of the movies that come to his facility for an HDCAM SR DI
were acquired in film — Super 16mm, 35mm and Super 35mm. "HDCAM SR is
primarily for film acquisition, to preserve its RGB color space,"
explains Philadelphia-based Shooters Post & Transfer, director of
post production Mark Farkas.
Last, it's not just independent films with small budgets that gravitate
to HDCAM SR. Some recent and upcoming blockbusters that are shooting
with the Panavision Genesis digital camera and recording to HDCAM SR
tape include Superman Returns, Apocalypto, and Flyboys. These projects
may or may not up-convert to data for the ultimate DI, but the fact
that they've acquired in HDCAM SR speaks volumes about what creatives
think about its image quality (and what and studio bean-counters think
about its price).
Why HDCAM SR DI? In a word, money. "An HDCAM SR DI is one-third the
price of a 2K DI," says PlasterCity Post DI supervisor Michael Cioni.
"It's the beauty of 2K with the ease of HD tape." At Hollywood DI,
Smith reveals that an HDCAM SR DI costs between $25,000 and $35,000, a
fraction of the cost of a 2K DI.
Farkas points out one of the reasons that the HDCAM SR DI is so much
more economical. "With 2K scanning, you can only do four frames a
second, as opposed to real-time," he says. "Also, 2K frame size is 8
megabytes, which is huge when you consider that you have 1,440 frames
per minute. You're using a lot of storage and bandwidth."
Proponents of the HDCAM SR DI dare the rest of us to tell the
difference in side-by-side comparisons of the output of a 2K DI and
HDCAM SR DI. "You're giving up a little bit of resolution — about 500
lines vertically," says Farkas. "But the net result, once you image
back to film, is imperceptible." Hollywood DI's Smith goes even
further, observing that a film-out of a 2K scan involves cropping. "In
the final film-out, there's only a six percent difference in resolution
between the two," he says. "What matters most is the 10-bit 4:4:4 RGB —
you have the exact same color space."
It's not hard to transform a 4:2:2 facility into one capable of 4:4:4
DIs, says Sony's Marketing Manager for Content Creation Rick Harding,
who's been handling HDCAM SR since its launch. Most routers can be
repurposed, he says, and "most machines have internal clock adjustments
to handle reasonable disparities in line timing. It's entirely possible
to bring in an HDCAM SR deck, and plug it into the infrastructure."
HDCAM SR decks equipped for DI aren't cheap at $113,900 but, notes Harding, that's on
par with other HD 4:2:2 decks. He notes that in addition to Shooters,
PlasterCity Post and Hollywood DI, both LaserPacific Media and Global
Entertainment Partners have begun offering the HDCAM SR DI as a
lower-cost option. At NAB 2006, reveals Harding, Sony will be
introducing an SR Motion option, which will offer the ability to record
variable frame rates with the field unit.
Bottom line: HDCAM SR DIs are a trend to watch. "We can do virtually
anything you can do on a Lustre or da Vinci," says Smith. "The desktop
revolution will change the price-performance of post production and
that includes the DI."
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