ENG Formats

danny bartle · May 3, 2004

Can anyone tell me the most common video formats used for ENG currently?

Any info on compression rates, etc etc would be great.

Is there a website which explains this? Just need to know the basics for now.

Phil Rhodes · May 3, 2004

Hi,

Beta SP, DVCAM, Beta SX. Formats such as Panasonic's solid-state P2 system are upcoming, but that's just DVCPRO on PCMCIA cards. Info on any or all of them can be found with google. Theoretically I'd call HDCAM a hi-def ENG format, but that's my opinion.

Phil

Marty Hamrick · May 3, 2004

I had heard once upon a time that Ikegami was going to offer a removable hard drive camcorder for ENG but they were having a stability problem.I heard one news director describe it as "trying to operate a laptop out in the field over rough terrain."

Marty

Michael Nash · May 3, 2004

It depends on the show, network, and so on. Here in the US, Betacam SP (analogue, uncompressed) is probably still the most widely used format. Digibeta (4:2:2) is used a bit, but probably even more as a post format. A couple of the network news affilates here in LA are using DVCPRO50, which has the same compression as digibeta. I've heard smaller news markets are using Beta SX (compression?) and DVCPRO (25MB/4:1:1). DVCAM (25MB/4:1:1) gets used every now and again, but isn't as common next to Betacam SP.

danny bartle · May 4, 2004

Thanks for all the replies everyone...

What do the numbers after the format mean? ie: (25MB/4:1:1)

I assume the 25MB means the amount of data recorded per second but what do the ratios mean?

Eric Steelberg ASC · May 4, 2004

It has to do with the amount of sampling there is for the chroma and luminance. Higher numbers mean higher sampling 'resolution' which means higher image quality. That's as simple as I can say it.

Alvin Pingol · May 4, 2004

http://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/411samp.htm

Nice little explanation... :)

danny bartle · May 4, 2004

thanks for the link.

Is there anymore info on Betacam SX?

Michael Nash · May 6, 2004

Try the Sony website, if you're up for finding a needle in a haystack! :D

Matt Edwards-Davies · May 9, 2004

I shoot for a small station here in Canada and we're in the middle of a switch from BetaSP to Sony's MPEG IMX. I believe it's comparable to DVCPro50, but it's cheaper than Digibeta.

I know that at least one large Canadian Network (CBC) is switching fully from Beta SX to IMX.

It uses a form of MPEG compression, but I-frame only, and at a data rate of about 50MB, which is twice that of DV.

One of the huge pluses (for ENG environments, anyways) is the decks are backwards compatible with, and can play all incarnations of the Pro Beta formats. It's a very nice looking format.

There is also Sony's new XDCAM format, which basically records either DV or IMX on a blue-laser disc. The more expensive cameras are switchable, and the cheaper ones are DV only.

danny bartle · May 9, 2004

Thanks for all the replies

Marty Hamrick · May 13, 2004

thanks for the link.
Is there anymore info on Betacam SX?

What do you want to know?I shoot for a station in Jacksonville,Florida (market size 52).We've been SX for about 6 years,or really 60 % SX and 40% SP.We edit tape to tape on SX in our ENG trucks in the field and edit on a Leitch NLE system at the station.

Marty

stijnbarbe · May 14, 2004

you edit cut/cut on SX?????? Here in Belgium all the national stations do ENG on SX but in their SNG-vans they all edit to SP. I spoke to a SNG operator and he told me editing tape to tape with SX only got him headaches. Disk- or RAM-based recording-media will be commonly used in a few years and we can only hope that puts an end to Sony's urge to create a new tape-format every few years to boost camera-sales.

John Pytlak RIP · May 14, 2004

...create a new tape-format every few years to boost camera-sales.

New formats also require new post production equipment. How many tape formats have there been since Ampex introduced video recording in 1956? How many old tapes can still be played, if you can find the equipment to play them on? :rolleyes:

Marty Hamrick · May 14, 2004

you edit cut/cut on SX??????

In the microwave trucks as well as the SNG truck we cut on SX masters, yes.In house we master/archive on SP.

I have not experienced any problems cutting on SX out in the field except for the fact that the small,desktop size editors we carry in the ENG vans are not really desigend for the rigors of news field editing and are always in the shop at some point.

From time to time an SP tape will hang up in the player side and not read the time code or control track.This can be overcome by dubbing that portion onto an SX tape and using that.

The headaches I get is that the editors in each of our five ENG trucks have their own idosyncracies.The most troublesome to me is that one of them has a lag of silence in the audio after preroll.The first time I ever cut anything on it I thought something was wrong with the record deck not laying audio.The frame accuracy is off by at least 4 frames on another one, and still another deck stops alltogether after preroll and shows an "error 3 reel trouble" problem at least 40% of the time.I'm sure I'm not the only photog who's been tempted to toss the thing in the St.John's River.

Marty

Tim Delarm · May 28, 2004

I've been shooting news in LA over 12 years...Sp is the main format with DVC Pro and digibeta pulling second.

Check out

b-roll.net

for more information on this topic.

Tim Delarm

stijnbarbe · May 28, 2004

How about sony's new XDCAM, the first disc system?

From what I gather it's an optical disk system that records in MPEGiMX or DVCAM.

What is this? Blu-ray? Sony doesn't seem to make a lot of noise on this new system, but then again I've only been shooting film lately.

Mitch Gross · May 28, 2004

CNN is planning to switch over to this format during the next year, at least within its Atlanta Center. Field shooters will likely shoot whatever they shoot as always.