Overview 1 Chapter

application. Recording in the DVCAM format is also supported. The audio is recorded as four channels or two channels 2), uncompressed.

1)The recording mode can be selected from the three modes: HQ (High Quality), SP (Standard Play) and LP (Long Play).

2)DVCAM recording is available for four channels only.

Proxy AV data recording

Proxy AV data is low resolution data using MPEG-4 (video 1.5 Mbps, audio 64 kbps per channel). With this unit, when recording HD or SD high resolution data, low resolution Proxy AV data is automatically generated at the same time, and recorded.

Since Proxy AV data is compact, it can be transferred to a computer or network at high speed, enormously reducing the storage capacity required for recording. Exploiting this allows a laptop computer to be used for editing 1), allows content management on an inexpensive and compact server, and makes many other applications easy to implement.

1)Using the supplied PDZ-1 Proxy Browsing Software, a simple EDL (edit decision list) can be created.

Saving general-purpose files

The Professional Disc has an area of approximately 500 MB provided for storing general-purpose computer files.

Long recording times

When dual-layer Professional Discs are used, this unit can record about 190 minutes in SP mode and about 185 minutes in DVCAM mode.

Recording and playback in clip units

A clip is created each time recording is started and stopped.

•Recording always writes to an empty area of the disc. Therefore, even if playback is carried out between shooting sessions, there is no danger of the next shot inadvertently overwriting previous material. During playback, the next recorded can always be started immediately.

•Since unwanted clips can be deleted on this unit immediately after they are recorded, the disc capacity can be used effectively.

It is also possible to keep recording to the same clip even when recording stops and starts again. (In this manual, this feature is called the “Clip Continuous Rec” function.)

The Clip Continuous Rec function can be turned on and off from the menu system.

For details, see “Recording with the Clip Continuous Rec Function” (page 74).

Convenient playback and search functions exploiting the disc characteristics

Thumbnail search

Pressing the THUMBNAIL button on this unit displays a representative image for each clip as a thumbnail on the LCD (liquid crystal display) monitor, in the viewfinder, and on the external video monitor.

Selecting a thumbnail with the cursor and pressing the PLAY/PAUSE button allows any clip to be checked easily.

Essence mark search

During or after movie recording, an essence mark can be recorded on any scene. A list of frames with an essence mark recorded can be displayed on the LCD monitor, in the viewfinder, and on the external video monitor. Essence marks can also be added after recording using the supplied PDZ-1 Proxy Browsing Software.

Expand function

The expand function allows you to divide a selected clip into 12 blocks, and to display thumbnails of the first frame in each block in the thumbnail list. You can also divide the segment between a selected essence mark and the next essence mark in the same way. The expansion can be repeated up to three times to display a total of 1728 thumbnails. This function allows you to quickly review the selected clip or segment and to search efficiently for a target scene.

Scene selection

You can select clips on the disc to create a clip list. The clips in this list can be played back in any order. A single disc can hold up to 99 clip lists.

Audio recording functions

Audio is recorded as uncompressed data with 16-bit quantization, and a sampling frequency of 48 kHz. Depending on shooting requirements and recording time, either two or four audio channels can be selected. (Only four channels for DVCAM recording.)

•The unit is equipped with a stereo front microphone.

•There are two AUDIO IN connectors (XLR, 3-pin) on the rear of the unit, which can be used for line and microphone input.

•The CA-WR855 Camera Adaptor (supplied separately) can be used to install the WRR-855 series slot-in type UHF synthesized tuner (supplied separately) without using any connecting cable.

•The audio signals to be recorded on the disc can be freely selected from the audio inputs to the stereo microphone, AUDIO IN connectors and the UHF synthesized tuner, and assigned to any desired audio channel.

10 Features