P2 integration trickles down to the consumer market by Nick Hyacinthe Published on Sep 2, 2005 8:00 AM

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Panasonic’s new camcorder, the SDR-S100, which records video directly to SD cards, works on the foundation of  Panasonic Broadcast Divisions P2 technology. Broadcast cameras with P2 technology are still in their infancy, but their impact has been immense.

P2 cards are, quite simply, small RAID drives (several hard drives merged together using level definition) that include 4 SD cards. SD cards are beginning to influence consumer use, as well. The Panasonic AG-HVX200, which is currently pioneering Panasonic’s P2 recording technology, with added HD recording at around $6000, can capture 16 minutes of DCPRO50 or 8 minutes of DVCPRO HD on a single card. Such small recording times are the biggest attack leveled against P2. To compensate, the broadcast professional camera houses five P2 card slots.

Panasonic HVX200 (Prosumer P2 Format)

In an interview with Panasonic, officals from the company explained that the consumer division learned a lot from the professional division on the development on the SDR-S100. Since Panasonic's broadcast division already had MPEG2 solid state camcorders in the field, the consumer division was able to learn from their expertise.


SDR-S100 (Panasonic's 3CCD SD Camcorder)

P2, however, is by no means a success yet. In the professional market, a television station adopting a new format means an investment of millions of dollars. Very few have selected P2 as their format of choice. Many argue that the high cost of the cards and the small recording time make P2 an unrealistic format. Panasonic's SDR-S100 will likely suffer the same complaints.

2GB SD card protruding from the card slot
at the bottom of the SDR-S100

The biggest obstacle for solid state recording is the price tag. The AG-HVX200 camcorder costs around $5000, and a P2 card is an additonal $1700. An 8GB P2 card, the highest capacity currently available, can reach a maximum recording time of 16 minutes of DVCPRO50 quality video. Panasonic’s SD-S100 has a retail price of $1200 and is shipped with a 2 GB SD card. The SD card records have a maximum recording time of 100 minutes LP MPEG2 quality video. A 2nd SD card as a back-up for long, continuous recording would cost around $140 dollars. At most, a DV tape will cost $10; certainly it is the more frugal option.

It is important to bear in mind that this technology is in its formative years. Panasonic has plans to increase the capacity of the solid state formats; a 32 GB SD card and 128GB P2 card are forecasted to be available in the next few years. Because both P2 and the SD cards in the SDR-S1000 have their roots in the same technology, as the price of one drops so will the price of the other.