Panasonic HDC-DX1 First Impressions Camcorder Review

by Guy Bruner
Published on Jan 17, 2007 7:00 AM

Intro Performance
Format
 Tour
Auto / Manual Controls Still Features
Handling and Use Audio / Playback / Connectivity
Other Features Comparisons / Conclusion


Compression
The HCD-DX1 compresses its video identically to the HDC-SD1 using the H.264 Advanced Video Codec at a maximum 13 Mbps variable bitrate. Two other, lower quality bitrates of 9 and 6 Mbps may be selected to extend the record time just like on the HDC-SD1. The interlaced frame is recorded in anamorphic widescreen with 1440 x 1080 pixels (1.333:1 pixel aspect ratio). Because the video is anamorphic, the playback software or hardware needs to stretch out the horizontal pixels or the image will appear to be squeezed vertically. Unsqueezing the frame is normally done automatically by the display software or hardware so the user never has to think about it. This frame size and scanning method are essentially the same as HDV, except HDV uses MPEG2 encoding instead of H.264. H.264 compresses the video more than HDV, and its image quality fails to match HDV in our testing. When we can get an HDC-DX1 into our laboratory for more comprehensive testing, we’ll post the results of our analysis.
 
Media
The HDC-SD1 uses 8cm DVD DVD-RAM, DVD-RW or DVD-R disks to record video for approximately 14 minutes in HF mode (13Mbps), 21 minutes in HN mode (9Mbps), and 31 minutes in HE mode (6Mbps). The considerably more expensive DVD-R DL (dual layer) disks are available to double those record times.
 
Editing
Panasonic had no information on the software that will be provided with the HDC-DX1. However, some type of software will be necessary to extract the video files from the DVD or play it back on a computer. Although I tried several methods, I was unable to get the MPEG Transport Stream files off the DVD and onto my computer so they could be played. Many folks will be disappointed to learn that they cannot play these AVCHD encoded DVDs in their standard DVD player. A Blu-ray player or an appropriately configured computer will be required for playback. Editing AVCHD will also require a robust computer system with dual core processors.



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