Sony HDR-CX7 First Impressions Camcorder Reviewby John NeelyPublished on May 21, 2007 3:30 PM
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Compression
The Sony HDR-CX7 (Specs, Recent News, $1199) records high definition video using AVCHD compression, a recently-developed flavor of the MPEG-4 H.264 codec. AVCHD supports both the 720p and 1080i HD standards, but all AVCHD camcorders released to date record 1080i video. Sony and Panasonic jointly developed AVCHD to bring HD video to a broader range of formats popular with consumers, including HDD, DVD, and flash memory cards. The codec was announced in early 2006, and Sony introduced the first HDD- and DVD-based AVCHD camcorders at a press event last summer. Panasonic entered the fray with the HDC-SD1 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $1119.99), the first SDHC-based model in early 2007.
A major benefit of AVCHD compression is an efficiency 50% greater than HDV compression, meaning smaller file sizes that can be recorded to popular non-tape media. HDV encodes video at a fixed rate of 25Mbps. AVCHD, on the other hand, is scalable to a maximum of 24Mbps. The Sony HDR-CX7 records high definition video in three qualities: 15Mbps XP, 9Mbps HQ, 7Mbps SP and 5 Mbps LP. It can also record standard definition footage in 9 Mbps HQ, 6 Mbps SP, and 3 Mbps LP. At all bit rates, this camcorder records VBR (variable bit rate) video, meaning that the rate is automatically increased or decreased based on the complexity of information in the frame. These bit rates are identical to those found on last year’s HDR-SR1 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $1119.99).
AVCHD has generated great interest on the part of consumers, and it has produced stunningly sharp video in our tests at around 1⁄2 the bit rate of HDV. The drawbacks of aggressive compression manifest in more noise than HDV and motion trailing. In its early days, AVCHD was sparsely supported by NLEs, but that situation has improved significantly with Sony Vegas among others now capable of native AVCHD editing. For professional applications, HDV remains the superior format, delivering slightly higher resolution, and an image less compromised by compression.
Media
Panasonic has placed its bet on the future of video heavily in the flash media pot, with P2 cards on the pro side and SDHC cards filling out some of the higher-end consumer slots. Sony has hedged its bets by investing in every media type under the sun. With the HDR-CX7, Sony goes head-to-head with the Panasonic HDC-SD1. Sony being Sony, however, the CX7 records to Sony’s proprietary flash format – Memory Stick PRO Duo – while Panasonic has taken an agnostic SDHC route. The only real drawback to Memory Stick over SDHC is availability and cost. With no competing card manufacturers to speak of, MemorySticks tend to retail for a bit more than SDHC cards, and they are a little harder to find.
In other respects, MemoryStick offers all the benefits of solid state recording, including durability, silent operation, reusability, and high transfer speeds. According to Sony, a 4GB Memory Stick PRO Duo card will hold roughly 30 minutes of XP footage, 55 minutes of HQ, 65 minutes of SP and 85 minutes of LP. The figures for standard definition footage are 55 minutes for HQ, 80 minutes for SP, and 160 minutes for LP.
Finally, you should be aware that this camcorder does not ship with a Memory Stick PRO Duo card in the box. You’ll need to shell out an additional $100-plus for a 4GB card before you record anything. Panasonic’s HDC-SD1 does ship with a 4GB SDHC card – but that camcorder’s $1500 MSRP is much higher than the Sony’s even when the cost of a Memory Stick PRO Duo card is factored in.
Editing
In the space of a few months, AVCHD has emerged from editing purgatory into the light. It just so happens that perhaps the biggest contributor to AVCHD’s salvation is Sony - the company that makes the most AVCHD camcorders (seven in less than a year ) Sony has already made a patch for their Vegas 7 NLE that is available as a free download and dubbed version 7.0e. This patch integrates native AVCHD support for current Vegas users. The next major release, version 8 is due out this summer, and that version will include even more robust AVCHD editing support. Unlike the other AVCHD editing options on the market, Sony’s Vegas is a full-featured NLE that is more comparable to Adobe Premiere or Apple Final Cut Pro than the handful of consumer programs that offer support for the codec. Vegas is available in a lower-priced consumer version as well.
Corel also recently announced Ulead Video Studio 11, a consumer-oriented editing and authoring suite that uses "PureHD" technology to bring AVCHD footage to the timeline. Video Studio 11 is bundled with InterVideo WinDVD 8 Silver, an AVCHD certified playback application. Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus features support for AVCHD editing, as well as other common formats like HDV and DV, while the step-up Studio 11 Ultimate offers an expanded suite of tools including SoundSoap, video filters and lighting effects, and keying.
Alas, Mac users still have no OS X-native AVCHD editing options available.
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