Sony HDR-UX1 Camcorder Reviewby David KenderPublished on Sep 29, 2006 1:00 AM
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Compression (5.0)
The HDR-UX1 has been eagerly anticipated for the compression method more than any other factor. Until a few months ago, the only consumer option for high definition was HDV, an MPEG-2 compression that recorded to MiniDV tapes. HDV was a compromise of quality and market convenience. Higher quality HD compressions were already available, but in order to effectively tap the consumer market, manufacturers needed to exploit familiar media, or risk losing the public’s interest. HDV managed to produce 1080i, about 4x the resolution of standard definition, but fit the same 60 minutes of video that you could in standard DV. It also maintained the same data rate as DV, 25Mbps, the highest data rate in consumer formats.
Then came a joint announcement from Sony and Panasonic this year. Together, they had created a new HD compression standard called AVCHD. Based on MPEG-4/H.264, the video was more densely compressed, but promised HD quality. The major benefit: AVCHD could be recorded to DVD, HDD, and flash memory – media that the public had already shown a preference for over tape. H.264 also enjoyed the approval of tech-heads, the factor most likely to adopt early and influence public opinion. It seemed that all the bases were covered for Sony and Panasonic.
The final product is not without its caveats, however. AVCHD has a maximum bit rate of 24Mbps which is very close to the HDV max bit rate of 25 Mbps. The first generation camcorders, however, would not reach that potential. The HDR-UX1 records at a max of only 12Mbps. The HDD-based HDR-SR1 has a slightly higher rate of 15Mbps, but still fails to meet the max. In that sense, we are not truly evaluating the AVCHD format, but rather its application in this particular camcorder as a first generation camcorder. Maybe this is obvious, but it’s worth mentioning. Judging by the performance differences between this and the HDR-HC3 and DCR-DVD505, the AVCHD compression is likely responsible for the noise issues, blockiness and some issues with gradients and color shifts. We did mention the noise issues, right? Let us repeat: this is a noisy camcorder. It's noisy in bright light and it's worse in low light. True, the ClearVID CMOS does a lot for overall picture quality, and Sony was right to include their top chip in this camcorder. But it wasn't enough to hide that fact that this video is highly compressed, and it shows. The compression artifacts centered around noise, but we saw some signs of blockiness along moving, contrasty edges.
AVCHD has a difficult job to do. High definition video is a lot - a lot - of information to pack in, and to do it in this small a stream is nothing short of remarkable. But artifacts seem to be the necessary price for now. Can you live with that, or do you want to wait for second-generations solutions? Frankly, the latter has a strong argument.
The HDR-UX1 has four quality settings in AVCHD. HQ+ records at 12Mbps, HQ at 9Mbps, SP at 7Mbps, and LP at 5Mbps. As you might expect, the lower the quality, the more video you can record on a disc.
Like all HD camcorders, the option is also presented for recording standard definition, in this case, MPEG-2, which has a ceiling of 8.5 – 9Mbps. There are three quality settings for SD: HQ records at 9Mbps, SP at 6Mbps, and LP at 3Mbps.
All this being said, we feel it'd be unfair to say that AVCHD is inferior to HDV at this point. MPEG4 is a more effective compression standard theoretically. And with the right chips the compression should be impressive. If we go back to the first MPEG2 DVD camcorders by Panasonic and Hitachi about six years ago, the video produced by those models had huge compressions issues. Those first DVD camcorders were virtually unusable; they couldn't take fast pans, they'd drop in random blocks of pixels, and they showed the difficulty of compressing video on the fly. Of course, since then, all the manufacturers have gotten much more efficient at compressing DVD video and we believe that the same will happen with AVCHD.
For compatibility issues, read the Editing section below.
Media (5.0)
Perhaps the best thing about the new AVCHD format is that it requires no new types of media. Technophobes, let me repeat that: this camcorder does not require you to find some special new kind of blank DVD that can only be found in specialty stores or online. This is not Blu-ray or HD DVD. Those two formats are currently battling it out in the home movie front. If you already own a DVD camcorder, you can almost definitely use the same media you’ve been using all along.
The Sony HDR-UX1 accepts the following disc types: DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and DVD+R DL (Dual Layer). That last disc is a relatively new format that offers about twice the capacity of traditional single-layer discs. All of these formats can be used to record AVCHD or standard definition video.
Editing (1.0)
Here’s the tricky part. So far, there is one and only one way to view AVCHD footage on anything but the camcorder: Sony’s in-the-box editing software (a chorus of groans rises from the audience). Yes, we know that in-the-box software is usually rudimentary at best, and malfunctioning at worst. Included in the bundle is an ACVHD player, a media import program, and the latest version of Picture Motion Browser.
In this case, we found the whole process extremely frustrating. A PC in our office that has never given us any trouble was completely unable to read the disc after installing the software. Our Macs were rendered entirely useless, as the software can only be installed on Windows machines. Finally, another PC in the office was able to pull the footage, but by that point, we were pretty frustrated with the whole process. DVD footage is often a hassle, but nothing prepared us for this little battle.
Here’s another problem. Though a number of software manufacturers have signed on for AVCHD, including Adobe, Avid, InterVideo, Nero, and Ulead, not single one of them has a product on the market to read it, nor have they given a date when said software will be released. Even Sony Vegas can’t play AVCHD yet (though Vegas 7 is due out soon). Without a workflow solution in place, even a mediocre one, AVCHD is a format trapped in its own media.
This review would have been out a whole week earlier if we hadn't run into these problems, and think about the number of resources we have on hand. What is the poor average consumer to do if they owned an HDR-UX1 right now? We have no doubt that solutions are in the works from any number of sources, but we are writing in the present. The present says: "wait on it."
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