Thread: Panasonic HCV 700 1080 Settings

Hi I just bought a Panasonic HCV-700 video camera. It seems like a really good camera but im confused about what to shoot in to get the best quality in footage. I film a lot of surfing and would like this camera to just film everyday type situation. Im not at all looking at doing smooth twixtor type slow motion and I am quite happy with just the normal slow motion. Anyway -

With the settings set in full auto it shoots in 1080/50i

Under the 1080/50i full auto setting there are options for quality top to bottom from highest to lowest which are -

HA1920

HG1920 (full auto settings)

HX1920

HE1920

Howevery next to these options in the cameras menu is one option which is -

1080/50p


Today I shot in 1080/50i an it came out nice.

What I want to know is that all the websites talking about this camera say that it is 50 frames/second (some say 60 frames/second even when shooting in full auto 1080/50i but when I shot in that today an right hand clicked on the footage and looked at details tab it says 25 frames/second. The only up side to this even though this is a differant camera is that it says on this website that the computer can read it wrong - Differences Between 1080 50p and 1080 50i-Import Panasonic TM 700 1920X1080 AVCHD MTS to FCP X | HDCam AVCHD/MTS Joiner.

So with the other shooting option that I mentioned that is on its own in the menu as 1080/50p would that be more frames but less quality or the same quality but more frames ? You would think that if it was the better option it would just be the "full auto" settings but it is on its own.

I guess the main thing that is annoying me that im hoping to figure out is if the footage in 1080/50i which I shot in today is really 50 frames/second like all the websites say it is and if that is the case then what is the reason they have the 1080/50p option in the menu.

Hope im not too dumb and I wrote it down correctly with confusing anyone. Any help would be greatly appreciated as it would be comforting to have a setting that I can stick too an not have to be change down the track once I already have a bunch of footage for editing.

Thanks heaps, Laurie.

Originally Posted by laurie_hammy

Hi I just bought a Panasonic HCV-700 video camera. It seems like a really good camera but im confused about what to shoot in to get the best quality in footage. I film a lot of surfing and would like this camera to just film everyday type situation. Im not at all looking at doing smooth twixtor type slow motion and I am quite happy with just the normal slow motion. Anyway -

With the settings set in full auto it shoots in 1080/50i

Under the 1080/50i full auto setting there are options for quality top to bottom from highest to lowest which are -

HA1920

HG1920 (full auto settings)

HX1920

HE1920

Howevery next to these options in the cameras menu is one option which is -

1080/50p


Today I shot in 1080/50i an it came out nice.

What I want to know is that all the websites talking about this camera say that it is 50 frames/second (some say 60 frames/second even when shooting in full auto 1080/50i but when I shot in that today an right hand clicked on the footage and looked at details tab it says 25 frames/second. The only up side to this even though this is a differant camera is that it says on this website that the computer can read it wrong - Differences Between 1080 50p and 1080 50i-Import Panasonic TM 700 1920X1080 AVCHD MTS to FCP X | HDCam AVCHD/MTS Joiner.

So with the other shooting option that I mentioned that is on its own in the menu as 1080/50p would that be more frames but less quality or the same quality but more frames ? You would think that if it was the better option it would just be the "full auto" settings but it is on its own.

I guess the main thing that is annoying me that im hoping to figure out is if the footage in 1080/50i which I shot in today is really 50 frames/second like all the websites say it is and if that is the case then what is the reason they have the 1080/50p option in the menu.

Hope im not too dumb and I wrote it down correctly with confusing anyone. Any help would be greatly appreciated as it would be comforting to have a setting that I can stick too an not have to be change down the track once I already have a bunch of footage for editing.

Thanks heaps, Laurie.

Ill just add that I just did a test.

I shot in 1080/50i and also 1080/50p for 4 seconds with the camera still.

The file size of the 1080/50p was a little higher and I think it was also a little clearer.

Also when I right hand click on the 1080/50p file and go to details it DOES say that it is 50/frames per second.


I suppose the annoying thing is is that why does the menu have all the options of -

1080/50i

HA

HG

HX

He


But the 1080/50p option is to the right on its own and has none of these quality options underneath it ?


If it is the better option then why not put it in the "full auto" settings. Is it maybe because they think the file size is too big for the basic user of this camera ?


I also read somewhere that all this confusing information is read differantly according to which country the camera is.

I am from Australia and from what I have seen on the internet this camera is mainly a UK camera.

Hi Laurie,

I can give you some clarification, though not necessarily all the detail you want. This is a laymans guide - and I'm happy to be corrected.

Firstly the difference between /50 and /60 is regional. In the UK where I am and in Australia we use the PAL TV Standard which is 50Hz. In the US they use NTSC which is 60Hz. Our frames per second therefore "match" a multiple of these. That's why US cameras are 60fps and UK/Aussie cameras are 50fps.

Next the 25/50 issue is down to whether footage is interlaced or not.
We'll start with progressive (non-interlaced). In this instance the whole image (frame) is refreshed in one hit every (in the case of 50p) 50th of a second.

In the old days, images were produced as a series of lines - so the very top of the image was produced first, followed by the second "line", then the third etc until all 625 (PAL) lines were "printed"on the screen.The "problem" was that by the time the lower lines were being drawn, the upper ones were beginning to fade. To overcome this issue "interlacing" was developed. In this scenario all the odd lines were drawn, then all the even lines, then back to the odd ones etc etc. Each set of lines, odd or even, is called a "field".

So, if you imagine you take 50 shots in a second, the first shot has all the odd lines (the odd field) from whatever is in front of the camera at 0:00 (seconds:hundredths of a second). The next shot has all the even lines (the even field) from 0:02. The next has the odd field from 0:04 etc etc.

As you can work out you are only getting "half" the picture for each 50th of a second. To make a complete picture you need to combine the odd field with the even field next to it.

So, what you're actually getting is 25 FRAMES per second or 50 FIELDS per second.

In this day and age, why bother with interlacing? Well, it means less data needs to be processed and stored per 50th second, and because we are getting "half" an image every 50th of a second 50i often looks smoother for action than 25p.

The other settings on your camera HA/HG?HX?HE relate to the number of Mbps stored. generally the higher the number, the less compression and hence higher quality.



Hope this helps