Greetings from Pittsburgh

[HDTN]

Hi everyone,my name is Tom and my HV20 shoudl arrive today. I ordered the Panasonic HDV tapes, but also have the Panasonic 63 min AMQ tapes if the new ones do not show. I don't know how much of a difference there is, but I do believe in sticking with the same tapes. I've been using the AMQ's for about 2 years with no problems whatsoever.

I am a tech junkie and with the HV20, I now have about 10 Mini DV, DVD, Hi-8, SVHS and VHS-C camcorders laying around. I am a professional photographer by trade and own an upscale photography business in a suburb of Pittsburgh.

Currenty, my favorite Camcorder is a Panasonic PV-GS200(3-CCD's, incredible picture quality and color rendition. After reading about the HV20 and perusing this knowledgeable group forum, I bought the HV20. I've got a media room with a HD DVD player and I just want to make tapes that fill a 16x9 screen without everybody getting widehead.

I have a wealth of knowledge on optics, professional digital still equipment and even consumer still digital equipment that I am willing to share. We own 2 RA-4 digital printers that print all of our work and I am very photoshop literate. I want to do very simple editing, but want to maintain widescreen aspect. I have pinnacle 9.?, but realize this will not edit HD. Could someone explain(in laymen's terms) what is meant by 24p and 60i, and why is everyone talking abut pull down? What do you mean by "pull down" and how will it effect the quallity of my finished productions?

I am sure there are posts that might answer so of my questions, but the world of HD is greek to me. Please be nice with your comments on my post...I am very sensitive...

Tom

[Erik Bien]

Hi Tom, and welcome to the forum!

In simple terms, 24p gives a more cinematic, "film like" look while 60i has the "you are there" quality of a sports or news broadcast. So which you choose is primarily an artistic choice.

The best advice for a beginner regarding pulldown (or technically, inverse pulldown (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecine#Reverse_telecine_.28a.k.a._IVTC.2Finverse _telecine.29)) is not to worry about it: the little HV20 cleverly uses pulldown to embed its 24p progressive output into a 60i data stream, in much the same way a TV network embeds a 24-frames-per-second movie into an interlaced stream your televison can play.

If you decide you like the 24p look and you're going for the highest-quality output, then you can bloody your knuckles learning how to extract the 24 progressive frames from the 60i tapes properly. If you prefer the 60i look, you need never worry about it again.

[HDTN]

Thanks Erik

After minimal experimentation, It seems to me that the 24p footage has a more dimensional appearance than the 60i in lower light situations. Initially, I seem to lean toward 60i for outdoor lit or action sequences. I played the first stuff I shot on my 65" Samsung Dlp and my wife said, it was like looking through a window...Nice! I am blown away by the IQ, dynamic range, and color depth and saturation of this camcorder, and I've only used Auto White Balance. The stills also look good, when you just need snapshots no bigger than 5x7. A friend has a Panasonic GS-400, which still tends to get a higher buck on ebay...no comparison. I really love this camcorder and this forum.

Tom