HDV and Hyper deck Shuttle

I am using sony hdv Z5 camera and want switch over to tapeless format.I come to know about a product Blacmagic hyperdeck Shuttle.It uses SSD for storage. will it work fine with my camera and which format will it store the video. is it right solution to go tapeless or is there any other way out.....

thanks Jeff, but someone told me that shuttle records in H.264 compression so it takes lesser space. can you be more helpful in getting me understand the tecnical aspects of shuttle in more deatail as on blacmagic site the information is not satisfactory.....

Jeff, do you have or have you used the Ninja?

Tech-T Productions
http://www.technical-t.com

Jeff,

What about native HDV recording? Seems like the most practical way to go tapeless on an HDV camcorder unless there is a need for higher quality (like you said - green screen, etc.).

Just curious.

Alex (DV411)

External recorders for HDV have been around for years. Why spend hundreds of dollars on one of those, if the quality (or lack of) is still the exact same as recording to tape?

Ninja and Shuttle both take the HDMI feed from the camera BEFORE it gets compressed! Shuttle records uncompressed, and Ninja uses Apple ProRes.

ProRes is 10-bit, with 4:2:2 color, while HDV uses only 8-bit 4:2:0. ProRes is FAR less compressed than HDV. Yes, this creates a larger file, but still far smaller than uncompressed, while being visually lossless.

I've taped school plays and dance recitals and simultaneously recorded to HDV tape and Ninja. Comparing the two formats in Premiere Pro CS5.5 using a split screen, and then further comparing frame grabs in Photoshop, there is a BIG difference.

The HDV often exhibits very blocky compression in areas of the same color (think skies, curtain background, any solid color area), lacks detail, and motion also creates a lot of compression problems. The ProRes footage looks great though! Having 10-bit color means more latitude in color grading also, eliminating banding.

ProRes is NOT just for Final Cut - having the free QuickTime installed on a PC means you already have the ProRes playback capability, so it should work in any NLE. Works great in Adobe CS5 and CS5.5 for me on the PC.

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor

"then is a native (file format) tapeless recorder the most practical way to go tapeless?"

YES, going tapeless opens the door to much better video quality . HDV was a good idea at the time and now it is IMHO a complete waist of time, speaking to the added time it takes to capture a tape. Those who have cameras with a digital output (HDMI or SDI) can still use their HDV cameras with external recorders and I would suggest the Convergent Design Nano Flash digital recorder would be a major improvement over the HDV tape quality. The BM unit is like adding a jet engine to a VW and finding SSD's that may or may not keep up the write speed of Uncompressed video is up to the end user to find.

Good Luck
Michael Palmer

Michael,
I've been looking into a replacement to my tapeless recorder for quite some time. The nano is about 3x the price of the ninja. I can't really find anything in the specs that justify the price difference, other than the nano has both hdmi & sdi inputs. There are two things about the ninja that make me hesitant:
1. it is a newer company and I don't know about quality and support after the sale
2. Im a little unsure about having soft buttons on a production machine. I would rather have hard buttons and switches.
But those two things definitely don't justify the cost difference.
What am I missing?

Tech-T Productions
http://www.technical-t.com

Thanks Michael for your advice for matrox, but it is a capture card I think and again I will have to use tapes. i want to go tapeless format.
i am using Sony Z5 camera and premier CS 5 for editing. what could be best solution for me to go tapeless.