Dissapointing NAB 2009?

[Graeme Nattress]

I thought NHK were still doing 8k with a 4 chip prism / pixel offset 2 greens mechanism? I only saw their 3D movie from the moon this year - was just too tired to get to their high resolution screen. NHK do wonderful things, but they are the "complimentary argument" to the thread about 4k in the home, in that they show that good content, not resolution is the most important thing.

Graeme

 

[Zack Birlew]

Yes, not much new, but what was there was better and faster versions of things that already exist, such as storage and RAID-related products as well as newer versions of software and hardware. Blackmagic Designs, AJA, and Matrox had some of the more interesting new things this year. However, the most interesting for me was the nVidia booth with the demo for their new 3D viewing device for 120hz LCDs. It was the best looking 3D for home solution I've ever seen, much better than the wonky 3D LCD options from JVC and the like. I was told a gaming-focused version would be out soon and that would be followed by a professional solution in the Fall, can't wait for that to come out, especially after seeing Autodesk Maya in 3D.

As far as cameras goes, I was actually disappointed by a few of them. The JVC GY-HM700 was a big letdown after they said it was more-or-less a 720p camera with 1080p upscale, however the image quality wasn't all that bad, I just expected better from JVC at this point. The GY-HM100 was pretty cool but when they showed the presentation at the FCPUG, the image quality up on the big projector screen was noticeably poorer than the GY-HM700 was. Not a big confidence builder, even though it's a pretty cool camera.

Canon didn't have anything, however, they don't usually show new things at NAB. But the reps that were showing off the 5D Mark II were pretty bad after they started making fun of me for wanting 24p capability in the 5D Mark II. "A lot of people we talked to actually didn't need 24p at all, I prefer 30p myself. Why not 78p or 90p? That'd be cool!" I wanted to say that the 5D Mark II was pretty cool compared to my D90 but, after they said all that, I'm even more resolved in the stance that I'm not paying for a hampered product.

Panasonic didn't have anything new besides the 3D theatre but I didn't even get to see that with everything else going on. With the demo screens and everything set up, I can say that I'm still not impressed with the HPX170 or HMC150. Panasonic really needs to give me something better because if I were going to buy anything from any of the big manufacturers at this point, it would be a Sony EX3. Now, if they had that 3D camera available and ready to go, I would have put money down that day but it's a year or more off. By then it's too late, I could be rocking two Scarlets by then.

I didn't even get a chance to go to the Sony booth. All I heard that was new was the 1080p HDCAM camcorder for too much money. I wish I could have seen some of their production LCDs but, again, too much to see in only a day and a half's worth of time.

A lot of the developments at NAB had to do with RED, surprisingly. Everywhere you looked there was something about 4K and how your life was going to be so much better by using _____-brand's product. Neat! It's great to see how RED has changed the game in so little time all across the board, except in ENG-broadcast of course but that's a different market. It's good to know that you can go out today and buy a RED camera and order a few little tools and you can be ready to seamlessly edit 4K within a few hours. As far as I'm concerned, all the post production kinks are worked out now.

One aspect of the industry that has to be broken down though is the color correction and DI market. You can't charge $30,000+ for a color corrector, no matter how fancy it is. Autodesk is really out of touch with Lustre. I got quoted somewhere around $100,000 for an ENTRY-LEVEL system. No way. I'll get by with Apple Color thank you very much.

 

[BradWright]

you're kidding, right?:Yawn:

I dropped out of attending or exhibiting partly because neither Red nor Apple were going to be there. I had considered getting a booth and exhibiting. If Apple and Red don't believe there's an opportunity to at least break even by exhibiting, I certainly don't want to risk my money on this show.

Everyone I talk to on a regular basis Hollywood is struggling. Industry spending is way down from last year. One of my major big broadcast customers, put all purchase on hold. All the majors such as ABC,CBS, NBC, Fox are laying off people, because advertising revenue is way down. If these guys are not spending, how is NAB going to be a good opportunity?

 

[Stuart English]

NAB this year

NAB this year

A lot of the developments at NAB had to do with RED, surprisingly. Everywhere you looked there was something about 4K and how your life was going to be so much better by using _____-brand's product. Neat! It's great to see how RED has changed the game in so little time all across the board, except in ENG-broadcast of course but that's a different market. It's good to know that you can go out today and buy a RED camera and order a few little tools and you can be ready to seamlessly edit 4K within a few hours. As far as I'm concerned, all the post production kinks are worked out now.

I think that sums NAB 2009 up pretty well as far as camera news is concerned.

Then throw in RED specific news - RED prime lenses, RED ROCKET and RED RAY (and yes I am biased) but that is pretty much all there was to know...

If RED did not exist, maybe what was there would be reasonably exciting. But its amazing what two years of RED ONE reality has done for expectations.

 

[albert rudnicki]

The NAb 2009 for me was on DEC13, the rest was poop for doop.