Sony SRW-5100 HDCAM SR Studio Player

HDCAM SR format is Sony’s highest quality production format, delivering RGB 4:4:4 full bandwidth High Definition for unprecedented picture quality.

As HD-based programme origination has escalated for feature films, HDTV and post production, HDCAM SR has become the natural choice for the interchange and delivery of HD content due to the virtually uncompressed picture quality, 12 audio channels, exceptional reliability, double speed transfer and many other advanced features.

The success of HDCAM SR has naturally led to a requirement for a playback-only ingest VTR – the SRW-5100 Studio Player.

The SRW-5100 is equipped with almost all the same key features as the SRW-5800 apart from recording and network file transfer capabilities. The SRW-5100 does fully support 880 Mbps playback supporting all SQ and HQ modes, dual channel (3D), 444 mode and X2 transfer speed to certain NLE.

A new option introduced with the SRW-5100 allows HDV output for simultaneous offline ingest to a non-linear editor via i.Link

Highly cost efficient
Sony HDCAM-SR VTRs – the RGB 4:4:4 full-bandwidth high-definition VTRs at the top of the Sony HD VTR line-up – have a critical role as a master format for movie-making, commercial productions, and high-end HDTV. It is also the interchange and delivery format for most HD broadcasters, as well as the required delivery format for 3D HD programming, which is an exciting new development.

Supporting all SMPTE standard 1080 and 720 formats up to 59.94P, 3G interface with 3D recording on one tape, x2 ingest to servers, SR technology increases the speed and productivity of all operations.

The SRW-5100 is designed, and priced, to be a very cost efficient player supporting HDCAM SR, HDCAM* and Digital Betacam * formats for programme ingest and transfer to offline and online editing systems. It is ideal for ingest to servers, tape interchange and delivery playback, on-set viewing and any application requiring playback of HDCAM SR tapes for viewing or quality evaluation.

The /2 version adds a lot of new functionality including double speed playback and 3D RGB playback.

The /2 upgRODE also adds support for 1080 50P and 60P (422) playback as well as RGB SQ mode (440 Mbps) as standard, so there is no need for an additional HKSR-5103 board any longer.

* using the optional HKSR-5802 board

Full support for HDCAM SR
The SRW-5100 supports all major 1080 and 720 frame rates up to 30P, plus RGB SQ and HQ, 1080/50P, 1080/60P and double speed transfer (HDCAM SR recorded tapes only)

Compatible with most NLE systems
Allows offline editing output directly to almost any compatible offline NLE system using common i.LINK (FireWire) interface.

Easily expandible
Optional boards allow quick and easy expansion with additional features when and if you need them.

HDCAM-SR Format – For Exceptionally High Picture Quality Playback
The SRW-5100 player adopts the HDCAM SR format and plays back 1920 x 1080 resolution high-definition signals using the MPEG-4 Studio Profile compression scheme with a very mild compression ratio of 2.7:1 (4:2:2), 4:1 (4:4:4 SQ) or 2:1 (4:4:4 HQ) and 10-bit colouRODEpth. It enables both full-bandwidth 4:4:4 RGB and high-quality 4:2:2 Y/Cb/Cr playback, delivering optimal picture performance to suit many different production requirements.

HQ mode
The SRW-5100 player can playback tapes recorded at the high data rate of 880 Mb/s, for 4:2:2/1080/60P and 50P mode, and 4:4:4 High Quality (HQ) mode with the HKSR-5103 option board.

The 4:2:2/1080/60P and 50P recording mode is highly compatible with computer graphics, games and other progressive-based programmes. It also offers exceptional picture performance when converting material originated in 1080/60P or 50P format to 720P format, due to its original high resolution of 1920 x 1080 (Requires HKSR-5001/20 option board). Another benefit of using the 4:2:2/1080/60P and 50P recording mode is that it enables image creation with perfect playback slow-motion effects. The F35 recording mode of RGB 444 50P recording is also supported for playback at speeds below 30P.

HQ mode also allows 4:4:4 RGB recordings with a milder compression ratio of 2:1. This can achieve higher picture quality compared with recording at 440 Mb/s, depending on the picture, and is ideal when the highest possible image quality is the top priority.

Double Speed Playback
The SRW-5100 allows all material whether 422 or RGB 444 to be transferred to servers and nonlinear editing systems at twice the normal speed using a standard Dual-link HD-SDI or single 3G interface. RGB 444 x2 playback using Dual 3G links is also supported.

3D support
Both 422 and RGB 444 playback (RGB using Dual 3G interface) is supported, recording is therefore onto one tape for extreme security, perfect L/R synchronisation and 12 channels of audio.

96KHz audio sampling support
At SQ mode (440 Mbps) 6 channels of 96 KHZ playback are supported, while at HQ mode (880 Mbps) 12 channels are supported. This is particularly useful for BluRay Mastering.

2K mode
The 5100/2 can now support 3 different 2K modes with real time playback. Firstly 2048 x 1080 RGB 10 bit, then the DCI standard of 2048 x 1080 12 bit XYZ (Digital Cinema standard) and lastly full open gate 2048 x 1556 playback

Legacy Playback Capability
The SRW-5100 can optionally play back HDCAM and Digital Betacam format tapes for more flexible operation, using the optional HKSR-5802 board.

Internal Format Conversion
The SRW-5100/2 is optionally equipped with a powerful internal format converter that enables many different types of conversion such as 3-2 pull-down, up-conversion, down-conversion, cross-conversion and colour-space conversion. This powerful optional HKSR-5001 format converter board makes the SRW-5100/2 very versatile in post-production.

Easy Management of Setup/System Menus
The SRW-5100/2 offers a highly effective way to manage its System Menu. Up to eight groups of parameters in the System Menu and Setup Menu can be individually saved as bank memory onto the internal memory of the VTR. They can also be saved onto Memory Stick media, enabling them to be copied onto other SRW-5100 VTRs for quick and consistent setup of multiple VTRs.

Furthermore, equipped with an Ethernet interface, the SRW-5100 allows operators to remotely view the setup parameters saved in the VTR’s memory bank, and to select a bank they want to use through a PC.

HDV and HDMI output option
Uniquely the SRW-5100/2 can use the optional HKSR-5105 board to output an offline HDV format signal. This is only available in 1080 50i and 59.94i modes, although 23.98PsF can use pull down mode to output in 59.94i. AV/C control and 4 channel audio are supported for both HDCAM and HDCAM SR tapes. The HDMI output is available for RGB monitoring on consumer style displays

SRW-5100/2 Format Support
In addition to the numerous formats supported by the SRW-5100 Series, the SRW-5100/2 introduced support for the following formats without any extra boards – RGB SQ, 2 x Playback @ 422, 2 x Playback @ RGB SQ and 1080 50P/60P playback.

In addition, if the HKSR-5103 board is installed in a SRW-5100/2, the following additional new playback formats are supported; 3D @ 422, 3D @ RGB SQ, RGB HQ, 2K mode and 12bit operation.