I hope no-one will accuse me of 'belaboring the point' if I post a continuing ezine Forum column about how HD-video is becoming easier & better both for the Small-Screen (the Web) and the Big-Screen (multiplex movies).

Only yesterday this process was cumbersome, complex, expensive and didn't work very well. As you read this, it has just gotten a Whole Lot Better. To begin, HD-video takes up a lot of real estate; terabyte RAIDS are pricey. How do you record this real estate in the Field (on batteries) anyway? Big bucks. But NOW the long-awaited AVCHD-codec has taken a Great Leap Forward and, as noted below, has become very acceptable for all except Big-Budget Bombs & network TV commercials. So-first step-the Real Estate has just gotten a whole lot smaller for low-to-medium Epics.

No, it will NOT match Panasonic's "Varicam" (for ex.), but can "16mm movies" do as well as "35mm movies"? They often have-and are often (proudly) known as "Indie Movies". A 3-chip AVCHD camera can look VERY GOOD; Panasonic has finally gotten it right with their just-released AG-HSC1UP, and it has Dolby 5.1 surround-sound mikes, to boot. I can't resist telling you that I have already won some modest sums betting against Purists who claimed that HD could never be compressed onto a little 4gb or 8gb SD-HC chip-especially on batteries in the field. When I played it back they accused me of hiding a terabyte RAID up my sleeve! ( Actually Pana includes a little 40gb battery-powered HDD with this cam to dump your Big Projects onto, but I simply used the SD chip for this wager with my sleeves rolled up. ).

In other words, I find that 3-CCDs are very acceptable quality-wise, but you can buy 1-chip HDs if you want with less quality. Secondly, Apple now directly supports AVCHD with Final Cut v6.02 and iMovie v7.01. It's tricky to get your machine to upgrade from FCP v6.01, but I will explain that in a later column if anyone wants. Third, as soon as I get a MacPro, I will interface the Blackmagic Intensity cards into the slots to record HD even better.

For you Modern types, the basic one takes only digital-in, but for people like me born in the last century, their Pro card ALSO takes analog-in; so all my classic Betamax footage can now be digitally worked on (composite video). In case you don't remember, analog video is often unstable, so my (modestly-priced) For-A Model 20 Time Base Corrector fixes that without breaking the bank.

Ted Turner likes to boast that he spends $1,000,000 each restoring old movies-I am showing you how to do an acceptable job for a 'heckuva lot less'.

If you like this column you might 'write in on your letterhead'.