P2 (P2 is a short form for "Professional Plug-In") is a professional
digital recording
In digital recording, an audio signal, audio or video signal is converted into a stream of discrete numbers representing the changes over time in air pressure for audio, or Color, chroma and luminance values for video. This number stream is s ...
solid-state memory storage media format introduced by
Panasonic
is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturer, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Japan. It was founded in 1918 as in Fukushima-ku, Osaka, Fukushima by Kōnosuke Matsushita. The company was incorporated in 1935 and renamed and c ...
in 2004. The P2 card is essentially a
RAID
RAID (; redundant array of inexpensive disks or redundant array of independent disks) is a data storage virtualization technology that combines multiple physical Computer data storage, data storage components into one or more logical units for th ...
of
Secure Digital
Secure Digital (SD) is a proprietary, non-volatile, flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA). Owing to their compact size, SD cards have been widely adopted in a variety of portable consumer electronics, including digi ...
(SD) memory cards with an
LSI controller tightly packaged in a
die-cast PC Card
PC Card is a technical standard specifying an expansion card interface for laptops and personal digital assistants, PDAs. The PCMCIA originally introduced the 16-bit Industry Standard Architecture, ISA-based PCMCIA Card in 1990, but renamed it to ...
(formerly PCMCIA) enclosure. The system includes cameras, decks as drop-in replacements for videotape decks, and a special 5.25-inch computer drive for
random-access
Random access (also called direct access) is the ability to access an arbitrary element of a sequence in equal time or any datum from a population of Address space, addressable elements roughly as easily and efficiently as any other, no matter h ...
integration with
non-linear editing system
Non-linear editing (NLE) is a form of offline editing for audio, video, and image editing. In offline editing, the original content is not modified in the course of editing. In non-linear editing, edits are specified and modified by speciali ...
s (NLE). The cards can also be used directly where a
PC card
PC Card is a technical standard specifying an expansion card interface for laptops and personal digital assistants, PDAs. The PCMCIA originally introduced the 16-bit Industry Standard Architecture, ISA-based PCMCIA Card in 1990, but renamed it to ...
(PCMCIA) slot is available, as in most older
notebook computer
A notebook computer or notebook is, historically, a laptop whose length and width approximate that of letter paper ().
The term ''notebook'' was coined to describe slab-like portable computers that had a letter-paper footprint, such as Epson's ...
s, as a normal
hard disk drive
A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating hard disk drive platter, pla ...
, although a custom software driver must first be loaded.
As of 2015, P2 cards are currently available in capacities of 30 and 60 GB. At introduction, P2 cards offered low recording capacity compared to competing,
video tape-based formats (a
miniDV
DV (from ''Digital Video'') is a family of codecs and Videotape, tape formats used for storing digital video, launched in 1995 by a consortium of camcorder, video camera manufacturers led by Sony and Panasonic. It includes the recording or casse ...
tape holds roughly 13 GB of data, and an S-size
HDCAM tape holds 50 GB). To solve this, camcorders and decks using P2 media employ multiple card slots, with the ability to span the recording over all slots.
P2 cards are of a ruggedized PCMCIA type with the fastest transfer speeds currently available through this format. The card also contains a processor that organizes and safeguards the files and the case is developed and crafted to "military" (according to Panasonic) specifications, making P2 cards tough and reliable.
The first pieces of equipment released by Panasonic which used the P2 format included the AJ-SPX800 (a 2/3" broadcast camcorder for
ENG and
EFP applications), the studio recorder AJ-SPD850, the AJ-PCD10 offload device (basically, a five-slot PC card reader with USB interface designed to fit a 5-1/4" IT systems bay), and the memory cards themselves – AJ-P2C004 (4 GB) and AJ-P2C002 (2 GB). Panasonic is currently shipping a wide range of camcorders that support the P2 format. Panasonic also announced the P2-based AG-HPX170 handheld HD
tapeless camcorder
A camcorder is a self-contained portable electronic device with video camera, video and recording as its primary function. It is typically equipped with an articulating screen mounted on the left side, a belt to facilitate holding on the right s ...
. The HPX170 is very similar to the
HVX200 and the HVX200A, the main difference being the lack of a video tape drive on the HPX170.
On April 15, 2012, Panasonic introduced the "
MicroP2" system, an entirely different format based on
SDHC/
SDXC conforming to UHS-II (Ultra-High Speed) bus mode. Most (but not all) current P2 products can use MicroP2 (UHS-II) and SDHC/SDXC (UHS-I/UHS-II) cards through a MicroP2 card adapter, with some requiring a firmware update. Some P2 products (such as the AG-HPX500E camera) are not able to use MicroP2 at all.
On February 27, 2014, Panasonic announced a new generation of P2 media, the expressP2 card, designed to accommodate high frame rate 1080 HDAVC-ULTRA recording (above 60fps) as well as 4K capture.
Specifications
* File format:
MXF
* Maximum datarate: 1.22 Gbit/s
* Available sizes: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64 GB (formerly); 30 and 60 GB (since 2015)
* Form factor: PC card (PCMCIA) type II
P2 card run times timetable
Panasonic recently published a slightly more complicated version of this table for 16 and 32 GB cards.
P2 camera range
Handheld models
AG-HPX170 (NTSC version)
* Compact, lightweight HD/SD camera-recorder
* 13× zoom lens with 28 mm wide-angle
AG-HPX171 (European version)
* Compact, lightweight HD/SD camera-recorder
* 13× zoom lens with 28 mm wide-angle
* Improved ergonomics, features and image quality compared to its predecessor
AG-HVX200
* Progressive native 16:9 HD
3CCD imaging system
* HD quality Leica Dicomar wide-angle zoom lens
* Progressive modes supported
AG-HPX250
AG-HVX202AEN HD DVC-PRO
Shoulder mount models
AG-HPX300/HPX301
* Three pieces of 1/3-inch MOS image sensor (1920 × 1080 pixels each)
* Removable 1/3-inch lens
* AVC-Intra 50/100 and DVCPRO HD/50/25 codecs compatible
* Variable Frame Rate
* LCoS viewfinder
* Two P2 slots
AG-HPX370/371
* New 2,2MPx MAICO CMOS sensor with improved sensitivity F11
* Other features as above HPX301
AG-HPX500/HPX555
* Three pieces of 2/3-inch CCD image sensor (960 × 540 pixels each)
* DVCPRO HD/50/25 codecs compatible
* Variable Frame rate function
* Four P2 slots
AJ-HPX2000(AJ-HPX2100 in Europe)
* Three pieces of 2/3-inch CCD image sensor (1280 × 720 pixels each)
* DVCPRO HD codecs compatible
* AVC-Intra 50 and 100 codecs as an option
* 10 bit/4:2:2 Recording with Full Sampling as an option
* Variable Frame rate function
* Five P2 slots
AJ-HPX2700
* One of the new P2
Varicam range
* Variable Frame Rate of 1 frame/s to 60 frame/s
* 10 bit/4:2:2 Recording with Full Sampling
* AVC-Intra codec recording system
AJ-HPX3000
* DVCPRO HD/AVC-Intra codecs compatible
* Native 1080p 4:2:2 10-bit
* Newly developed high-resolution 2.2-megapixel CCD
AJ-HPX3700
* Super High-End HD Camera-Recorder for Cinema Production, part of the P2
Varicam range
* RGB 4:4:4 and 24PsF output
* AVC-Intra codec recording system
AU-VREC1G
* Varicam 35 & Varicam HS Camera-Recorder, part of the P2 Varicam range
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:P2 (Storage Media)
Video storage
Solid-state computer storage media