At DV Expo this week, Panasonic introduced the AG-HPG20, a solid-state P2 portable recorder/player with AVC-Intra recording.

The compact 2.5-pound AG-HPG20 features a 3.5-inch LCD screen and supports a wide range SD/HD formats including 1080i/60, 1080i/50, 720p/60, 720p/50 in the AVC-Intra and DVCPRO HD 4:2:2, independent frame codecs; and 480/60i, 576/50i in DVCPRO50, DVCPRO and DV. The unit plays back content automatically (no need to change settings) and can operate in 50Hz or 60Hz. The P2 Portable also supports up-, down-, and cross-conversion for HD or SD transmission. Additionally it allows “confidence playback” from P2 files stored on a hard drive.

The P2 Portable can be paired with a range of tape-based and solid-state cameras as well as other brands of camcorders. It features HD/SD-SDI and IEEE 1394 inputs. It can playback to large HD production monitors or transfer uncompressed content to HD-SDI equipped decks, post production systems and storage networks. When connected to a laptop’s IEEE 1394 output, the portable recorder serves as a transcoder to HD-SDI-equipped monitors, for full, real-time playback from the timeline. Using the HPG20’s USB slot (in Host mode), users can transfer content to a low-cost USB hard drive.

When using two 64GB P2 cards (available in December), in the P2 Portable’s two card slots, the unit records 128 minutes in AVC-Intra 100 or DVCPRO HD, 258 minutes in AVC-Intra 50 or DVCPRO50, or 512 minutes in DVCPRO.

The AG-HPG20 will be available in early 2009 and will offer a 5-year limited warranty program.