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costs in upgrading to HD
Been using Media 100 since version 3 and have nothing but praise for it. But the handwriting is obvious that we will soon have to graduate to HD.
Question is what is needed and the costs involved.
At the present time we have G4 dual processor 1.42 gig running 8.2 We have the Atto 3 scsi card and a Medea SCSI array and of course firewire backups (al Lacie drives)
So help me..if I am to upgrade to Media 100 HD I will need…??
a G5
new HD board
new drives
new monitor
HD monitor
Anything else? What is the cost here as compared to just going FCP 5.0? For a nonprofit group trying to recover from Hurrican Katrina costs are a real issue. We lost one Media 100i system in the storm. The other (described above) works just fine. Other companies wrote and asked about replacing software etc. and even giving discounts but not Media 100. No surprise there.
Any help or ideas would be a big help.Jim Pawlicki
Mississippi Gulf Coast specificall Bay Saint Louis – the center of Hurrican Katrina. -
10 Replies
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[Jim Pawlicki] “So help me..if I am to upgrade to Media 100 HD I will need…??
a G5
new HD board
new drives
new monitor
HD monitor
Anything else? What is the cost here as compared to just going FCP 5.0?”Yes. For Media 100 HD you will need a G5 and the Media 100 HD package (software & board). And as soon as you start working in HD you need fast drives (XServe RAID or other FC array), since right now Media 100 HD only works in uncompressed in HD resolution. HD monitor is probably a good idea, but not 100% necessary, since Media 100 HD can output a SD signal simultaneously. So while working in HD you still can e.g. monitor your program on an SD broadcast monitor for color accuracy and on a CinemaDisplay with a HDSDI->DVI converter for HD resolution.
The costs are more or less the same for both ways if you want to work with uncompressed HD material. For FCP you will also need a new G5, the software, a Hardware board for I/O and a fast FC-Array for getting data rates necessary for uncompressed HD video. You also could work in HDV or DVCProHD codec natively without needing such a fast array, but as soon as you start working on the picture you will make compromises in terms of video quality (HDV) when doing this, or you have a lower resolution than HDCam (DVCProHD). -
Just remember that you cannot use the latest G5 models with Media 100 HD. They have PCI-Express slots, and you need PCI-x slots for Media 100 HD. The 2.7 Ghz Macs were the last to support PCI-x, and you probably can find some refurbished or even some new ones for sale out there.
If you’re not doing HD work right now, I advise getting a SATA array from MacGurus with a Sonnet host card. Building your own is very easy and their support is top-notch. I have a 1.2 terabyte array for less than $1,000.
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Kona 2 is $2500-3000 I think. FCP Studio (Which includes FIVE programs) is $1300. Total $4300.
Media 100 HD is $8000 I think. So that would be a hardware-sotfware comparison.
Kona 2 supports HDV and DVCPRO HD and some of the best FREE tech support in the industry.Dajen Productions
Santa Barbara, CA
G5 Dual 2 Gig – AJA IO & LA
Huge 1.2 Raid
FCP 5-OS X 10.4.1-QT 7 -
Jim
fwiw
i have three P6000 M100’s for sale and can do you
a deal on the G4 Mac with them if that helps. No they
dont do HD of course but you may find staying with M100 SD a
bit longer more cost effective as the AJA and others
drop in price?Email me of needs be edit (at) velocite.net
John
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Additional hidden cost in purchasing a Media 100 HD: you will need audio AD-DA converters, since you can’t source analog audio into M100 HD the way you are used to doing it with the old Media 100 breakout box. The M100 HD breakout box inputs and outputs SD audio *only*, so you will need to invest in audio AD-DA converters if your source deck audio is analog, if your audio mixer is analog, etc.
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Good point, Lawrence. For this purpose I’d recommend the M-Audio Flying Cow, which was reviewed here on the Cow site:
https://www.creativecow.net/articles/solorio_marco/flyingcow/
They list for about $400, but you can get one for about $260 from various sellers like Musician’s Friend:
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[Peter DeArmond] “They list for about $400, but you can get one for about $260 from various sellers like Musician’s Friend: “
Or get a Behringer Ultramatch Pro, which is much cheaper and unlike the FlyingCow does AD and DA conversion at the same time. Works well for monitoring, and for I/O most sources have digital connections anyway these days.
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That’s nice; I wish I would have heard about it before I bought the Flying Cow. But I think the M-Audio does AD / DA conversion at the same time, unless I misunderstood you. I mean, I’m monitoring from the M-Audio through my Mackie for digitizing and playback, feeding in analog and playing back out via analog, so it must be converting at the same time, right?
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Me? I went the *other* way cost-wise, and probably spent way more than I needed to, but my audio is clean: Lucid AD and DA converters… around $600.00 – $700.00 each. Or is that “ouch”?
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[Peter DeArmond] ” But I think the M-Audio does AD / DA conversion at the same time, unless I misunderstood you. I mean,”
Probably you
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