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new fcp set-up… what else do i need?
Greetings! I’m running a Quad 2.5 GHz G5 w/ 3 GB ram, OS 10.4.7 with FCP 5.0.4. I’ve had the set-up for a few months and have more than got my feet wet in the apple world of video… that said, i’m needing a few things and would like anyone’s input… $ is a consideration, too.
HD Camera (i’ve been using some Canon minidv cameras and a borrowed dvx100b, but i want to step up to HD)
Can i capture HD with the my stock firewire port or do i need a capture card? what is my best value?
reference monitor – how important is this right now?
storage – what’s the best for capturing and then editing?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I just found this forum yesterday and read the first issue of the magazine last night. I think I may have found a home!
Andy
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6 Replies
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Hmm. What format of HD are you planning on editing? Compressed or Uncompressed? Do you shoot too? What kind of stuff do you do? FIlm? Commercials? Corporate? Soap operas? Evangelism? Fishing?
When you want to step up to HD, marketing will tell you it’s easy and cheap. It’s not really true. You’ll need a fast, reliable hard drive RAID, first and foremost. Do a search on Fibre Channel (or Fiber Channel) and SATA RAID on this forum and read until your hearts content. Fibre is more reliable, but pricey, SATA is gaining popularity and is dramatically less expensive. Then you will need an HD capture/monitor card and a professional HD monitor, which cheap CRT HD monitors are extremely hard to come by these days.
If you give a little background (as much as your comfortable with anyway) in what kind of work you do or want to do, we can probably steer you in the right direction.
Jeremy
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Doing video for web right now and some corporate stuff (lectures, etc)… but getting ready to shoot some pilot programming for tv and dvd. we do some keying so i wanted something that would give me a 4:2:2 sample rate – i’d thought that would help with my keying… I’m not really looking to do uncompressed HD, but was curious as to being about to shoot in DV 50, 1080i/p or 720p… cameras i’m reading about are the panasonic hvc200 or some hdv cameras (sony,canon,jvc)… so any more thoughts?
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Yes. The HVX200 will probably be your best bet, if you aren’t going to plunk down for a Varicam.
You’ll need at the very very least a FW800 RAID, SATA is better, Fibre is better still (the prices go up accordingly). You’ll need an HVX200 with at least 3 8 Gig cards, more is better. You’ll need a firestore or a P2 Store to store your shot material until you get to the edit suite. I prefer the P2 store myself, but to each their own. You should also get the P2 log software if you are going to have a mac laptop in the field. The HVX200 will handle all of your mentioned formats and frame rates. it’s the only camera in the world to do so. The P2 workflow takes some getting used to, but it’s pretty sweet once you get it down. Get yourself an AJA KOna series card (LH or 2 or 3) and a nice HD monitor. The SOny PVM 20L5/1 is preferred but discontinued. You can still find a few PVm14L5/1 around, but they are going fast. If i needed to buy an HD monitor right now, I have no idea what I would do. The high end Sony CRTs are really really pricey, and everyone says that LCD just isn’t good enough yet, but I haven’t seen one in action. If I were to look at LCDs I’d look no further than Panasonic’s BT-LH1700 or BT LH 2600.
Good luck in your findings.
Jeremy
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Jeremy, your input is much appreciated! Thanks for taking the time to post.
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You need good studio audio monitors as well. Don’t forget the audio!
Kevin Monahan
Take My FCP Master’s Workshop!
fcpworld.com
Pres. SF Cutters -
Ikegami is still making CRT monitors. The HTM-1505 14″ cost me around $6,000 with SDI. It can take a SD or HD signal.
https://ikegami.com/br/products/hdtv/hdtv_monitor_frame1.html
-dMR
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