-
Building new suite for DVCProHD
I have a potential client who is looking to shoot a short film on DVCProHD. They are looking for an editor. They have about $30,000 to spend on editing. My current system is a G5 Quad, Aja OEM with Final Cut 5.1.4 and Media 100 HDe on 2 boot drives. I have 4.5 GB RAM and a 500GB Caldigit svr duo SATA drives. I edit mostly Beta SP and Mini DV projects.
I’d love to start working on HD. I thought this may be a good opportunity to buy a new system and let this project pay for it. Thus my questions.
I imagine I’ll need more drives SATA ?, A DVCProHD Deck, and a HD monitor, and a HD DVD burner. They mentioned that they are shooting Varicam. Can someone suggest what I need and if this would be a worthwhile investment. What deck? What monitor? Can I use my existing G5 Quad? Do I need more drive space. How much? They tell me they will have about 15 hours of footage. Thanks much. Am I nuts? Or is this a good plan?
replied 19 years ago 5 Members · 5 Replies
-
5 Replies
-
Greg,
Your quad G5 is just fine for DVCProHD. No reason to spend the dough on a new Mac now, as DVCProHD is a very user freindly compressed format. As you suspect, you need bigger faster drives, preferably a hotswapple SATA array that you can grow with. If you search this site yu will find many good brands including Firmtek, Dulce, CalDigit, Promax, etc. In addition you will need an HD video card, such as a Kona LHe, and an HD monitor. Check out the Panasonic TH-42PH1UK at just $935 from Visualapex at https://www.visualapex.com/plasma/Plasma_details.asp?VA=Panasonic&chPartNumber=TH-42PH10UK.
Many of us use the stuff above, primarily because it works.
Good luck,
DavidDavid Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY
-
For DVCPro HD you do not need a new computer. I delivered about 24 HD Broadcast masters with my G5 Dual 2.0 before I upgraded to the Quad. We’re still cutting DVCPro HD and uncompressed HD on that G5 Quad. So the machine is fine. If you have enough money and you want to buy a machine, then go ahead and purchase the top of the line Mac and you’re good for a while.
I would get no less than 2TB of storage if this is a big project. SATA or FW800 will work just fine for storage. I’ve delivered multiple HD Broadcast masters off a LaCie FW800 drive that is 2TB when the SATA’s failed. But I much prefer SATA. I just took delivery of a MaxxDigital Pro 8TB but they also sell as small as 4TB. They’re also offering a special deal for Cow readers, see the details on my blog.
DVCPro HD deck you want would be the Panasonic 1400 but it’s $25,000. We have one and had the 1200A before that. We’ve had enough work to make it worthwhile. Not sure if I would purchase one for a single job. You can always rent.
HD Monitor – If you can find a used Sony PVML5 series monitor, those are excellent for editing and color grading. Panasonic Pro Plasma monitors are excellent for large scale viewing and can be tweaked to almost perfectly replicate the Sonys. We run the Sony PVM20L5/1 and 14L5/1 along with Panasonic 50″ and 42″ HDTV plasmas. If you can’t find the sony’s, the Panasonics make excellent HD monitors in their own right.
HD DVD? What would you do with that?
For editing native in DVCPro HD you’re basically set. Just add more storage and an HD monitor.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Broadcast and independent productions.All Things Apple Podcast! https://cowcast.creativecow.net/all_things_apple/index.html
Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi
-
[walter biscardi] “Panasonic Pro Plasma monitors are excellent for large scale viewing and can be tweaked to almost perfectly replicate the Sonys.”
Walter, does tweaking the Pan. plasmas entail buying monitor calibration software/hardware? The 37″ and 42″ are listed as native resolution 720p. Does that make them significantly less useful for 1080i monitoring?
I know this is covered ad infinitum in the forum, but HD monitoring is is an important and constantly changing topic.
I have a small editing room, perhaps too small for the 37″ and up Pan. plasmas. I’m looking for an HD monitor which fits on the desk.
Choices as I understand them now:
(a) one of Pan’s “pro” HD LCD monitors (BT-LH2600W 26″ or the 17″) (but $2600-3500! and still LCD)
(b) Dell 2405 or equivalent. Can the image on the Dell be tweaked to come close to a “real” HD monitor as easily as those Pan. plasmas?
(c) other?Thanks!
Bob C
-
[Bob Cole] ”
Walter, does tweaking the Pan. plasmas entail buying monitor calibration software/hardware? The 37″ and 42″ are listed as native resolution 720p. Does that make them significantly less useful for 1080i monitoring?”Nope, we calibrate the Sony’s using bars and then tweak the Pannys by eye based on those. The Pro Panny’s have extensive color control not found on a consumer HD TV. There is some calibration software / hardware out there like the Spyder but we have not tried anything like that here because we have the Sony’s.
1080i displays perfectly on both the 50 and 42″ models we have here. We’re cross converting 720 to 1080i all the time due to the failure of FCP to work in 720 drop frame.
[Bob Cole] “Choices as I understand them now:
(a) one of Pan’s “pro” HD LCD monitors (BT-LH2600W 26″ or the 17″) (but $2600-3500! and still LCD)”
Those are the two we’ll most likely go with when we retire our Sony’s. They’re really really good and you get HD-SDI input standard along with a waveform. outstanding monitors and if you want better than that, then you step up to the $24,000 eCinema displays.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Broadcast and independent productions.All Things Apple Podcast! https://cowcast.creativecow.net/all_things_apple/index.html
Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi
-
Another monitoring option to consider is the Matrox MXO and a Cinema 23 or the above mentioned Dell. We have the BT-LH1700W and a MXO. Side by side they look identical when the MXO is properly set up.
John
Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.8 QT7.1.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5 (FCP5.1.2, DVDSP4.1.1, Comp2.3, STP1.1, Motion 2.1.2)
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neuman U87s, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up