Aja Io with HD needed… solution sugestion: Io LHe

[Bob Zelin]

HD editing is expensive. HD VTR’s are expensive. Drives to playback HD are bulky and sort of expensive.
A laptop is not a suitable product to do full capture of HD – get a regular G5 and you will have no issues – it will fit right in with all the TONS of equipment you need to edit in HD. If you are doing convention work, and use HDV, you can simply use the firewire port on the HDV VTR’s or camera, and a FW800 drive. But for full HD work, with a big HD VTR, big HD monitor, big drive array – your system ain’t portable anyway, and you’ve got cables going everywhere, so what is the BIG DEAL about getting the correct computer for the job. If this product came out, you would be there, with your Mac Book Pro, unable to be “portable”, becuase of the tons of equipment necessary to do a real HD job.

Bob Zelin

[Arnie Schlissel]

Well, Bob, I agree with you, but I also see some need for more modern I/O in the field, especially with some of the new tapeless workflows.

I spent Sept. & Oct. of last year on location in Moscow for a feature shot on the HVX-200. Input from P2 was directly into the PC card slot on a Powerbook, but at the time the only video out was SD via an Io. Now you could use a Matrox MXO to output HD to a video or computer monitor, which is a big improvement, but does output only. While on location, I was able to digitize analog tapes of archival footage with the Io. You wouldn’t be able to do this with the MXO.

Should you bring both? Do you have room for both in your shoulder bag? Along with your laptop, hard drives, cables, etc? Do you have an assistant with a really strong back? When you weigh all the needs & demands of a fast moving location shoot, well, you need to do more with less.

In a studio shoot, this wouldn’t be an issue. You could set yourself up with a fully tricked out desktop, lots of drives, monitors, etc, in any quiet corner. On a location shoot, where you may need to move to 2,3 maybe 4 different locations in a single day, well, you need to be more nimble.

Arnie
Now in post: Peristroika, a film by Slava Tsukerman
https://www.arniepix.com/blog

[Rich Rubasch]

I think Creative Coward is on to something. Build a box that interfaces with the MacBookPro ExpressCard slot. Have a basic set of IO options. Leave off firewire since you already have those. But add in an SATA controller with a multiplier so it can connect with a single cable to a 5-drive RAID.

Keept its footprint as small as is practical.

You now have a slick way to input and output BOTH SD and HD on a laptop with a simple breakout box and a Raid box.

Hmmmm…I don’t think Bob entirely thought this suggestion through. It’s a good one. I’ll bet someone is designing one right now. And as someone who has edited on location, I’d love a little solution just like this to carry around. HD editing on the road made relatively simple.

Nice.

Get’s my vote.

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Shane Ross]

Well, I have to agree with Bob. If you shoot HDV or DVCPRO HD, you capture via firewire and edit that way. Perfectly fine for a laptop, and both will play off firewire drives. No capture card needed. But for UNCOMPRESSED HD, you need a high speed drive array and huge HD deck, so you will be rather tethered anyway.

But still, I think it is a nifty idea. Reduce the size of the equipment you have to lug around.

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net

[Bob Zelin]

I’m just causing trouble. The Multibridge from Blackmagic is the right concept, but of course, it requires a PCI Express slot to use it. You want to do uncompressed HD, without a card slot available to you. Well, right now, it doesn’t exist. I don’t know if the 3/4 slot is practical in the MAC Book Pro anyway, because this is the slot required by the SATA anyway in a MAc Book Pro laptop, to get a 5 bay SATA array connected.
I don’t think you are going to get your wish, until the NEXT gen of MAC comes out.
Bob Zelin

[Walter Biscardi]

[Bob Zelin] “Well, right now, it doesn’t exist. I don’t know if the 3/4 slot is practical in the MAC Book Pro anyway, because this is the slot required by the SATA anyway in a MAc Book Pro laptop, to get a 5 bay SATA array connected.”

I think you hit it spot on Bob. You’re not going to get 150 – 250MB/s data throughput from a SATA array AND feed uncompressed video down the same slot via HD-SDI.

You can always read my article on the uncompressed HD field system I built. Uncompressed HD in a 24″ square footprint all from three road cases. It worked extremely cool for green screen HD shoot and other projects.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Shane Ross]

True…Uncompressed HD would require a SATA Raid…that would require the PCIExpress slot, and the card you want would require the PCIexpress slot. So it isn’t doable. Until they make a laptop with two slots.

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net

[Walter Biscardi]

[Shane Ross] “Until they make a laptop with two slots.”

I’m still holding out for the Mac Pro with the Espresso Maker attachment.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Rich Rubasch]

Hmmmm….still not convinced you’ve thought this through. Only Bob suggested Uncompressed HD. The original poster said HDV and HD. I am going to assume that an entirely DVCPro HD workflow would suffice.

On a location production you might have a mix of DVCAM, HDV and DVCProHD cameras running around. In order to post all this stuff you have to work in one codec….that being DVCProHD or some SD codec like DVCPro 50. So, how else could you get all that into FCP in DVCProHD? Only through a video card. And you wouldnt’ need the same raid for that as you would with Uncompressed.

You would need to upconvert standard def, convert HDV to DVCProHD with the Serial Digital to the card, and the DVCProHD could come in firewire, or via the HD SDI input on the card.

I don’t see why you couldn’t do all this through the Express slot on the Macbook. It is only sending the commands out to the box that would contain the Kona card and the SATA controller. Heck, it could even have a 3-drive raid built in….very cool. So it’s an I/O, a processor and drives with a controller. The Express card isn’t sending all that data back and forth, it is only telling the box what to do.

Still seems possible and it could work as an SD or HD compressed portable solution.

I’ll start working on it tonight and let you know.

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media

[Shane Ross]

OK…yes, you can make an HD capture card that attaches to the express slot to capture everything as DVCPRO HD, and capture to a firewire 800 drive, or drive raid like the G-Raid. But, is the market that big?

Shane

Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net