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DV Rack
Hey, guys first hope you are well. Just want to get feedback on something. Was reading that I can install DV rack on my Sony laptop to use it as a monitor for focusing on my HD camera. I checked B&H and the program is only $99. Is that accurate? Is it that low. Also I have a regular Sony Laptop does it need to have an HD screen to be accurate? Excuse my ignorance please in this matter.
antonio de la cruz
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3 Replies
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What’s your camera’s recording format?DV Rack (or Adobe OnLocation as it’s now called) needs a DV/HDV stream (via Firewire). I think newer versions might support more formats, but if you’re buying ‘DV Rack’ it means that the software is going to be a few years old.
Another thing to think about… Do you know for a fact that it’ll run on your current OS? I have a copy of Ultra 2 (also from Serious Magic, before Adobe bought them) that won’t activate/run on Vista – Adobe developed a fix but only made it available in Ultra CS3. I’ve also heard things about the activation servers for older Serious Magic software being shut down… So it might be worth looking at just getting OnLocation CS4 instead… It’ll no doubt cost more though.
Hope that answers your question. I’ve used OnLocation CS3 for monitoring while shooting with an HV30 in the past, but have’t had much recent experience. It’s a neat peice of software though.
Gord
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Hey, Gordon thanks for your reply. My camera is HDV. The canon XHA1. I would have place this question on the Canon forum but questions are not answered there and I previously had a DVX and Noah and friends answer questions quickly. The laptop I have has Windows 7. I’ll check the software you mentioned. My other question was if my laptop needed to have an HD screen? To judge focus accurately that is.
Antonio
antonio de la cruz
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Worst case, the software will output a preview at 480p no problem – and that’s already much better than your flip-out LCD regardless. I think DV Rack only outputs a max of 720p for monitoring anyways, so you don’t need a 1080p+ monitor to take full advantage of the software’s capabilities.
Gord
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