Laughably OT: Can you ID an old graphics system?

[Jeff Markgraf]

Hi Joseph. Nope, not Dubner. I remember the Dubner 20k fondly. Lots of advanced features and easy integration with a GVG edit system. Even us old online guys could do pretty decent graphics and compositing work with it. An loved (not really) that Bernoulli tape drive storage.

Ha! Hobo. Almost as bad as Comic Sans.

[Jeff Markgraf]

Yes, Bernard. Great memories. That looks like a newer RCA quad machine. It’s pretty quiet, and the guy ion the video comments on the fast lock-up time. The older Ampex decks took longer and were noisy as hell. I was still rolling news opens and bumper backgrounds on those decks as late as 1986.

[Jeff Markgraf]

Chris, you’re quite right. I had a friend who managed to spin a 1″ reel off the machine and through the window separating the edit bay from the machine room. It was a VPR 6, if I recall, and they could get up quite a head of steam in full fast forward or rewind. He forgot to tighten the supply reel clamp before rewinding. It was a post house in Dallas, located oddly enough, at Love Field. Nobody hurt, but a lot of damage.

[Paul Neumann]

Video Post & Transfer.

[Jeff Markgraf]

Yes indeed. That rings a bell.

Since we’re all so OT here, I’m curious how many on this forum are from an online background? By which I mean old school, linear editing using Beta/1″/D2/DigiBeta/D3/HDCam, etc. Switchers, ADOs, TBCs, knowing how to set SC/H phase, and all the other stuff. How do you think it has influenced how you approach non-linear editing?

Maybe a different thread would be in order? Or does no one actually care?

[Scott Thomas]

I was going to guess DFX/Composium, based on your first post. I worked with an AD that wanted to buy a used one in 1998. By that time, After Effects had pretty much supplanted it, and I became a pariah for suggesting that.

I did see one in operation in Chicago in the early 1990’s.

I also ran a Colorgraphics DP/MAX and DP/4:2:2. Weird stuff from Madison WI that did some of the same stuff as the DFX.

[Scott Thomas]

My editors, in order:

Sony RM-440
Sony Betacam (Front Panel)
CMX Edge
Sony BVE-900
GVG VPE-241
Avid MC-1000
Immix VideoCube
Apple Final Cut Pro
.
.
.
There’s some JVC and Panasonic stuff near the beginning, but the RM-440 was the first and probably my favorite.

I don’t include the Accom Affinity. It was a tragic waste of time.

[Bernard Newnham]

“Yes, Bernard. Great memories. That looks like a newer RCA quad machine.”

Apologies for going so far off topic, but you did put it in your sig.

That’s a Ampex AVR2. The BBC was full of them, and all of ours had the footbrake that he mentions. I was never an editor, but I spent a lot of my youth in editing areas at the BBC as a producer making promotions –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuekNp4Geu8

Though that was probably 1″ or D3, 2″ was the environment where I learned to make quick decisions, owing to the fact that changing tapes often took more time than editing the clips. I only started editing myself when non-linear came along, first on Eidos Optima, then on all flavours of FCP up to 7. Then Edius and PPro.

Bernie

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[Joseph Owens]

Started out at an RCA-equipped television station. TR-1, TR-4, 2xTR-60, TR70-C (no time code on any of them) — edited machine-to-machine — producer punched a “start all” button in the control room, and did all the switching and fader bar transitions. Big deal when the BVU-200s arrived with their 2 machine controller, whatever BVE it was. Then three VPR-1s arrived, which were replaced by VPR-2s. I moved to a post house that could gang 3 time-code enabled AVR-3’s together, optimize record current everyday, set ScH for every edit session — at least it was good for in-frame match edits so we didn’t need to do A-B rolls. The engineering department there pioneered an Apple II-based “film conform” system that converted a foot+frames EDL paper list to a paper EDL that we could enter into the Ampex (pre ACE) machine controller. DVE was a Vital Industries “Squeezoom”… four channels of SD video! Tumble turns! Learned how to operate a 3M D8800 character generator.

Moved to SONY. Then on to an AV department where I encountered M-Format (“Recam”)… and a lovely BVH-2000 that was a real workhorse. Grass Valley system — GVG-100/ DPM-100 and whatever controller was integrated. Over 20 years ago. Then started working as a colorist and went over to daVinci Renaissance although I was trained on an 8:8:8, which didn’t arrive at the facility I was hired at until 5 years later. Rank-Cintel URSA, eventually with MetaSpeed and a TLC-II controller (best multi-machine multi-format controller I have ever seen), and now, you know, a bunch of Macs and software.

I have to stop and dab an eye when I think about the millions of dollars of scrap metal out there, and the blood, sweat and tears shed over media that will never be seen again. Was it all just wasted time? Thanks, Don Henley.

jPo

“I always pass on free advice — its never of any use to me” Oscar Wilde.

[Kelly Griffin]

I could cry.

DFX Composium. I lived on that beauty for seven years with Northwest VideoWorks in Portland, OR. They billed my ass at $350/hr. all through the 1990s.

In November of 1997 the owners saw the writing on the brick-and-mortar post house wall and threw in the towel. But, I was still booked solid with clients (I’m not joking) while the auctioneer house was putting lot labels on tape decks, monitors, speakers and the freakin’ back of my CHAIR as I sat working with a client.

That was what told me, “If ever there were a time to give it a shot on your own, here’s your sign.”

So I did. Thank you, DFX Composium.