NAB musings

[Floh Peters]

[jelliman] “Seems like the development for Media100 is always spent on bringing out new products instead of just improving what’s already out there. I just upgraded to HD which is nice, but still full of bugs.”

The V11 software Media 100 is working on will be both for the HDx hardware as well as for the “new” Aja models. So the existing users will get additional features and bugfixes with it. Plus, unfortunately Apple changed their hardware design from PCI-X to PCIe (PCI Express), which requires new boards. So it is necessary to support new hardware to be able to work with the latest Apple hardware.

Regarding the bugs: you definitely should send them via mail to Media 100 techsupport, and you also can post them here. Best would be to include a detailed description and a way to reproduce them, this will increase the likelyhood that they will get fixed soon. Only if the engineers know about the bugs and can reproduce them the chances that they will get fixed are high.

[Russ Talbot]

Thanks for the update. Please post more info as you get it. Those of us who are unable to get to NAB appreciate it.

[Al J. marschke]

[sformby] “If I heard correctly (and I WAS busy swilling their free wine), items still on the wish list and not in 11 (i.e, the packages above) – 24p timelines, MXF support, P2 support…”

Add multicamera to the list.

Al J. Marschke
BluMars Media
Pittsburgh, PA

[Felix Halter]

Add analogue audio out for HD too. Is it that hard to do? I mean sw could do it!

[Cj]

(Floh) Apple changed their hardware design from PCI-X to PCIe (PCI Express), which requires new boards.

Does that mean those of us who have a G5 with PCI-X (and expansion chassis) will not be able to use the any of the new HD systems without buying a NEW G5?

[Floh Peters]

[jimmy mac] “Does that mean those of us who have a G5 with PCI-X (and expansion chassis) will not be able to use the any of the new HD systems without buying a NEW G5?”

The “old” HDx based systems work in the PCI-X G5s (the ones without DualCore CPUs). The “new” Aja based systems work in the new PCIe based G5s (DualCore). The “old PCI”-based PCI-X and the newer, faster PCIe are not compatible, they use completely different interfaces and slots. There is no way to use the same board in both PCI-X and PCIe systems.

[Mediator.cc]

Can Media 100 V.11 import:
1. Media 100 Quicktime with 844/X codec without re-rendering (as Media 100 HD does) ?
2. 844/X OMF ?
3. 844/X PowerLog ?
4. Can V.11 export all of the above to 844/X ?

[Floh Peters]

[mediator.cc] “1. Media 100 Quicktime with 844/X codec without re-rendering (as Media 100 HD does) ?”

I

[Bobby Mosaedi]

its not an easy road ahead guys, i can tell you that. media100 will never be able to be at the same pace as media100 and avid. they just dont have enough manpower right now. hopefully sales will pick up and they will be able to hire some mroe engineers but from what i understood the main focus is making pci express compatible boards and intel compatible software. Compressed HD is also on the top of the list. firewire HDV and 24p dont seem to be at the top of the list right now.

i would have to assume avid and fcp have at least 50+ software engineers working on MXF support and 24p and every other new format. thats a lot. i doubt if media100 even has 10.

But media100 is not all to blame guys, apple must share some blame because they keep changing their hardware whenever they feel like it and like keeping it a secret until they unveil their new products. good marketing, but its terrible for developers.

as long as i can digitize and master HDSDI and have deck control, i think im gonna be in ok shape. still waiting for OMF… but im not going to bet the house on any breakthrough features being implemented by m100 soon.

[Al J. marschke]

[Bobby Mosaedi] “firewire HDV and 24p dont seem to be at the top of the list right now.”

HDV & 24p are not at the top of my list either. Although firewire for SW is and MXF would be nice. 24p is a fad and HDV is a tweener format. XDCAM HD makes HDV a short pit stop. We shoot 30p for the temporal, so-called “film look”. A.K.A. the look of film transferred to NTSC.

My cynical 2 cents, I feel better now.

Al J. Marschke
BluMars Media
Pittsburgh, PA