PCI Express the way of the future

[John Ladle]

[MitchJi] “issue is (IMO) if Steve will decide to axe PCI-X (remember serial ports) thus causing existing PCI-X cards to not work on future PowerMacs”

i would find other issues to lose sleep a higher priority!

[Bob Zelin]

Hi Paul –
I have installed Digital Voodoo cards and original AJA Kona cards in Churches that have a lot less money than your “not for profit” organizations. And you know what they did with their $3000 outdated cards?
They UPGRADED. If you bought ANY OTHER PRODUCT from Pinnacle, AVID, Aacom, etc, you would have spent a LIFETIME of upgrade money for the cost of ANY of these FCP products. It will take you MANY DECADES into the future to buy the equivalent # of AJA products that would have cost what ONE AVID would cost you.

Your “not for profit” organization will be required to send out NEW TAPE FORMATS or new encoded formats into the near future. If you think that your current crop of VHS and Beta VTR’s will be ok for delivery 3-4 years from now, you are dreaming. And these new VTR’s, or MPEG encoders will cost a LOT MORE MONEY than a new AJA card.

Buy the Kona 2, and be happy that you will get several good years out of it, while your organization makes wonderful videos, and get prepared to spend LOTS OF MONEY on new computers, new VTR’s, new encoders, and new training for ALL KINDS of new technology that is coming out.

Bob Zelin

[Paul Nevison]

Hey Bob,

I thought these forums were a source of research and shared advice from a community of users not a platform for narky replies such as yours Bob. Your ‘inside knowlege’ on how much money my not for profit organisation has or doesn’t have to spend is quite amazing! We got a year out of our Cinewave before it got killed off – if it’s a crime to be cautious about making the next equipment purchase in a climate of vast technological change then sorry – excuse me for cluttering up the forum!!!

I have no problem in spending money on the right product – but it’s wading through all the marketing hype to get to the truth of where the trends are going in the industry that is important- something these forums are invaluable for.

By the way my organisation is a church – to which there is even more responsibility to make sure purchasing decisions are the right ones…

My advice to you is simple, if you can’t be contructive and enter into the purpose and spirit of these forums, then cultivate your career as a complete tosser someplace else!!!

G5 DP 2.0
2.0G RAM
OS 10.3.8
QT 6.5.2
FCP HD 4.5
CineWave 4.7
Cinewave RT Pro
Pro Digital Plus & Pro Analogue BOB

[Paul Nevison]

hey bob,

please accept my apology for having a vent of my own at you in the previous post….i think i read way too much into your post than i think was actually there… ( the downside of emotionless black and white text) sorry to offend and i hope there are no hard feelings.

i understand the cost effectiveness of FCP related products – it’s just in our case we shelled out thousands on a cinewave setup only to have it EOL’d on us within a year…i have to make the right decisions that will future proof us for at least 2-3 years (a lifetime I know when it comes to post production technology), the fact we dont make any money from the work we do means that we are not in the same boat as you and others where 1 or 2 jobs would easily cover the cost of upgrading, making it not a big deal.

anyway its a funny old time to buy with new macs around the corner and the HD transition coming ever closer.and new technologies flooding the scene…but i have a 9 camera music dvd to produce and i need FCP 5 and multicam which means getting rid of our cinewave from our main suite, and replacing it with either Kona or Decklink HD.

Once again sorry for flying off the handle at you.

rock on

G5 DP 2.0
2.0G RAM
OS 10.3.8
QT 6.5.2
FCP HD 4.5
CineWave 4.7
Cinewave RT Pro
Pro Digital Plus & Pro Analogue BOB

[Walter Biscardi]

[paul nevison] “i understand the cost effectiveness of FCP related products – it’s just in our case we shelled out thousands on a cinewave setup only to have it EOL’d on us within a year…”

I wish you would have talked to me last year before you made the purchase. I used to host the CineWave forum on the Cow and it was so painfully obvious at NAB 2004 that the product was going away. The entire booth was basically Liquid and Windows with a token CineWave system sitting in the back. I pretty much told the forum back then that it looked like CineWave was going away and I switched over to Aurora that same month and then to AJA in November when I picked up HD work.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now editing “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network

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

[Paul Nevison]

hey walter,

not to make you feel bad or anything, but i pretty much went cinewave on your glowing reccomendation……that was in the january before that fateful NAB when you then made your prognosis on cinewaves soon demise – dont feel too bad 🙂

anyway thats the breaks – sometimes you pick a lemon – even though i really love the card it was not to be.

so having been bitten twice by the EOL bug (cinewave and RTmac) i really want something thats going to have a life longer than Mr Jobs technological whims 😉

the thought of buying a PCI X based card only for it to be made obsolete by PCI express in the near future would be too much for this editor to take!!! the thing i like about AJA is their seemingly close relationship with Apple which gives some confidence as to the longevity of their solutions.

decisions decisions!!!

G5 DP 2.0
2.0G RAM
OS 10.3.8
QT 6.5.2
FCP HD 4.5
CineWave 4.7
Cinewave RT Pro
Pro Digital Plus & Pro Analogue BOB

[Walter Biscardi]

[paul nevison] “not to make you feel bad or anything, but i pretty much went cinewave on your glowing reccomendation……that was in the january before that fateful NAB when you then made your prognosis on cinewaves soon demise – dont feel too bad :-)”

yep, that was after a long discussion / interview with the product manager for CineWave when I released the article on CineWave 4.6 (or was it 4.5?) and the future. Once I got to the show in April, it was pretty obvious that what I was hearing from the CineWave side and what Pinnacle was presenting were two different things.

At least you got one year out of the product. I feel really bad for folks who purchased in the last 6 months or so. I got three years out of the thing so I can’t complain.

With any hardware it’s impossible to predict the future, but with the relationship between AJA and Apple, I’m pretty confident in purchasing hardware from them and getting a good life use out of it. Of course, in your situation, you’re not in a position where if you get one year out of a product, it pays for itself. You need it to run for at least 2 to 3 years to justify the cost.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com

Now editing “Good Eats” in HD for the Food Network

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

[Bob Zelin]

Hi Paul –
so here we are, me and Walter recommending AJA hardware. What happens when
Apple releases the new Intel chip set MAC’s. What if they have a fight with
AJA, or just decide that they don’t want to deal with companeis like AJA and Blackmagic. We are ALL SCREWED – including AJA. No one knows what it going to happen. I certainly don’t go out and say “gee, how can I screw my clients so they can hate me”. NO ONE – not even John Apt has ANY IDEA of what is in the mind of Steve Jobs, so ALL OF US can get screwed with ANY recomendation that we make. That’s just the business that we live in. Thank God for companies like AJA, that don’t charge $15,000 for their products.

Bob Zelin
ps – I work with churches that have NO MONEY that have old AVID systems, and that HAVE gotten screwed with outdated Meridian systems. I know exactly what happens.

[Gary Adcock]

[Bob Zelin] ” We are ALL SCREWED No one knows what it going to happen. I certainly don’t go out and say “gee, how can I screw my clients so they can hate me”.”

Yeah bob, but you do not make your living selling iPods, then you could screw them and smile.
it’s about Video iPods. I bought a nano last week and it is already obsolete,
welcome to the jungle for the rest of you. < GNR volume rises in the background>

Gary Adcock
Studio37
HD and Film Consultation
Chicago, IL USA

[Ramona Howard]

I have a cheap crystal ball for sale:

Low hours, clear reception, portable. Only drawback, it isn’t always accurate.

sorry couldn’t resist.

Don’t you love chasing the target!

Cheers,
Ramona