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video-challenged individual
Hello everyone, I’m new to the forum, this is my first post.
Basically, let me explain the situation first. I work for a Sound Design company where we create edit sound effects for TV and Film. We have one computer set up with Final Cut Studio 2 on it for making short temporary reels of our past work. However, about twice a year we pay a lot of money to have a professional video company put together our official reel from digi beta’s.
Now, going through school and getting my degree I learned the basics of video. I understand most compression formats, the basics of final cut pro and dvd studio, and other basic video elements.
I would like to move all of our Reel making in-house. I have found a few Digi Beta players on eBay for relatively cheap:
https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=200298310738&Category=21168&_trksid=p3907.m29&_trkparms=algo%3DLVI%26its%3DI%26otn%3D1Basically my biggest question is how do I get started in terms on connecting everything? Our Final Cut Studio system is run on a PowerPC G5 with a Dual 2.7 and 4.5 Gigs of Ram, running Mac OS X 10.4.11. From the research I did it appears that I need an AJA Kona card, but there are several and I’m not sure which kind I need.
I’m not going to be doing any major editing or anything on the VTR, just transfer primarily. Are there any other components I’m missing? Thanks in advance!
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4 Replies
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you are lost. You will fail.
The VTR that you listed on eBay is a regular Beta SP VTR, not a Digi Beta VTR. You will buy this VTR, and it will not be the correct product. You will spend $1700, and it will be useless to you and your company.You have a very old MAC G5 computer (the dual 2.7). This is a PCI-X computer. You should think about buying a NEW MAC PRO, and stop this nonsense. Modern cards for video (and audio) are all PCI-Express, which will not fit inside a PCI-X dual 2.7 computer. Tell your boss to crack open his wallet.
The card you want for your old MAC dual 2.7 is an AJA Kona LH (not LHe). If you are doing STANDARD DEF VIDEO, you can get an AJA I/O box (perhaps on ebay). This will have an SDI output (do you know what that means). This has the correct “stuff” to go into a DIGI BETA VTR (SDI input). You MUST MUST MUST lock the AJA product (or blackmagic product or matrox product or MOTU product ) to a BLACK GENERATOR (do you know what that is), so you don’t get CHANNEL CONDITION ERROR MESSAGES which will make your tape useless. You buy an AJA GEN10 and lock your Digi Beta VTR and AJA product to the same sync generator.
You are in the audio business – right . Do you know what WORD CLOCK IS ? Black Generators do the same job that a word clock gen does in the audio business. If you see replies back on this or any other forum that says “that guy is crazy, you dont’ need a black generator to lay back to your Digi Beta VTR” – you are listening to an IDIOT that has no idea of how to do this, or what will actually work.
If you are going to use the MAC dual 2.7 G5,you need an AJA LH (not LHe), a DIGI BETA VTR (like a used DVW-A500 which is EXPENSIVE), and an AJA GEN10 black generator.
Bob Zelin
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Robert,
You can do this just fine with the 2.7GHz G5, I have one in my shop. Bob is absolutely correct that you will need some kind of in/out solution (I have the Kona LH in my box) and a black burst generator as well as the very expensive digi-beta deck.
Perhaps it might make more sense economically (both in direct cost and in the time it will take for you to learn how to set everything up, keep it running, keep it maintained…. etc) to do your reel edit in house on the G5 and then send a finished product via hard drive to a facility that can transfer it for you.
Or…. perhaps you should just let your company do what they do…. audio, and let the folks who have done this in the past continue to make some money and have a symbiotic relationship with your company. After all, they are the video experts, and maintaining a working relationship might be a good idea. They may need audio help at some point….. makes sense that they would come to you.
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Thanks guys. Keeping things the way they are is definitely still a possibility/probability. I’m just gathering some info to see what it would take to move everything in house. Thanks for the info!
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Bob & David gave you good advice. If your bosses heard that a client with no real audio knowledge was trying to do the same thing with their sound design, they’d probably vent a little “spleen”, and finally end up laughing at the probable results.
If you still want to keep the work “in house”, you can always hire a freelance editor for a couple of weeks, and you can rent a digibeta deck for a couple of days here & there.
Arnie
Post production is not an afterthought!
https://www.arniepix.com/
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