[Adam Smith]

You already have an MXO for corrected output, and you’re probably not looking to spend $2800… but it’s small enough to fit in your studio and it’s built to be used in the field, so I’ll mention this
17″ Panasonic LCD Production monitor I’ll be ordering shortly:

https://catalog2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ModelDetail?storeId=11201&catalogId=13051&itemId=94264&catGroupId=14625&surfModel=BT-LH1700W&displayTab=F

—
Video Photographer / Avid Editor
Maximus Media Inc.

[Adam Smith]

Note that Chris is saying that it’s better to edit in a DVCPROHD timeline, to avoid re-compressing or creating new content in the lossy HDV codec.

As far as converting vs recapturing, I think the biggest difference would be time required to recapture versus time required to transcode the timeline.

2 more issues I’d worry about (I’m a noob)…

*Final project data backups – if you need to archive the project, backing up HDV source and edit media plus DVCPRO-HD final converted media could require more storage than if the whole project was reduced to one timeline and no transcode.

*Ability to rebuild and revise – would footage transcoded in this manner retain timecode links to the source tapes?

—
Video Photographer / Avid Editor
Maximus Media Inc.

[Adam Smith]

Ouch.. seems like a lot of wear and tear on the camera if it has to re-queue every time the you stopped rolling tape.

But handy in a manner as well I suppose!

[Adam Smith]

We get the same shadow, I’m not sure how you’d NOT get the shadow, since the LED ring is a light source.

I’ve yet to find a good solution… bring the subject closer and you have a softer but larger shadow, and you risk tinting them green. Move them back close to the screen and you have a harsher shadow but you can crank the LEDs up and try to get the screen to pop more.

I’m no expert at keys, and using this system I’ve had about 10% easy keys and the rest some combination of troublesome and/or extremely vexing.

I wasn’t there at NAB when the boss and co-workers selected this system, but I’m the primary user and honestly I would have preferred to spend this $4,500 elsewhere.

—
Video Photographer / Avid Editor
Maximus Media Inc.

[Adam Smith]

[Bill Stephan] “They do have a pronounced green cast in the mid-tones (supposedly to make the flesh tones a bit nicer). The green cast is easily seen on a monochrome image. It’s almost impossible to use these monitors for color correcting.”

Hmm… well that’s not good. Thanks for the heads-up.

[Adam Smith]

[walter biscardi] ”
AFter a couple of jobs you can add the Plasma for the “Wow.” 42″ Panny is around $1,100 now or less, incredible price for these things now.”

Hehe.. truthfully, after a few jobs we’ll be sinking any cash into fixing up the house (like we were going to do before I got the bright idea to spend $50k on buying my own gear)! =P

[Adam Smith]

Cool, thanks for the info. I sort of suspect I’ll wind up using the waveform and splitscreen less often than I can imagine, but otherwise it sounds like a good deal for the price.

Unfortunately, I’ve got time to do more shopping around, 20 days to kill before financing is complete! =(

—
Video Photographer / Avid Editor
Maximus Media Inc.

[Adam Smith]

Thanks much to both of you, I’ll stick with the 17″ LCD.

The descriptions made it sound like it was tuned for the most accurate image and use as a production monitor, but then I wasn’t quite sure to what extent that could be sales pitch… and I’d seen enough mention of the big Panasonic plasmas used with output converters to make them as true as possible that I was doubting the decision.

I’ll have a little less wow factor but more capable gear, and really… I need good tools more than I need a big picture.

Thanks again,

-Adam

—
Video Photographer / Avid Editor
Maximus Media Inc.

[Adam Smith]

I’ve seen mention of a green bias in postings on a forum somewhere, but I can’t seem to find it now. It was just a short thread on settings tweaks and someone mentioned a green shift they had to compensate for. (It sounded like most of the posters in the thread did not yet have the camera)

I don’t remember them characterizing it as “extreme” but at least someone else has noticed something similar.

—
Video Photographer / Avid Editor
Maximus Media Inc.

[Adam Smith]

While I’ve seen many people posting how they use DVD-R and removable harddisks for archiving footage, I just don’t have a good feeling about either… HDs need to be used or the bearings can dry out, and burned DVDs are not only highly scratchable, but current research suggests that the heat-activated inks begin to deteriorate in as little as 5 years.

When I get my HPX500 I’ll also be buying an Exabyte or similar packet-tape backup drive. They say they’ve dropped, drowned and frozen tapes that still restore 100% data, and claim a shelf-life of 30 years. The drive is around $1200 and tapes start out ok at $15/30gb but they wind up closer to $1/Gb for higher capacity tapes, up to $80 list for the 80gb (160gb compressed) tapes. Dunno if that qualifies as cheap, but I’d be alot more confident when I have to restore and revise a project a few years from now.

Plus… you can hand over the tapes to the client but they still have to come to you (or an edit house with similar tape storage) for future work! =)